Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1982-07-15

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VOL.60   NO.28
JULY 15,1982-TAMMUZ 24
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Extradition Of Terrorists Sought
BONN (JTA)—A West German lawyer has asked the
Justice Minister to seek the extradition of three Palestinian
terorists reportedly captured by Israeli forces in Lebanon
recently. The three, believed to have participated in the 1972
massacre of Israeli Olympics athletes in Munich, would not
be given a fair trial in Israel, according to attorney Wilhelm
Schoettler. Schoettler represented the Palestinians when
they were briefly imprisoned in Germany several years ago.
Civil Measure To Help 'Agunah' Obtain 'Get'
Approved By The New York State Legislature
Indian Congregation Plans Project
BOMBAY. (JTA)—The oldest synagogue of the Bene-Israel
Jewish community in India has launched a fundraising effort
to prepare a souvenir reference book and a pictorial display
of the history and culture of Indian Jewry. Initially planned
for March 1982, the project was postponed for lack of funds.
The congregation, Gate of Mercy synagogue, celebrated its
185th anniversary last December.
India Ousts Israeli Diplomat
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Political sources here said last
week that Israel's limited diplomatic relations with India
would continue despite the ouster of the Israeli Consul General in New Delhi for "unacceptable intervention in the affairs of India." The Counsul, Yossef Hasson, was asked to
leave after an interview in which he criticized India's negative attitude toward Israel.
NEW YORK (JTA)-A
civil measure designed to
ease a centuries-old disability imposed on the observant
Jewish wife whose husband
refuses to give her a Jewish
divorce decree, called a
"get," has been approved by
both houses of the New York
State Legislature.
The bill, believed to by the
first of its kind in American
law, is awaiting certain signature by Governor Hugh
Carey, Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, author of the
measure, said last week. The
measure will become state
law when the governor signs
it, expectedly before the end
of the month.
Silver, a Democrat-Liberal representing Manhattan's
Lower East Side, told the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
that the bill was the product
of months of careful drafting
to avoid any possibility of
Yitzhack Rager To Address
Bonds For Israel Gathering
Yitzhack I. Rager, President of the worldwide Israel
Bond Organization; will
speak at a cocktail party on
Wednesday, August 4, at the
home of Beverly and Alvin
Schottenstein in behalf of the
State of Israel Bonds. This
will be an advance meeting
for the Bernard R. Ruben
Tribute Dinner, which will
be held Thursday, August 19,
at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Rager is an Israeli with
many achievements in a
long career of service to the
Jewish State and the Jewish
people. He worked for the
freedom of Jews in countries
of distress, including the
Soviet Union.
■ A noted journalist, he was
the editor of the national
Hebrew daily "Hayom,"
Secretary-General of the
Israel Broadcasting Authority and news editor of Kol
Israel (The Voice of Israel).
As a member of the diplomatic service, he served as a
Consul in New York as well
as a Consul at the Israeli
Embassy in London. He has
fought in all the wars of
Israel. During the Six-Day
War, he commanded the
batallion which liberated
Gush Etzion and Beit
Lechem, including the site of
Rachel's Tomb, and remains
a Colonel in the Israel Army
Reserves.
, Before coming to Israel
Bonds in January, 1980, he
served as General Counsel to
the Chairman of the Jewish
Agency in Israel for three
years with the rank of
Deputy Minister, which in
Israel is the equivalent of
Under-secretary.
The Israel Bond Organization is the major source of
development capital for
Israel. Since its founding in
1951, the Israel Bond program has provided over $5
billion to help build every
aspect of Israel's economic
infrastructure. Now that a
peace treaty with Egypt has
been signed, thousands of
military and civilian personnel must be redeployed
from the Sinai to the Negev.
Industries, jobs, roads, communications, energy and
transportation, along with
the necessities of everyday
life, must be provided within
a short period of time. Israel
looks to Israel Bonds to help
provide   solid   economic
.?Jt>X-
Yitzhack I. Rager
foundations   both  for  the
development of the Negev
and the building of a peacetime economy.
conflict with the Constitutional church-state separation doctrine.
Approval of the bill in the
assembly was by 132 to six.
The measure was introduced
in the State Senate.
"A matrimonial action
is an action in equity. One
of the doctrines of equity
is that the court should
leave the parties with
equal status."
