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Conference taveng::bagels

Title:BAGELS and other things of Jewish interest
Notice:1.0 policy, 280.0 directory, 32.0 registration
Moderator:SMURF::FENSTER
Created:Mon Feb 03 1986
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1524
Total number of notes:18709

105.0. "Can't get a GET" by SWATT::POLIKOFF (Arnie Polikoff) Thu Apr 10 1986 02:30

    	I heard a report on PBS this morning of the problems some spouses
    are having in getting a 'GET' ( Jewish divorse ). Aparently some
    real skummy lawyers, and I am sorry to say they are Jewish lawyers,
    are advising their clients to hold back on giving or accepting a
    'GET' until their spouse gives them something of value like custody
    of the children or sums of money as much as $100,000. The lawyers
    get part of the extortion. This is not an illegal act in the USA
    but it is illegal in Jewish law. The Jewish word for a wife that
    can not get a 'GET' is chained.
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105.1JP articleR2D2::GREGYour friendly contact in GenevaThu Apr 10 1986 05:492
    There is an article in the weekly Jerusalem Post about this, I'll
    try and find it and summarize.
105.2Lawyers Stink...TAV02::CHAIMLe'ChaimThu Apr 10 1986 05:5326
 
    The real problem is with the lawyers. They many times act contrary
    to the better interest of their client, and this causes many snags
    and much agony.
    
    My brother-in-law ia a Dayan and has sat on the Beth Din in Haifa,
    Tel-Aviv, and presently in Ashkelon. He has told me on many occasions
    that the moment lawyers are involved the case drags and drags. This
    is due to the "ADVICE" that lawyers give their clients. In his oppinion
    most cases could be handled swiftly and efficiently and to the liking
    of both sides if lawyers were left out.
    
    The law in Israel does permit the courts to jail a man if he refuses
    to give a "GET" after the Beth Din decreed that he must. This usually
    works, though there is a case of a man who has been in jail for
    over twenty years and still refuses. Likewise the Beth Din can invoke
    what is called "Heter Mea Rabanim" for a man whose wife refuses
    to accept a "GET" eventhough the Beth Din has decreed. This porcedure
    allows the man to remarry eventhough he is legally married now to
    two women.
    
    The tools do exist to help out BOTH sides. The lawyers are the ones
    who screw up the proceedings.
    
    Cb. 
    
105.3Community involvement is the keyWHAT::SCHWARTZSteven H. SchwartzThu Apr 10 1986 12:2313
    Occasionally the Jewish papers (Jewish Press, etc.) carry an ad
    that so-and-so has refused to deliver a /get/ and is now under /cherem/
    (ban).  He is then to be shunned, privately and publicly, until
    he delivers.  This is virtually the only recourse when Batei Din
    have no legal enforcement power.
    
    Not that I'm knocking peer pressure.  I was told of a community
    where a man refused to give his wife a get.  The women of the community
    decided that they would not go to the /mikveh/ until a /get/ was
    delivered, i.e., normal marital relations would become forbidden
    -indefinitely-.
    
    The /get/ was delivered rapidly.