Court bans rabbinate from branding woman 'adulteress
Thursday, July 17, 1975—THE BULLETIN—ll
JERUSALEM — The Stqtreme court has issued a ruling forbidding the Israeli Rabbinate from publicly branding a woman an adulteress.
The court decreed, in the case (rf a divorcee who had a lover prior to her divorce, that the Rabbinate could not insert into die religious divorce certificate (Get) the Halachic injunction that "This woi^an is forbidden for both husband and lover."
Justice Yoel Sussman said in' die decision fliat aldiough the Halacha "ruling fofbidding a divorcee to marry her lover was valid within the framework of religious law, there was no reason for it to be recorded in the divorce certificate which is a civil instrument required by civil law.
The Justice stressed that the function of a rabbi who performs in marriages or divorce cases is not a judiciary one but rather one of a I'egistering authority.
Such an authority cannot be permitted to add a limiting clause
to a divorce certificate, Justice Sussman said, because the registration is not for the use of the rabbinical authorities but is a statistical document describing die personal status of the persm involved.
In rendering the court's decision. Justice Sussman wrote:
"It is true that according to Halacha an adulterous woman is forbidden to ner lover. But one should not brand. her as unfit for marriage so that the adultery is known in public.
"The appellant might need the certificate (of divorce) for other purposes such as income tax, social security or even to apply
RECMLLESHEM
JERUSALEM — Israel Ambassador to Denmark since 1971, Moshe Leshem, will return this summer amidst dispute here that his wife, Aliza,co-(9ened a beauty parlor in Copenhagen with a friend from Norway.
REPaRT JEWS SAFE BEIRUT FIGHTING
PARB-Lebanon's 1,500 Jews have been spared to date during the fighting between Arab terrorists and the Phalanglst party which reached a climax in Beirut in April and Biay.
A leading member <rf the com-nuinity told your correspondent this during a recent visit to Paris.
A^ total of about 700 people were said to have been killed and about 1,500 wounded In the fighting which lasted from January to May.
MUch of the fighting took place near Beirut's Jewish district wifli its schools of the Alliance Israelite Universelle and the home of die Tarrab family.
No member of the community was harmed.
Throughout, Chief Rabbi Chahoud CShaul) Chrem was in close touch witti all the members of the cmnmunity and he acted as an intermediary widi audiorities. . There is^ a general consensus in the country that die Jews, who form a small but very active
minority, should be regarded as neutral in the power struggle between the Palestinian terrorists and the Christian Phalangists led by Pierre (Semayel.
The Jews are held in high esteem for their social and commercial integrity. They are protected by the big Armenian community.
The Lebanese Jewish leader also told your correspondent that recent reports suggested diat the situation of Syrian Jews was slightly easier.
This was due, no doubt, topres-sure of world public opinion and in particular, the representations of die French committee for die Relief of Syrian Jews, headed by Alain Poher, the president of the French Senate.
For example, the Damascus audiorities allowed a number of Syrian Jews to receive medical treatment in Lebanon, France or Italy on condition that they returned and this they had done.
JONS.
for work. If she is forbidden to be married, it is a limitation of die individual's rights to force her to show this limitatiiMi in pubUc."
The case involved a Beersheba woman who married six years ago, gave birth to a daughter but divorced her husband two years later in the Beersheba rabbinical court.
The woman iqipealed to that court to expedite the issuance of the divorce certificate <m grounds that she was separated from her husband and had become pr^nant by another man whom she wanted to marry before dieir child was born.
The rabbincial court rejected her request and delayed issuing the certificate until last year. It included the clause forbidding her. to have relations with the father of her child.
In ruling in favor of the woman's appeal, the Supreme Court noted that the law requires the divorce certificate to be issued at the time of the divorce, which the rabbinical court had refused to do.
Israel's two chief rabbis in-(ficated that they would defy the Supreme Court's ruling.
Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said the religious courts would continue to judge purely according to Halacha and would not accept any instructions diat contravened Halachic rules. He claimed that religious courts were bound only by Jewish law.
Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren issued a similar statement.
WAN RSCaViS ISkAa OUAHOiS
TEL AVIV — Information has surfaced about a shipment of citrus from Israel to Iran. This year some 600,000 cases of fruit were packed on which the familiar stamp of "Jaffa" was missing. The packers were curious as to the destination of the fruit but were told not to ask too many quesions. Only later was it made known that the fruit, which bore no sign of origin, foimd its way to the markets in Iran.
MENTAL ILLNESS FORCED ON KIDNAPPED MOSCOW TEENAGER
NEW YORK-Marina Tiemkm, die Moscow teenager kidnsKied by Soviet police agents after she and her fladier received permission to leave for Israel, has been seen in the Soviet capital, clearly suffering from an induced mental, disturbance, according to die Studrat Struggle for Soviet Jewry.
In additikm, mail to Marina from die West is being widiheld from her. . •.
In February 1973, then li3-year-old Marina was abdiictedfrbmher home, held In a youth jc^|^,-then brou^t back to Moacowand subjected to mind-chi^iging'drugs
dfter her father was forced to leave die USSR alone.
