The Haifa Family Court has recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by a woman seeking custody of the dog she once shared with her ex-husband. The plaintiff asserted that her bond with the dog was profound and that she had invested the majority of time and resources in its care. However, Judge Efraim Tschisik ruled in favor of the ex-husband, citing concerns that shuttling the dog between homes could be detrimental to its welfare.

The dispute ignited in the wake of the couple's separation when the woman sought to maintain a relationship with their shared pet. Following a heated exchange of text messages – where legal threats were met with counter-threats of harassment complaints – the matter escalated to the courtroom. Initially, the court issued a temporary arrangement, allowing the dog to stay with the woman from Monday to Thursday and with the defendant from Thursday to Monday.

In her plea, the plaintiff painted a picture of devoted care, claiming responsibility for the dog's primary needs, including food and even the installation of a tracking chip. She argued that her ex-husband's refusal to share custody was driven purely by vindictiveness, noting his lack of prior pet-owning experience. The defendant countered these claims, asserting his status as the dog's registered owner and primary financial provider for its care, including medical treatments and vaccinations. He further emphasized that the veterinarian recognized him as the dog's de facto owner.

After considering the evidence, Judge Tschisik sided with the ex-husband. While acknowledging that some aspects of the dog's care had been shared, the judge determined that the defendant was indeed the primary owner. The ruling stressed the importance of a clean break between the former spouses to prevent further deterioration of their relationship. In the judge's view, the best interests of both the dog and the parties aligned in this instance, justifying sole custody with the ex-husband.

"Throughout the dog's residency, the responsibility for care, vaccination, and interaction with authorities fell primarily on the defendant," Judge Tschisik wrote in his decision. "The fact that some grooming and caretaking duties were shared does not warrant denying the defendant's status as the more dominant owner, a fact corroborated by the veterinarian's testimony." The judge further opined that constantly moving the dog between households would not serve its best interests, concluding that establishing a single, stable home for the pet was paramount.

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Sarah and Liba Goldschmidt, the eight- and twelve-year-old Israeli-American girls whose whereabouts were unknown this week due to a likely custody battle, were found in northern Israel on Tuesday. 

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The two had stayed with the mom under a visitation arrangement with their father, but she did not hand them back as agreed, resulting in widespread searches. Upon their discovery on Tuesday morning in the Haifa area, the mother was arrested on kidnapping charges. The father was given back custody over the two after arriving in the apartment. 

Video: A custody battle over a minor (File) / Credit: Israel Police

Police believe the grandmother is involved in the scheme to have them stay longer with the mother. 

Originally from Israel, the couple had moved to the US about a decade ago, where they had three children. They eventually divorced, and the father – a US national – got full custody over their two girls and one boy. This summer, a US judge gave the mother permission to take the girls for a vacation in Israel on the condition that she would have to bring them back to the father, who arrived in Israel 10 days after them. 

But the woman could not be reached when the time had come and she did not meet him at the agreed-upon location: The Tel Aviv Savidor Train Station. The father ultimately contacted law enforcement, which began a search. At one point, there was concern that their lives were in danger.  

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A Beith Shemesh resident was granted a divorce this week by her husband, who spent seven years on the run and 135 days in prison. 

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Orly Vital received her get (writ of divorce) after nearly 14 years of efforts, including several months the husband spent in prison after being captured in Tel Aviv in a targeted manhunt. 

Vital met her husband, Ronen, while studying in high school, and after several years of on-and-off dating, the two married. The couple had four children, but as the marriage deteriorated, Vital asked her husband for a divorce. For the next six years, Ronen refused her requests stating clearly that he would never concede to divorce without Orly agreeing to a series of financial demands.

At that point, Vital turned to Yad La'isha, an organization that represents women whose recalcitrant husbands refuse to grant them a divorce. With the case brought before the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court, Chief Rabbi David Lau ruled at the time on her behalf that if Ronen did not grant the get he would face immediate arrest. Ronen asked for a brief recess to confer with his attorney – at which point he fled the building.  

An official warrant was put out for his arrest alongside a series of sanctions designed to force him to relent, but Ronen remained underground for the next seven years, abandoning the couple's four children, leaving Vital an agunah (Hebrew for "anchored") – a term used to describe the legal situation of a woman whose husband refuses to grant her a Jewish writ of divorce, rendering her unable to remarry.

According to Yad La'isha, in 2021 it received a donation of over 100,000 shekels specifically earmarked to fund the expanded services of a private investigations firm. Days later, the efforts paid off and Ronen was spotted in south Tel Aviv and subsequently arrested. 

