High Court Orders Haredi Beit Din To Defend Its Illegal Shunning Order Or Face Criminal Prosecution

In 2013, Israel’s attorney general reportedly issued a directive that allows for anyone who issues a cherem (rabbinic order of exclusion and shunning against a person) to be criminally prosecuted, and yesterday the High Court of Justice demanded that a haredi beit din's rabbinic judges explain why they should not be criminally prosecuted for violating that order and destroying a woman's life.

 

High Court Orders Haredi Beit Din To Defend Its Illegal Shunning Order Or Face Criminal Prosecution
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Israel’s High Court of Justice issued an order Thursday against the rabbinic judges of a haredi beit din, the Central Rabbinical Court of Justice of Elad for Property, demanding that it explain why it put a woman in cherem (issued a writ of social exclusion and shunning against her), the Jerusalem Post reported.

The woman reportedly filed a civil suit in secular court against a neighbor who was illegally building a porch above the woman’s apartment. Halakha (Orthodox Jewish law) mandates that cases be heard in a beit din, not in secular court. The haredi rabbinic judges responded by accusing her of violating the Laws of Moses and of transgressing the specific halakha of mesira (informing) by bringing suit in secular court.

In 2013, Israel’s attorney general reportedly issued a directive that allows anyone issuing a cherem to be criminally prosecuted, and yesterday the High Court demanded that the haredi rabbinic judges explain why they should not be criminally prosecuted.

The High Court also asked the haredi rabbinic judges to explain why the High Court should not accede to the petitioner’s demand and order them to publicly rescinded the cherem, which is “illegal, severely harms the basic rights of the plaintiff and the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

Also sued along with the haredi rabbinical court judges is the state-employed haredi Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Elad Mordechai Malka, who is president of this private haredi beit din as well as the state-employed chief rabbi of the haredi city.

Malka was not a signatory of the cherem and insists it was issued even though he is against issuing such writs.

Nonetheless, the cherem was posted by his private haredi beit din all across the city, causing the woman to harassed and spit on almost everywhere she goes.

The woman cannot go to synagogue because of that harassment and at least one of her daughters was blocked from attending a high school because the cherem, the woman told the court.

Hiddush, the freedom of and from religion advocacy group, filed the High Court petition on behalf of the woman. It says the woman has to essentially been excluded from all communal life in Elad and will have to move as a result, which has caused her severe psychological pain and distress.

“It requires great personal courage to deal with this issue in a civil court, and therefore it is vital that the court recognize the importance of the relief requested by this appeal for the defense of others around the country who are exposed to the threat of a social exclusion order, who bow their heads in submission to this criminal extortion, citizens who suffer from the arbitrary, illegal, unilateral, extremist and brutal nature of such decrees,” Reform Rabbi Uri Regev, who heads Hiddush, said. He also reportedly insisted that many other haredim face similar situations but don’t petition the High Court for redress because they fear suffering even more retribution from haredi beit dins.

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel said that while Malka’s name is not on the cherem, Malka is still responsible for it because he heads the beit din that issued it.

“[T]o the best of our knowledge, Rabbi Malka’s name did not appear on the cherem, although this does not negate the responsibility that it was issued in the name of the rabbinical court which is run by Rabbi Malka. [However,] Rabbi Malka wished to clarify that his position in terms of Jewish law is that writs of social exclusion should not be used at all, and he will investigate how and why his directives were violated,” the Chief Rabbinate said.

The defendants have until December 31 to respond to the High Court.

Comments

[Heblew]

Easy solution to the woman's problem: Move to Tel Aviv

[this is a name]

Spitting on a woman? Disgusting. Punishing the kid at school because of the parent? Also disgusting.

I'd like to see one of these shitfaces try to spit on me and we'll see what happens.

Elouheem B'Gadol

[Justice]

I don't think that religious ostracism should be regulated by the state. Ostracism does not mean that violence or spitting is okay. That is just how some morons are treating this woman. A religious group, however, should be able to proclaim that they feel that someone acted against their code and will be excluded from the community.
But there is another issue as well. A beis din in Jewish law is suppose to not receive any payment from the parties involved. Recent innovations with lawyers (toanim) and paid beis dins puts these courts in question. If this court requires payment, and acts outside the realm of normative halacha, they should be sanctioned for ostracising others.

