Rabbinical Court Rules Lawyers of Get Refusers Will be Sanctioned

 

Lawyers who act to prevent the giving of a get (Jewish divorce document) and harm divorce proceedings can be slapped with sanctions, the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court ruled in a groundbreaking decision earlier this week.

Av Beth Din Rabbi Meir Freeman, along with Rabbi David Berdugo and Rabbi Yitzhak Rabinowitz, issued the ruling after a husband who refused to give his wife a get stated that he was not opposed to issuing the divorce, but was doing so because his attorney had advised him to in order to benefit in financial negotiations against his wife.

In order to conduct a divorce under Jewish law, a husband is required to give a divorce document known as a get to his wife. Until the document is handed to the wife, the divorce cannot take effect. An issue that has arisen from this requirement is that some husbands refuse to give their wives a get for a number of reasons, including as revenge and as a blackmail tool, thereby preventing them from remarrying. Wives whose husbands refuse to issue a get are referred to as agunot ("anchored" or "chained" in Hebrew.)

Rabbinical courts often use sanctions in order to pressure husbands into issuing the get to their wives. In Israel, the sanctions are legally recognized and can include a variety of measures, including bans on exiting the country, holding a drivers license and managing a bank account. Husbands who refused to issue a divorce can even be imprisoned in extreme cases.

The wife in the recent case began proceedings in the rabbinical court due to her husband's worsening cognitive condition which she feared could eventually make it impossible to receive a get if proceedings continued for too long. The wife was represented by attorneys Orit Lahav and Batya Cohen from the Mavoi Satum organization, which works to help women whose husbands refuse to grant them a divorce. 

The attorneys of the wife subsequently filed a request to the rabbinical court to place sanctions on the attorney, leading the husband's attorney to announce that the husband was now ready to issue the divorce. The husband's attorney demanded, however, that Mavoi Satum cover his legal costs.

The rabbinical court denied the husband's attorney's request, ruling that the lawsuit was not considered vexatious litigation (legal action meant solely to harass someone) since it is "not inconceivable that there will be cases in which it can be proved that a husband who is required to grant a divorce refuses to grant the divorce only due to misconduct by his attorney."

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Jewish Black diversity chief out after failing to mention Islamophobia in statement rejecting antisemitism

 

A Black Jewish diversity chief at a nonprofit group for children’s book authors resigned amid backlash after she neglected to specifically condemn Islamophobia in a statement denouncing antisemitism.

April Powers, chief equity and inclusion officer at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, issued a statement this month saying the organization denounces “all forms of hate, including antisemitism,” citing an uptick in crimes against Jewish people. Critics apparently took issue with Islamophobia not being specifically mentioned in the statement.

Ms. Powers apologized in a statement announcing her resignation Sunday, saying she “neglected to address the rise in Islamophobia, and deeply regret that omission.”

“As someone who is vehemently against Islamophobia and hate speech of any kind, I understand that intention is not impact and I am so sorry,” she wrote. “While this doesn’t fix the pain and disappointment that you feel by my mishandling of this moment, I hope you will accept my sincerest apologies and resignation from the SCBWI.”

Ms. Powers, who introduced herself as being Black and Jewish in a welcome video last June, explained in a postTuesday on her personal Facebook page that she was not fired or forced to resign from the nonprofit, Newsweek reported.

The organization’s executive director, Lin Oliver, issued a statement Sunday accepting Ms. Powers’ resignation and apologizing to “everyone in the Palestinian community who felt unrepresented, silenced or marginalized.”

“SCBWI acknowledges the pain our actions have caused to our Muslim and Palestinian members and hope that we can heal from this moment,” Ms. Oliver wrote.

Jewish Doctoral Candidate Who Wanted To Prove Justice System Was Racist Against Blacks Was Stabbed To Death By Black Man In Chicago

 

Anat Kimchi, a 31-year-old Israeli-born doctoral candidate and scholar at the University of Maryland, wrote a paper published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology in 2019 attempting to prove America’s criminal justice system was racist against “young black offenders” and “black drug offenders.”

While visiting Chicago over the weekend, Kimchi was ambushed and stabbed in the back and neck while walking near a homeless encampment at 401 South Wacker at around 3:35 p.m. Police said witnesses told them the assailant was a homeless “slim black male with long dreadlocks who wore a red bandana and a blue tank top,” CWB Chicago reported.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday that police know the man who fatally stabbed her and are “scouring the various homeless encampments downtown” to find him.

While speaking with CBS 2 Chicago, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown expressed bafflement that Kimchi would walk on such an “obscure route” which only leads to a freeway and an underpass with a homeless encampment.

