Sad story of religious discord causing marital discord as reported by Actualic.

We have not heard form the Lebanese groom in a while. To remind you, Eliyahu Hawila from Lebanon living in the USA posed as a Jew while he became frum, though he was not actually Jewish. Hawila met a nice frum girl form the Syrian community and they dated and married. her family shortly thereafter discovered his real identity and that he is not Jewish and chased him out of town. Hawila went soul searching, I guess, and actually discovered that he is Jewish, as a maternal grandmother a few generations back was Jewish and married a Muslim, and the generations of daughters since had lived as Muslims but were actually Jewish, making him Jewish. this discovery made things even more complicated because, if true, his wife would now need a gett, an official halachic divorce paper and not just a civil divorce. 

I could not find an article in Hebrew about this, which is unusual, so I have to rely on VIN for this story...

In case you thought you had heard everything strange about what might hold up a divcorce, you probably haven't...

The Times of Israel is reporting on a really strange and unusual situation in The Rabbanut beis din in Jerusalem.

Crazy story.

This is weird. 

Last week we discovered that the Last Jew in Afghanistan, Zebulun Simantov, is really there because he refused rescue efforts as he is a "get refuser", holding his wife in Israel as an aguna while he refuses to divorce her.

Back in the day, specifically the initial lockdown a year ago, the streets were so empty of human traffic, foot or vehicular, that all sorts of wildlife were seen entering cities and wandering around, maybe looking for food or entertainment... in some places this continued much longer, to different degrees, even though people were out and about, it was still much quieter than normal and more welcoming for the animals.

Fighting about what to name a child is not uncommon. In the Haredi community there is generally a policy to go by, if the couple is part of that community and willing to go by it - as to which parent gets naming rights for which child. But even then there are exceptions, such as in a situation where a close relative recently passed away. 

A number of news websites last night posted about something that happened with a well known Israeli personality. All the sites have since removed their articles on this matter (one explained they had been asked to and even though he report was allowed legally and halachically they decided to agree to remove it), so in this post I am not going to name the person (if someone posts it in the comments I will not remove it), because the post is not about him.

45 years ago in the city of Lod a young couple got married. The ketuba given was written for 100,000 lira.

Needless to say, the lira no longer exists as a currency today, as they are getting divorced.

The question is how much he needs to pay her for the ketuba payout.

Mrs is demanding 238,000nis, claiming the currency exchange and inflation - meaning, she says it should just become 100,000 in shekels instead of lira, plus inflation.

Mr is saying that based on what the lira is worth today, he only owes her about 20nis, and he is more than willing to pay it in full. Magnanimously he even offers to double or triple it to make her happy.

The beis din in Petach Tikva heard the case and considered the halachos relevant to the monetary issues and decided that 100,000 lira is 100,000 lira, and NOT 100,000nis. And, because nothing was specified as to the rate of inflation, the halachic linkage would put it against the dollar. After some research, they concluded that 100,000 lira in 1974 is currently worth $15,000.

The conclusion of the beis din was:
1. Mr is obligated to pay up the ketuba
2. the debt was for 100,000 lira
3. $15,000 is the sum to be paid in actuality

sources: Haredim10, Kikar

A husband refusing to grant his wife a gett, essentially leaving her as an agunah, is a big problem. From what i have read, another major problem is the women who refuse to accept a gett from the estranged husband, holding out until demands are met. I have seen conflicting numbers on these matters so I do not know which is more serious, but the beis din can often find simpler solutions to the woman refusing to accept than they can when the husband refuses to give.

A case went before the beis din. The couple had married in 2010. In 2014 Mr filed for divorce. Two and a half years later the beis din ordered them to divorce after efforts towards reconciliation failed. Mrs does not want to get divorced, though her appeal to the Beis Din Hagadol was rejected. The beis din also decided that after such a long separation without any successful reconciliation, the divorce should be forced on her - sanctions should be imposed on her until she accepts.

Mrs continued to refuse the divorce. The beis decided that Mr had suffered years of abuse at the hands of Mrs and at the hands of her family and that is what caused him to despise her. They also decided that the reason she refuses to divorce and the reason reconciliation was not successful is her desire to control him with emotion and sometimes physical abuse.

The beis din has imposed sanctions on her, including not allowing her to leave the country, no passport or drivers license, among other sanctions. Her appeals were rejected.

Because she continues to refuse the gett, beis din decided to impose further sanctions under the category of contempt of court, or in this case contempt of the beis din by her refusal to comply with their orders. She will now be obligated to pay a fine of 165nis per day until she accepts the gett. She also will have to pay 40,000nis to her husband to compensate for monetary damages she caused him by her refusal over a period of our and a half years.
source: Takdin