[fuck you]

The man who runs this website has to be the biggest pig on the planet. Fuck you asshole.

[Haredi to run]

Wow, this is run just like the Mafia. You don't have to put it in writing but the order is carried out.
"I was eating a bug-free strawberry when all this happened.)

Everyone should join Hiddush to help counter this insanity. I knew Rabbi Henry Skirball years ago in the U.S., a super mensch.

[Sarek]

I think the woman should count her blessings: she is free of these clowns and can now start a new life in reality.

And to FU - thanks for your insight. I have learned much from your erudite essay.

[S M L]

A wonderful exemplar of what's wrong with extreme religion. I'd say kudos to the Israeli courts for going after them however I'll reserve actually doing so until these mafiosi are behind bars and the order rescinded.

[Miggo Wagga]

I'm sorry but the High Court is WAAAAYYY overstepping its authority here, and this is typical of Israel's High Court, which has no restrictions on its power and is generally leftist and makes it hard to destroy the homes of terrorists.
This cherem was evil, stupid, and wrong, I agree, and believe me, I am no fan of the rabbinic courts. But sometimes Cherem is a useful tool, and has been used to force husbands to give their wives gets, for instance. It also has been used to force recalcitrant husbands to support their wives and kids when they agreed to do so before. The High Court has opened it up so that an abusive husband can also take the beth din that issues a cherem against him, to court. This is typical of Israel's utterly screwed up legal system.

[A Yid]

Hiddush and the woman they represent want to have their own freedom of religion while denying it to the Beis Din and the Charedi community. It's part of the functions of the Beis Din to issue cherems and the like A Cherem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herem_(censure) doesn't call for spitting on person just avoiding dealing with them (which is a basic human right of freedom of association http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_association for those issuing the cherem as well as those willing to follow it it) so it doesn't violate her rights (people who spat on her should be prosecuted).

[S M L]

Extreme religion is toxic. This is a manifestation of that.

Since Israel employs some or all of the rabbis on the various tribunals it should have something to say about their decisionmaking. The Haredim can't have it both ways. In this country (US) if some rebbe were to put a Hasid in cherem the civil courts could and would do nothing unless the person's fundamental civil or other defined rights were being denied - such as the freedom from fear of bodily harm, or if the person's children were being victimized, etc. However since Israel is half a theocracy and the rabbis have compromised their freedom by taking government funds they have to expect to be held accountable to that government for what they do.

Maybe they should go the route that Steinman and Kanievsky suggested to the Haredi schools: stop sucking at the Government's teat and go it alone financially. However in this case that wouldn't free the Bet Din from laws that were passed with the presumption or knowledge that such rabbis are all or mostly on the government payroll.

[EducatedJew]

I would walk upstairs, strap the neighbor into a chair and remove all their fingernails. If in one week they do not come to their senses, I recommend neutering members of the beit din. From what I understand, this involves a lot of rubber bands and a small knife which helps to keep costs low. Some might consider this extreme, but I promise that you only need to do it sparingly - the subsequent fear should help stop this madness amongst the haredim.

[Michael-Meir]

The problem is that the (misapplied) doctrine of mesira and the very real threat of cherem (with or without spitting) is intended to prevent a citizen from exercising her basic civil rights in a democracy, such as accessing the state's judicial system (in a country where the courts are not prejudicial toward Jews).

In the US I am sure it is illegal to use social intimidation to prevent a person from filing a lawsuit (for starters, it probably violates the Constitution's guarantee of the right to "due process").

[Arthur Wright]

Why doesn't the woman carry a spray bottle filled with a cocktail of bacon water and menstrual blood? A quick spritz would quickly spoil the day of any spitters or similar pigs.

[Malka]

I definitely agree with the first poster, move to Tel Aviv, Netanya or Ranaana!