PUTTING A PRICE ON FREEDOM

Ohr Torah Stone’s Yad L’isha Legal Aid Center and Hotline Wins Revolutionary Precedent in Civil Court

 S.K. first sued her husband for divorce in 1992. Nonetheless, it took ten years - until 2002 - for the rabbinical court to issue a chiyyuv get [a compulsory order mandating her husband to grant her the divorce] and even then, he continued to refuse, claiming that he only wanted shalom bayit [a peaceful reconciliation]. S.K. appealed to the Supreme Rabbinical Court to enforce the compulsory order, but despite one judge’s opinion, the majority decision was that she should honor her husband’s request and go with him to a rabbi for binding mediation. S.K. refused; after all, for over a decade she had already been living apart from this man whom she now despised.

S.K. turned to Yad L’isha, the Ohr Torah Stone Legal Aid Center and Hotline, whose founding director, lawyer Susan Weiss, and rabbinical court advocate and civil lawyer Batsheva Sherman decided to take the revolutionary path of suing S.K.’s husband for damages in the civil family court.

Batsheva explained their rationale on Channel Two’s news program Wednesday night. “Here was a woman who was now over 40 years old, and who for 12 years had been refused her freedom,” she declared. “From the age of 28, she was barred from intimate relationships, remarrying or bearing children. Simply put, S.K. was denied the basic human rights to autonomy and self-determination and, as such, was entitled to some sort of compensation.”

The family court justice accepted Yad L’isha’s arguments, ruling in favor of S.K., and her husband was instructed to pay damages for the time that had passed since the rabbinical court had issued its chiyyuv get. Prorated from the judge’s decided amount of 200,000 NIS per year, her 19 months of wrongful imprisonment came to 325,000 NIS, to which the judge added an additional 100,000 NIS in punitive damages, for a total of 425,000 NIS.

In the case of G., whose husband, S., had refused to give her a get for over ten years, our advocates argued successfully that S. had inflicted a tort (a personal injury) to G. by preventing her from remarrying, having children, and, in general, determining her own destiny and living as a free person. When ruling justice Ben Zion Greenberger rendered that “…the infringement upon the autonomy of a woman is the direct result of her husband’s refusal to give her a Jewish Bill of divorce and … results in damages that are actionable under the Israel Torts Law,” he effectively created a new Cause of Action in Israeli Tort Law, opening the door to the presentation of cases like S.K.’s which previously had no legal grounds.

Despite the fact that she triumphed in court and was awarded significant damages, ultimately, S.K. suffered defeat. Twelve years of her life have passed her by, a significant period during which she was deprived of her independence and her freedom, a life-partner and children. However, the ruling handed down in her case offers hope to hundreds of other women in her position; agunot who are being treated unjustly and whose welfare, security and ability to rehabilitate their family lives are subjugated to the whims and maltreatment of husbands who are refusing to liberate them.

From now on, these women know they have the option of filing a claim for substantial compensation. Even if the case isn't actually brought to court, it may still serve as a concrete threat to husbands who plan to drag out the divorce process and put off granting the get with the intention of exhausting their wives, extorting a settlement, or simply destroying their lives. As Batsheva pointed out on television, “S.K. was deserving of compensation for her suffering, on so many levels. But this precedent is also a giant step forward for all agunot in Israel, leveling the playing field, to a certain degree, between the woman denied a get and her husband, who from a rabbinical law standpoint holds all of the cards. It is our hope that this ruling will serve as a deterrent to other recalcitrant husbands. They should know that eventually, they will be forced to financially compensate the women they are now torturing, and that they will literally be forced to pay for each day they caused her to suffer.”

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