WIFE USES ANCIENT LAW TO FIGHT MALE BARRIER TO JEWISH DIVORCE.Byline: Ron Kampeas Ron Kampeas is the Washington, D.C. bureau chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), "responsible for coordinating coverage in the U.S. capital and analyzing political developments that affect the Jewish world. Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. In David vs. David, Rachel wears power suits and sells high-tech medical equipment; Moses is a computer programmer. Theirs is a 1990s divorce, but with an ancient twist: Their most potent weapons have been plucked from the weathered pages of Jewish law. Rachel David, acting through the British rabbinate rab·bin·ate n. 1. The office or function of a rabbi. 2. Rabbis considered as a group. [From obsolete rabbin, rabbi; see rabbinical. , won a rare order against her recalcitrant husband: Until he grants her a religious divorce, no observant Jew may speak to him or come within six yards of him. The order, called a ``nidui,'' could have an impact throughout the Jewish world, where women's groups are increasingly pressuring religious authorities to do more to help women like Rachel David. ``This sends out an important message for other recalcitrant husbands,'' said Blu Greenberg Blanche Greenberg, a.k.a. Blu Greenberg (born 1936) is an American writer specializing in Modern Orthodox Judaism and women's issues. She is the author of On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition (1981) and Black Bread: Poems, After the Holocaust (1994). , an American feminist campaigner for women's rights The effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns. The women's rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and within Jewish law, speaking from New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . Rabbi Berel Berkovits, the religious judge behind the nidui, said: ``It's having a powerful effect. It's depriving him of his social freedom, and he's sensitive to that.'' Moses David, contacted recently by phone, said he was outraged by the order and would not comment further. His reaction pleases Rachel David. Since the nidui, her husband has taken action to renew negotiations that might lead to a settlement including a religious divorce, she said. ``This is hurting him. He's the sort of person who likes to be welcomed into people's homes,'' she said. The nidui was a response in kind to the ancient punishment that David imposed on his wife. Although he initiated their civil divorce after she left him, he refused to assent to a religious divorce called a ``get.'' For divorced wives who get married again in civil ceremonies, not receiving a get can be devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. . Ancient rabbinical rab·bin·i·cal also rab·bin·ic adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of rabbis. [From obsolete rabbin, rabbi, from French, from Old French rabain, probably from Aramaic laws dictate that the children of their second marriage are ``mamzers'' - bastards shunned by the Jewish community. The same is not true of children fathered by Jewish men married in civil ceremonies after divorce. That has offered men in many Jewish communities a way to harass or pressure former spouses. ``It's grossly unjustified,'' said Rachel David, 30. ``It's got to be put right.'' The Davids married in 1983, when she was 17 and he was 30, and they separated in 1991. She cited abuse and took their three children. He was convicted of assaulting his wife after the separation and was given a suspended sentence A sentence given after the formal conviction of a crime that the convicted person is not required to serve. In criminal cases a trial judge has the ability to suspend the sentence of a convicted person. in 1994. ``Violence is a sense of control,'' Rachel David said. ``Now, he's trying to stretch his control out.'' The religious judge who handled their case, Pinchas Toledano, derides Rachel David as an ``actress'' for going to the news media. ``The husband creates the union, saying, `Thou art wedded unto me by this ring according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the law of Moses and Israel.' The wife is passive,'' Toledano said. ``That's the law.'' Like thousands of other women in the the same position - called ``agunot'' or chained women - Rachel David faced an uncomfortable choice: Abandon prospects of getting married again or abandon Judaism. ``Judaism is my life,'' she said. ``I observe all the commandments. I keep the Sabbath and eat kosher food. And it's important that my children do, too. I won't run away just because I have problems.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Rachel David Wins unusual order |
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