She is now being held in Moscow under cmistant watch.
Marina was met on the street on April 17 and 21 by a friend of the family,' Jewish activist Bflkhail Polotsk, who recently reached Israel.
Ifarina was bloated and dragged her right leg. Checking, Polotsk found diis had been caused by a "cerebral disturbance."
Formerly a bright, cheeriul and well-mannered girl,Polotsk foiind Marina*s personality completely warped:
Her fother, Prof. Alexander
PROF. ALEXANDER TIEMKIN, now In Israel, gazes lon^gly at a photo of his 15-year-old daughter Marina, whom he was 'orced to leave behind in JAoscow after she was kidnapped foy Soviet police agents.
Tiemkin, told the SSSJ: "When Polotsk addressed Marina, her face became distorted by a terrible grimace of horror. She spit in his face—this never occured before in her life!—and ran away."
Previously an exertional student, Marina hardly learns in school, but the authorities have ordered her teachers not to give her low marks.;.
"Various-methods of modem psychiatry may produce the fatness," Prof. Tiemkin stated, "for example, insidin shocks. This may, at the same time, produce a deterioration of the intellect.
"The well-known conditions of Marina's life—isolation and constant psychological pressure-worsen her state. Each day she is not treated pnqierly in the USSR diminishes the possibility of an effectiye recovery and the probability of irreversible deterioration of her personality.
"The urgent departure of Marina to Israel is the only way to save her."
In recognitimi of her plight, the Israeli government has granted Marina citizenship.
Meanwhile, Prof. Tiemkin has written to the International Red Cross in Geneva, asking that it send a team of Swiss physicians and psychologists to Moscow to examine Marina.
The Red Cross had previously nirned down his request to intervene on Nkarina's behalf.
"NEO-FASCISM Is raising Its head again" In the irSSR> World War n hero Col. Tefim Davidovidi (r.) defiantly declared td a crowd of 1,000 Jews who conragcondy gathered recently to com< memorate the martyrdom of 200,000 Jewish victims of the ROnak ghetto. Participants, Including Col. Tjtv October (L), brought wreaths Inscribed in Yiddish and Russian. Nine days later David, ovich was stripped of hb rank and army pension.
DEVELOP UNIQUE COMBAT VEHICLE
TEL AVIV—^The army's ordnance corps announced development of new fire .^extinguishing equipment that could save the lives of tank crews whose chief danger is incineration when their tanks are set on fire.
The army also revealed the development of a new armored combat vehicle which is siqierior to any previously in use by the Israeli army.
The new vehicle, which has been introduced to units patrolling the Lebanese border, is characterized by high speed, ability to negotiate rough terrain and an extra large fuel capacity which enables it to remain in action for many hours without refueling.
It can be equipped with a variety of weapons according to needs, the army said.
UIA raises $162M
JERUSALEM—The Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal has raised $162 million in cash for Israel during the current fiscal year, its world chahman, Ezra Shapiro, reported to the Jewish Agency's fourth annual Assembly. This year's sum exceeded the amount raised after the 1967 Six-Day War and is more than half the record sums raised following the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
SAPIR STAYS
JERUSALEM — Despite earlier calls for his resignation, Jewish Agency re-elected Pinhas Sapir as chairnian, and again named Max Fisher, chairman of board of governors and Arye Dultzin, treasurer.
MURDER, SUICIDi IN VIENNA SHUL
BY SniONE MEYSELS
VIENNA—A former Sovietlabor camp inmate recently stabbod his^ wife to deadi and ttien hangeil. himself in the synagogue attached. to die home for aged. Jews ill: Vienna..
The man, 67-year-^.<rfd Isa^c Blelnis, spent two years in a camp during the Stalin era. After his release, he accused his wife, Bronislawa, of having been responsible.
Mrs. Bleinis later cmnplained to Soviet audiorities that her husband had beaten her,.and herwa^, admitted to a psychiatric clinic for treatment.
In 1972, the coi«>le, who had reunited some years pre\dousty, emigrated to Israel with their three children, wheire .Belinis worked as a baker. He was re.r ported to have reqiured frequent psychiatric treatment before he retired in February, 1974.
On his retirement, he left Israel for Vienna with his wife, but she separated from him there after a series of quarrels, and he announced his intention of joining one of their sons in Canada.
Recentiy Bleinis wrote to his wife asking her to meet him at
the synagogue to "say goodbye. When she arrived there between services, he stabbed her in the back and then hanged himself from a beam in the synagogue.
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SEIZE 20,000 NAZI RECORDS
DUSSELDORF — The district court here has ordered the seizure of 20,000 gramophone records because they contain Nazi propaganda, distort historical facts, and because the record sleeves covers bear swastikas and photographs of Hitler. The sleeves were produced by a local firm, Hocheder, while the records were made in the United States and imported into West Germany via Liechtenstein. The records were advertised as "Historical sound documents of contemporary history—a documentary series from Liechtenstein, distributed by Miller International Records Ltd,"
JCNS