Given her field, one can imagine she may have purposefully gone to the encampment to see first hand the horrible oppression that “white supremacist America” was subjecting these disadvantaged, underprivileged victims of white supremacy to due to no fault of their own.

Viznitz Yiddish Newspaper about Florida Tragedy...." I'ts only a couple of Chabad families.l"

 

I wasn't going to print this but once they themselves printed it in their own newspaper, Kol Berama, for the entire world to see , I decided to post it.

Loose translation of the circled sentences

"People originally thought that only a couple of Chabad families perished in the Florida Condos, yes indeed, it is a very big loss, and a terrible tragedy, but it's not something that one has to turn the entire world around."

Shul Sign in Yerushalyim about the Air conditioner

 

Sign in Katamon Shul reads:

I'm Cold/I'm Hot 

There hasn't been a Gabbai born yet who can figure out the exact comfortable temperture for everyone

We did everything we can

If you are hot, sit underneath the air conditioner

If you are cold, bring a sweater

Not always good to help someone

 

R' Pinye Korf Chabad Chasid Who Had His Beard Cut off by Satmar 38 years ago ...Passes On

38 years ago on Parshas Pinchas, Satmar hooligans grabbed R' Pinye Korf  z"l, and like the Nazis, cut his beard & peyos off.

What was his crime? 

He gave a shiur in Tanye in a private Williamsburg apartment.

This week on that exact day, 38 years later, R' Pinye passed away.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe in his L'kutei Sichos mentions the incident ...

 

Americans can pick their passport gender

 

So now even if you have a big beard and wear a "rashvulka" on Shabbos, you can now choose to have "female" in your passport... your wife with her "spitzel" and "bullet-proof" stockings can now identify as a man.....

Applicants for a US passport will now be able to choose whether they identify as male or female and won’t need medical certification if their choice differs from the gender listed on other documents like a birth certificate, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday. 

Blinken also said that the Department will soon give applicants the option of describing themselves on their passport as “non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming,” though he added that change would take time to implement due to “extensive systems updates.”

According to Blinken, the moves are another step “toward ensuring the fair treatment of LGBTQI+ U.S. citizens, regardless of their gender or sex.” America’s top diplomat added that he was announcing the move “after considerable consultation with like-minded governments who have undertaken similar changes.”

The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed the move to add a third gender identification option. 

“Improved access to accurate passports will have such a profound impact on the lives of trans, intersex, and non-binary folks across the country,” ACLU campaign strategist Arli Christian said in a statement. “Now people will be able to fill out a passport application and indicate M, F, or X — whichever is most appropriate for them.

Despite a hateful wave of anti-trans legislation this year, trans, non-binary, and intersex people know who we are and we need recognition of who we are — not permission,” Christian added. “Today’s action demonstrates an important first step in realizing a whole-of-government policy for accurate IDs.”

Wednesday’s announcement was the latest acknowledgment of the LGBTQ community by Blinken. In April, he authorized US diplomatic missions to fly the rainbow-colored Pride flag on the same pole as the American flag at embassies and consulates around the world. Last week, Blinken announced the State Department would fly the “Progress” flag — which incorporates a black, brown, light blue, pink and white chevron into the pride flag design — for the first time ever to mark Pride Month. 

“We … value our continued engagement with the LGBTQI+ community, which will inform our approach and positions moving forward,” Blinken said. “With this action, I express our enduring commitment to the LGBTQI+ community today and moving forward.”

Omar Doubles Down ‘No Regrets’ About Anti-Israel Remarks, ‘Jews Aren’t Partners In Justice’ Schumer Quiet

 

Where is the "Shomer Yisrael" Cryi'n Schumer? .....

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, host Jake Tapper confronted Dem. Rep. Ilhan Omar about her comments equating the US and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban and asked her if she regretted her comments.

Omar replied: “I don’t. I think it’s really important to think back to the point that I was trying to make. Obviously, I was addressing Secretary of State Blinken.”

Although Omar’s response to Tapper’s question failed to actually answer the question, he tried again, this time mentioning some of her anti-Israel and anti-Semitic comments in the past, asking: “Do you understand why some of your fellow House Democrats, especially Jews, find that language anti-Semitic? 

 Omar totally ignored the question and instead said she welcomes conversations from her colleagues so they can “learn from her.” 

She then proceeded to accuse “these members” of not being “partners in justice.” “I think it’s really important for these members to realize that they haven’t been partners in justice,” she said. “They haven’t been equally engaging in seeking justice around the world.”