For 135 days he remained in jail but continued to refuse to release Vital, instead conditioning her freedom on impossible financial demands. When it became clear that those demands would not be met, on Tuesday, January 4th – nearly 14 years after the saga began – he signed the divorce papers.  

Upon receiving her get, Vital expressed her deep thanks to all involved saying, "There's a well-known rule that you don't negotiate with terrorists and certainly not with those ones who are already behind bars and this must be the case with get refusers. 

"I knew that this was a war that I needed to fight and to stand firm in the name of what is true and just against the world of lies I've been suffering from for over 14 years. I am so deeply thankful to God for bringing me to this day and to the team at Yad La'isha who never gave up, not even for a moment."

Pnina Omer, Director of Yad La'isha, said "Orly has reached the end of a story defined by struggle of many years that should never have needed to happen. We thank the judges led by Rabbi Lau who imposed the necessary pressures to bring this to a close. We will continue to fight on behalf of every aguna but we also recognize that we need to find a workable halachic solution that will bring an end to this deeply painful phenomenon that is harming so many women."

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Legal reforms in Abu Dhabi designed to enhance the emirate's appeal to foreigners will allow for non-Muslim judges, birth certificates for children of unmarried parents, equality of men and women as witnesses, and new alimony and inheritance laws.

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The new secular law, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, intends to make the political capital of the United Arab Emirates more attractive for outsiders to live and work.

It has been welcomed as a step forward for gender equality.

"It gives a lot of rights to women which did not exist before," said Hassan Elhais, a legal consultant from UAE-based Al Rowaad Advocates. "It is revolutionary."

The UAE's tourism and business hub Dubai – usually more avant garde than Abu Dhabi – could  follow suit and craft its own family laws too. That would help the UAE keep a competitive edge in luring investment as conservative Gulf neighbor Saudi Arabia opens itself up to bring in foreign money and talent.

Foreigners, mostly from South Asia, Egypt and the Philippines, account for about 88% of the UAE's nearly 10 million population, fueling all aspects of the economy from executive positions to low-paid construction and domestic workers.

The Family Law for Non-Muslim Expatriates in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, announced on Sunday and expected to come into force in December, allows for "personal status" procedures – such  as divorce, inheritance and marriage – to take place for the first time in the country outside of religious codes.

It also allows non-Muslim judges to preside over family issues for the first time anywhere in the Gulf.

It introduces the concepts of civil marriage, no-fault divorce and joint child custody. And, also for the first time in the UAE, it allows babies born to unmarried foreign parents to obtain birth certificates if the father recognizes paternity.

The new law could also give more credibility to Abu Dhabi court judgements when parties apply for them to be recognized in, for example, Europe, Elhais said.

While next door Saudi Arabia has introduced social reforms to reduce gender segregation, lift a ban on women driving and dismantle many aspects of a male guardianship system, personal status laws are still governed by sharia.

That is the case in other Gulf states and the wider Middle East, with some exceptions. Christian and Jewish codes similarly apply on family matters in countries such as Israel and Lebanon.

Many aspects of sharia family law give more standing and rights to men, such as where two female witnesses are considered the equal of one male witness in family court procedures. Abu Dhabi's new law says female witnesses are equal to male.

Rothna Begum, of Human Rights Watch, said the law is an important step towards providing equality, but wider legal reform was required to include all citizens and residents in the UAE, which is made up of seven emirates.

"The UAE should instead pass an optional civil code as well as reform its Personal Status Law to ensure equality between men and women in all matters relating to marriage, divorce, inheritance and decisions concerning children," said Begum.

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In one potentially problematic area, expatriate couples in Abu Dhabi, which has a population of about 2.9 million, need to opt into the secular system. That opens the possibility for a husband, for example, to insist on entering the sharia system instead.

Abu Dhabi's reform comes a year after the UAE at a federal level started to reform its legal system to make it more attractive for investment. Changes included decriminalizing premarital sexual relations and alcohol consumption, and cancelling provisions for leniency when dealing with so-called "honor killings."

The Gulf state also introduced longer-term visas as a way to attract and retain talent and encourage more businesses to set up shop.

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COMMENTARY – Divorce is not a sad occasion but a happy one. When a client of ours at Mavoi Satum – a non-governmental organization that advocates for women's freedom from divorce proceedings abuse – receives her divorce papers, it means she has been released from the shackles of a marriage that no longer had any love or partnership. 

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Last week, we celebrated when Hannah (pseudonym) received her get (religious divorce papers.) She and her husband had not lived together for a year and a half. He spends most of his time abroad.

