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ORTHODOX RABBINICAL DIVORCE COURT
RULES TO
CANCEL VISITING PRIVILEGES OF DIVORCED SECULAR HUSBAND TO VISIT
WITH HIS CHILDREN ON
THE SABBATH SINCE HE MUST DRIVE HIS CAR TO DO SO
An Orthodox Rabbinical Divorce Court in Israel has recently canceled a part of the visiting privileges granted to the husband as one of the conditions of the divorce. The courts had previously ruled that the husband would be granted visiting privileges three days a week with the Saturdays included as one of the days. However, after the divorce, the wife reported to the rabbinical court that the former husband lived in another city and had to travel on the Sabbath to visit his children, in violation of the Orthodox rule forbidding travel on the Sabbath. The court canceled the husband's Saturday visiting privileges, without giving him an alternative weekday for visits, claiming that he is being punished since he violated the courts original ruling by not conforming to Orthodox religious law. HEMDAT has complained that this is a case of grossly unfair religious coercion and a denial of fundamental rights of the husband. The husband's secular life style was no secret at the time of the divorce and now the Rabbinical Courts are carrying out an act of religious coercion and deprivation of rights, by enforcing Orthodox life style and religious requirements on the secular husband.