Advocates for Jewish women who say their estranged husbands are abusing them by refusing to assent to a religious divorce are cheering after a New Jersey appellate court overturned a ruling against a woman in that state who used social media to advocate for her divorce.
A lower court ruled in 2021 that the woman’s social media posts constituted harassment and incitement. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey got involved in the case then, joining several Orthodox women’s rights groups who had already been working on her behalf.
The woman, who was identified only by her initials, LBB, in Wednesday’s 39-page court ruling, has been separated from her husband since 2019. She says that he has refused to give her a get, or ritual divorce document.
In 2021, the man received a temporary, and later a final, restraining order that barred his estranged wife from contacting him and ordered her to remove social media posts calling for the get. The court that issued the restraining order ruled that the social media posts constituted harassment, an invasion of privacy and incitement, and were thus not protected under the First Amendment’s free speech provisions.
The appellate court’s three-judge panel rejected that reasoning, saying that her social media activism did count as protected speech.
“In sum, the judge’s finding that the Jewish community was prone to violence against get refusers — and the implicit holding that defendant was aware of and intentionally availed herself of such violent tendencies — is not supported by the record,” the decision says. “The video was intended to get a get. The video did not threaten or menace plaintiff, and nothing in the record suggests that plaintiff’s safety or security was put at risk by the video.”
If people had the slightest shred of morality they wouldn't be talking to this pos, including his family, friends and Shule.
ReplyDeleteThis is treif. Just look who petitioned the Appellate Court. Shalom Task Force has more recently become the organ of the Open Orthodox bums doing "bittul" kiddushin.
ReplyDelete"Rabbi" Dan Shevitz is head of the Conservative "Bet Din" on the Left Coast
Agree
DeleteA get refuser should not be permitted to step into any shul for any reason.
ReplyDeleteAny shul that indulges GET refusers needs to be condemned, along with its Rov for coddling these miscreants.
It’s an attestation of the moral corruption of Orthodox Yiddishkeit in all its many sects and variations that these oppressed women must run to the secular courts to try assuage the iniquities directed against them by Orthodoxy. Shame on all the “Gedolim” for permitting this abomination to persist.
ReplyDeleteSure
DeleteJust bend the thing till it breaks