The shocking experience of Shira* demonstrates that the unjust and autocratic practices of the rabbinic courts extend well beyond get refusal situations. Shira was engaged to be married, and her parents, Shlomo and Yehudit G.*, were looking forward to the joyous occasion. Little did they know that it would bring about a capricious and unfair rabbinic court decision that would place their lives in turmoil.

The G’s, an American immigrant couple living as Orthodox Jews in Israel, had undergone Orthodox conversions to Judaism in the 1980’s, prior to making aliyah. With their government-issued Israeli ID cards clearly confirming their status as Jews, they have lived an observant Jewish lifestyle for the past 30 years, giving their children a religious education and regularly attending an Orthodox synagogue. But last year, when Shira went to the rabbinic court to register for her marriage, the court declared its own opinion about her family’s religious status. In a move that was completely outside its jurisdiction, the rabbinic court stated that it did not recognize the legitimacy of the Orthodox rabbi who had converted them – and was therefore revoking the entire family’s status as Jews.

Adding insult to injury, the court wrote a letter to the Israeli Interior Ministry, advising that the G’s should no longer be considered Jewish – and sent a second letter to the G’s synagogue with similar instructions. “We suddenly found ourselves ostracized in the synagogue that we had been part of for so many years, and by the community in which we had raised our children,” Yehudit says in disbelief. “Since the rabbinic court ruling, our lives have just been unraveling. We were forced to start going to a different synagogue where no one knew us before. And Shira, who was completely devastated, had no choice but to fly to Cyprus and have a civil marriage there.”

But for Shira, the Cyprus wedding was less than a band-aid.  She still wants – and deserves – to be married as the Jew that she has been all her life. Further, if the State doesn’t recognize her as Jew, it won’t consider her children to be Jewish, either. To correct this bizarre and tragic situation, CWJ is appealing Shira’s case in the High Rabbinic Court. “This case echoes  a case several years ago, in which a rabbinic court revoked the conversions of two women in divorce cases that had no relation to their status as Jews,” relates CWJ director Susan Weiss. “We took that case to the Supreme Court, whose rebuke to the rabbinate resulted in the reinstatement of the conversions. The rabbinic courts have absolutely no right to revoke conversions and cause this kind of unnecessary heartache. We will continue to fight on Shira’s behalf until, once again, justice and democracy prevail.”

The generosity of the David Berg Foundation, JWF of Metropolitan Chicago, Greater Miami Jewish Federation Women’s Amutot Initiative and JWF of the Greater Palm Beaches and others whose critical general support is making this litigation possible, helping CWJ chip away at the Supreme Court’s reluctance to challenge the rabbinic courts on agunah rights and all other issues relating to policies that are prejudicial towards women.

*All names changed to protect privacy