The High Court of Justice ended a three-year ordeal in a divorce case, allowing an Israeli woman to dissolve her marriage in rabbinical court without having to prove she was Jewish.
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The woman, Vita Rosenberg will receive a get (Jewish divorce) and will not need to undergo a process of clarifying her Jewishness, which the rabbinical court had demanded.
Some 12 years ago, Vita and her partner got married in Cyprus through a civil marriage process. In 2021, after almost a decade of partnership and two shared daughters, the couple decided to separate and approached the family court in Israel. Since the couple is Jewish, the court referred them to the rabbinical court in Petah Tikva.
To their surprise, after opening the divorce file, it was decided to open a file to clarify Rosenberg's Jewishness.
Rosenberg turned to the Israel Hofsheet, a non-partisan organization that works to advocate for policy change on issues of religion and state in Israel. The group submitted a petition to the High Court through attorneys Hagai Kalai and Natan Shvartsman, of the Kalai, Rosen & Co. Law Offices, in which they appealed the decision. According to the plaintiffs, which were joined by Israel's attorney general, the rabbinical court was duty-bound to provide Jewish divorce services to anyone registered as Jewish without preconditions.
In a precedent-setting move, the High Court ruled in their favor, saying the rabbinical court must allow the dissolution of their marriage without requiring them first to undergo a process to clarify Vita's Jewishness.
However, despite the High Court's ruling, the rabbinical court refused to issue a get and dismissed the divorce request altogether, essentially defying the High Court. The High Court's decision, according to the rabbinical court, was an option and not an obligation, and therefore they did not need to provide a get.
Rosenberg appealed the decision to the Great Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem and also joined another petition to the High Court, which dealt with a similar case.
The High Court criticized the rabbinical court and again ordered it to dissolve Rosenberg's marriage. "It is expected that the process of dissolving the marriage will be completed with due haste," the justices wrote.
Following the unequivocal High Court ruling, Rosenberg recently received her get. "As a Jewish woman and a citizen of the State of Israel, it is unbelievable that I had to go through so much in order to get what I am legally entitled to," Rozenberg said after receiving the get. "The system of rabbinical courts has put me through a cycle of abuse, in which they threatened my identity and status, and kept me in limbo," she added.
"I came to Israel as a child and grew up here as a Jew in every respect. One day, the rabbinate decides that I must prove who I am – just because they can. This must stop. People who serve in the army and economically support the state have the right to marry and divorce without ceremonies and prayers," Rozenberg stressed.
Israel Hofsheet said they believe Rosenberg's victory was a milestone that will help them in their fighting for other couples.
"The fact that Vita was dragged three different times to the judicial authorities to get approval that she was divorced by an institution she was not married through attests to the need to neutralize the rabbinate's power," said Uri Keidar, the movement's executive director.
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