Daniel Schwartz, Chaya Lonna and the Yad LaIsha lawyers Pnina Omer, Morah Dayan , Yifah Blonder, at the Supreme Court. July 2022. |
Israel’s Chief Rabbinate Council on Thursday ruled that in difficult cases of get refusal, the burial of the refuser’s relatives must be banned until he grants the get. The decision followed the discussions in a difficult case in which the aguna wife has been stranded for more than 18 years in the US, while her husband succeeded in marrying another woman in California in 2014.
The aguna, Haya Lana, appealed many times to the rabbinical courts in the US, but the husband insisted on refusing to grant her the get and didn’t even bother to show up for the hearings while enjoying his new marital life. In August, Haya Lana submitted a request to the Chief Rabbinate via attorneys Daniel Schwartz and Avraham Ben-Zvi, for an order that as long as the get is not granted, the transfer of bodies and burial in Israel of the husband and his relatives, including his father who is on his deathbed, must be banned.