Under Jewish religious
law (halacha), a wife refused a "get" has the status
of an "Agunah," and may
not remarry religiously even
after winning a civil divorce.
Principle Behind The Bill
Silver explained that the
principle behind the bill is
that "a matrimonial action
is an action in equity. One of
the doctrines of equity is that
the court should leave the
parties with equal status."
He added that the measure
permits one party to allege
that "if this (divorce) court
dissolves this marriage,
civilly I will have a barrier
to remarriage." The barrier
will be the husband's refusal
to' give his wife a ■ "get,"
though the measure makes
no reference to that religious
action.
The measure provides that
when one party to a civil divorce action complains of a
barrier to re-marriage imposed by the other party, the
issue may be submitted to a
fact-finding and mediation
panel which will have the
function of determining
whether such a barrier exists and, if it does, whether
either party can remove it.
The measure provides for
the judge hearing the
divorce case to name the
panel which can make recommendations for removal
of the barrier. The panel is
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thus an agency of the court.
The court may, at its discretion, withhold a final judgment on the civil divorce if
the party seeking the divorce—in such cases, the
Jewish husband—fails to
comply with the recommendation of the panel—presumably to give his wife a "get."
The panel has 30 days to
make its" recommendation.
To avoid legal problems, the
measure was written to with-
hold intentionally any
authority for the judge to
hold in contempt the divorce
party rejecting the panel's
recommendations. The clout
the judge can exercise for
the wife of a recalcitrant
Jewish husband is to refuse
to give him and his wife a
civil divorce.
Orthodox leaders said that
only in recent years have
marriages in the cohesive
Orthodox community begun
to break up in significant
numbers, bringing an increase in complaints of unethical conduct by parties to
divorce, mostly on the part
of husbands.   '
"We hope this bill will
have the effect in the
Orthodox Jewish community of discouraging coercion and blackmail in divorce procedures."
There have been widespread reports that such husbands are denying "gittim"
to their wives, sometimes
out of spite, and sometimes
to coerce wives to sign away
rights to property, child support and maintenance of
civil divorce actions.
Silver said there are an estimated 150,000 Orthodox
Jewish women in New York
State alone, who are civilly
but not religiously divorced,
adding that some have been
waiting as long as two decades for a "get." He said
the new measure will not
help any of the 150,000 "but it
may help others" in the future.
It may also help a much
smaller number of Orthodox
husbands, who assert they
are denied religious divorces
by wives who refuse to accept a "get" Rabbis said
women also are using the
"get" for leverage in civil
settlements, though halacha
provides options to men not
available to women. Rabbi
Moshe Sherer, Agudath Israel president, said "we
hope this bill will have the effect in the Orthodox Jewish
community of discouraging
coercion and blackmail in
divorce procedures."    ,
Prof. Aaron Twerski, a
Hofstra law professor who is
chairman of the Commission
on Legislation and Civic Action of Agudath Israel of
America, an Orthodox agency, helped draft the legislation. Calling the measure "a
low profile resolution to a
high profile problem," Twerski said the drafters "very
studiously stayed away from
the question of a court-coerced 'get' to avoid getting into.
the thicket of halachic questions."
Also consulted on the measure were such rabbinical
authorities as Rabbi Moshe
Feinstein, president of the
Union of Orthodox Rabbis of
the United States and Canada, a world authority on halacha; Rabbi Jacob Kame-
necki, dean of Yeshiva
.Torah Vodaath of New York;
and Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor and expert on civil liberties law.
S.E.E.D. Program
Congregation Ahavas
Sholom's fifth annual
S.E.E.D. (Summer Learning) program will begin this
Sunday evening. The opening program will feature
noted lecturer, author,
educator and philosopher,
Rabbi Mayer Schiller, who
Rabbi Mayer Schiller
will speak on the topic
"From Herman Melville and
Joseph Conrad to Torah."
Rabbi Schiller is presently
a member of the staff of
Mesivta Ohr Torah and Ohr
Sameach Institute. He is the
author of two recently. published books. One on Jewish
philosophy is entitled The
Road Back. The other work
deals with political philosophy and is entitled The
Guilty Conscience of a Conservative. It is a major
selection of the Conservative
Book Club,
Rabbi Schiller has lectured extensively throughout
the United States and has
been heard on numerous
radio talk shows.
Everyone in the community is invited to attend
the lecture at Congregation
/Vhavas Sholom Sunday evening July 18 at 8 p.m.