Every time Hannah asked her husband for a divorce, he would dodge her requests and procrastinate. Afraid to file for divorce alone – lest her husband refuses to come to Israel and not show at the rabbinical court at all – Hannah had to wait. 

A few weeks ago, he finally arrived in Israel for a visit, and Hannah quickly filed for divorce as well as a stay of exit order against her husband lest he tries to flee the country.  

The court understood the risks and issued the order, giving a long-awaited boost to the divorce proceedings. Once Hannah's husband realized that he would not be able to leave Israel unless he gave her a get, he agreed to set her free – especially because he wanted to travel to Uman for the annual pilgrimage of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. 

The month leading up to Rosh Hashanah is truly a special one, for a lot of women receive their divorce papers then. The rabbinical court gathers the most righteous of divorce refusers who wish to celebrate the holiday at the gravesite and all of a sudden are willing to release their wives. As long as they are allowed to leave Israel and travel to Ukraine. 

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At Mavoi Satum, we rejoice when a client receives her get, but we cannot help notice the absurdity of the situation. For, rabbinical courts treat the husband's desire not to divorce very seriously. God forbid the divorce should be fake, they say,, then it would be invalid, and the couple would still be considered married. 

But lo and behold – Rosh Hashanah comes around and the husband's desire not to divorce does not matter as much anymore. Would the case be the same if no stay of exit order was issued against the husband in the first place? 

In that case, he would most likely continue to claim how much he did not want to divorce. And yet, when his "sacred" desire to stay married was challenged against his wish to travel to Uman for Rosh Hashanah, he was willing to forego it quickly. 

It makes one wonder, is there any justification to the Rabbinate's caution when it comes to claims made by get refusers? Time has come to base divorce proceedings on the state of the couple's relationship rather than claims by the husband of not wanting to divorce. 

Maor Albeck is a project manager at Mavoi Satum, an NGO advocating for women's freedom from divorce proceedings abuse.

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COMMENTARY – The Chief Rabbinate of Israel would never say that men refusing to grant their wives a divorce, or "get," is a good thing. God forbid. Who if not the rabbinical courts work tirelessly every day to persuade husbands to redeem their wives from a dead marriage? To make their efforts known, bimonthly they publish stories of their heroic efforts to get the evil man to agree to a divorce of his own accord.

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One cannot help but wonder what the meaning of such efforts is. Why are rabbis trying to convince a violent person to let go of his wife voluntarily? Would they ever try to persuade a murderer not to murder? And yet, such absurd behavior characterizes the actions of the rabbinical courts daily.

Divorce refusal is a complex issue in Halachah (Jewish law). According to the most stringent opinion, a divorce is valid only if the husband granted it voluntarily. In adhering to such stringency, the rabbinate keeps hundreds of women stuck without a get (Jewish religious divorce), unable to move on and remarry. 

If only the rabbis wanted to help these women, they would see that a variety of tools are right at their disposal. Quick and effective sanctions, prenuptial agreements, or annulling the marriage, to name a few. And yet, it seems they do not want to help. 

Moreover, every time someone else steps in to find a solution to this problem – by creating an halachically acceptable solution that would take the power away from the refusers and solve the problem at its root – the rabbinical courts veto it.

"The mechanism is not halachic enough," they say, or "It only encourages more divorce" or worst of all, "The problem of get refusers is vastly exaggerated and does not warrant this much public discourse."

Suddenly, they claim the problem did not exist in the first place. Did they forget the very stories they published? 

According to the rabbinate itself, there are more than 800 women in Israel whose husbands refuse to grant them divorce papers. And these are women the courts have already declared a divorcee. A woman has to put in tremendous effort, as well as tears, to get the rabbinate to name her a halachic divorcee. Without it, her husband is not obligated to divorce her.

How many more women are stuck in dead marriages, but are not thought of as divorcees by the rabbinical courts? Without such a declaration, they remain in limbo indefinitely, unable to remarry. 

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 Rabbis are much more likely to allow the husband to blackmail his wife, or for the sake of getting him to grant a get voluntarily, they allow him to stick to his ridiculous demands. 

The Rabbinate controls the marriage of every Jewish person in Israel. It's time they took responsibility for the divorce as well. 

Maor Albeck is a project manager at Mavoi Satum, an NGO advocating for women's freedom from divorce proceedings abuse.

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Ahead of the Tu B'Av (the "Jewish Day of Love" celebrated on the 15th day of Av), several prominent national-religious rabbis issued a stern rebuke of prenuptial agreements, saying such an arrangement only undermines marriage and could lead to its unraveling.

