Attorney Dr. Susan Weiss: "Rabbinic courts don't have authority to reverse conversions."

In September 2014, CWJ appeared before the Supreme Court to argue the case of Sarah,* a convert whose Jewish status was declared “questionable” by rabbinic courts more than ten years ago. Because this matter is still undecided, the rabbinate refuses to recognize Sarah’s present marriage as legitimate, a decision with serious ramifications.

CWJ believes that the rabbinate does not have the legal authority to reverse conversions, and therefore has no right to deny recognition of Sarah’s marriage.

Sarah converted to Judaism in 2000 and shortly thereafter remarried her first husband in a religious ceremony according to halacha (Jewish law). The following year, she sued for divorce.  In Israel, the actual writ of divorce (get) must be issued by a rabbinic court. When her husband told the rabbinic court that Sarah was not upholding a Jewish lifestyle, the court concluded – based solely on his allegations - that the legitimacy of Sarah’s conversion was questionable. While the rabbis ultimately issued the get, they ruled that until her religious status was resolved, Sarah could marry neither a gentile nor a Jew.

Sarah appealed to the High Rabbinic Court for a final verdict, but more than a decade later, her status is still uncertain.  Sarah’s name remains on the State’s blacklist of individuals forbidden to marry in Israel.  

In 2012, to sidestep the rabbinate’s decree, Sarah married her current husband in a Jewish ceremony abroad. But when she tried to register her marriage in Israel, the rabbis declared her marriage certificate invalid due to her unresolved religious status.It was then that Sarah turned to CWJ for help.

In a hearing on September 9, 2014, CWJ appealed to the Supreme Court on Sarah’s behalf, arguing that since matters of conversion are outside the scope of the rabbinic court’s jurisdiction, it did not have the legal authority to reverse Sarah’s conversion. “Such decisions by the State infringe upon the dignity and freedom of conscience of converts - in this case, placing the life of one woman interminably in limbo,”says Dr. Susan Weiss, CWJ Director. “CWJ believes that converts should not have to live under the threat of close examination of their deeds or the threat of having their Jewish status and identity retroactively revoked. Sarah should be reinstated as a Jew and her name removed from the marriage blacklist immediately.”

CWJ is currently awaiting the Supreme Court decision on Sarah’s appeal.

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, is 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.

* Sarah is a fictitious name