Attorney-general backs ‘Agunah of Safed’ against Supreme Rabbinical Court

Rejects third-party appeal against divorce ruling

The hugely controversial case of the so-called “Agunah from Safed” took a major turn on Tuesday, when Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit intervened and said a third-party appeal against a divorce ruling should be rejected by the Supreme Rabbinical Court.

Mandelblit’s position comes less than 24 hours before a scheduled hearing in the High Court of Justice on a petition by the woman in question asking the court to instruct the Supreme Rabbinical Court not to hear the appeal.

The case involves a 34-year old woman whose husband sustained severe injuries in a motorcycle accident nine years ago, from which he fell into a coma and has never recovered.

In 2014, the Safed Rabbinical Court issued a unique and innovative ruling, granting a bill of divorce on behalf of the husband, on the assumption that he would have agreed if he were able, thereby freeing the woman from her marriage.

Senior haredi rabbis furiously denounced the ruling, including Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, and in an unprecedented step, the Supreme Rabbinical Court declared in November that it would review the case before a full 11-judge panel, following an appeal by a third party who has no connection to the case and is not related to either the woman or her former husband in any way.

The Mavoi Satum organization, which represents the woman, petitioned the High Court, claiming the Supreme Rabbinical Court has no right to hear an appeal from a third party with no standing in the case. The organization argued in addition that allowing a third-party appeal would set a worrying precedent in which any divorce ruling ever issued could be appealed and cast into doubt.

On Tuesday, the Attorney General’s Office explicitly agreed with such arguments, writing that allowing a third-party appeal “would have far-reaching consequences of the utmost severity on all divorces issued by the rabbinical courts, were it to be established that any external party is permitted to attack a divorce ruling in which he has no connection whatsoever.”

The position statement added that, since the third party has no standing in the case, the appeal should be rejected outright without the Supreme Rabbinical Court even holding a hearing.

Mavoi Satum director Batya Kehana-Dror welcomed the attorney-general’s intervention, calling the third-party appeal “a dangerous precedent,” and saying that she is sure the High Court would adopt the attorney-general’s position and that of her organization.