The warning was issued in response to the position taken by Tzohar Rabbinical Organization – which encourages more modern approaches to Jewish traditions.

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Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu said that "when one reads these prenuptial agreements, one understands that they push a couple to divorce. It's true that there are cases when a man refuses to grant his wife a divorce, but these are isolated incidents. We are in favor of the ketubah [religious marriage contract] that has been used for thousands of years and successfully so, not in favor of modern contracts that no one knows what they could lead to."

Rabbi Eliezer Igra, a judge on the Supreme Rabbinical Court in Israel, also spoke out against prenups.

This subject "holds a much more central place in public discourse than it should," he said in a recording obtained by Israel Hayom. 

"About 33,000 couples get married every year, and about a third, 11,000 get divorced. Only in very few cases does the husband withhold a get [religious divorce document] from his wife. The media makes it seem that many women do not receive a get."

In response, the Yad La'isha organization, which advocates on behalf of women whose husbands refuse to grant them divorce papers, said that "the purpose of the agreements is to prevent a situation in which one spouse will hold the other one captive in a marriage that has clearly died."

The organization added that it is "not about encouraging divorce, but about saving families who have become entangled in divorce proceedings," explaining that it was "all too common that gets are used to abuse the spouse by cynically exploiting Jewish law." 

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Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana is set to propose a bill to the Knesset Sunday to grant local authorities the ability to prosecute religious divorce refusers who flee to Israel knowing no legal proceeding can be launched against them in the Jewish state. 

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According to Jewish law, unless a woman is granted a divorce by her husband, she becomes an agunah, "anchored" and "chained" in her marriage without the ability to remarry. 

Israel has in recent years become a haven for such refusers due to the fact that the local justice system cannot prosecute a non-Israeli for refusal to grant a get, a Jewish writ of divorce.

In July 2018, under the initiative of Knesset member Aliza Lavie, rabbinical courts were granted temporary authority to hear divorce claims of non-Israeli citizens as well.

According to reports, in the last three years, more than 35 women obtained divorce papers thanks to the temporary law. As a result of such success, Matana is now looking to make the law part of permanent legislation. 

"Israel will not be a haven for divorce refusers," he told Israel Hayom. "The temporary grant proved to be a valuable tool against get-refusers ... Therefore, I made the decision to bring it into permanent legislation. The issue of divorce refusal requires in-depth attention and I intend on making sure that the government does its utmost to bring about solutions."

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As Israel marks International Women's Day, its female population is 4,677,700 strong, data released on Sunday, said. Around 27% of Israel's female population are aged 0 to 14, 60% are aged 15 to 64, and around 13% are aged 65 and over, according to data released ahead of International Women's Day.

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According to the survey's findings, 50.4% of Jewish women aged 25 to 29 were married, compared to 73% of Arab women in the same age group by the end of 2018. In 2008, 53.8% of Jewish and other women and 80.7% of Arab women were married.

Among women aged 45 to 49, 10% of Jewish and other women were single compared to 11.5% of Arab women. In 2008, 6.3% of Jewish and other women and 11.3% of Arab women were married.

According to data released from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the female divorce rate is higher than the male divorce rate across all age ranges. This stems mainly from men's tendency to quickly remarry following a divorce. So, for example, at the end of 2018, 8% of women aged 35 to 39 were divorced compared to 5% of men in the same age group. Among 40- to 44-year-olds, 12.4% of women are divorced compared to 8% of men. Among 45- to 49-year-olds, 16.4% of women are divorced compared to 11.4% of men, and among 50- to 54-year-olds, 18.4% of women and 13.7% of men are divorced.

Women aged 65 and over make up 13.2% of the country's population, compared to 10.7% for men. This is largely due to women's longer lifespan.

Around 89%, or 44,051, of the 49,410 women who married in 2018 did so for the first time.

In 2018, 15,605 women got a divorce. Their average age at the time of divorce was 39.3 compared to 38.1 in 2008.

At the same time, Israel's birthrate remains relatively high, with the average woman expected to have 3.01 children, the highest number among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member-states, where the average is 1.6.

Around 177,500 women gave birth in 2019. Twenty-eight percent of those women gave birth to their first child, 26.1% delivered their second child, and 54.2% gave birth to what was at least their third child.

The average age of women who had their first child in 2019 increased from 25.7 in the early 200s to 27.7 by 2019. At 6.1%, twice as many babies were born to single women in 2019 as compared to 2000.

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