Agunot NGO decries appointment of haredi rabbinic judges

Dead End called for "more moderate" religious judges to be appointmented.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
wedding.88 (photo credit: courtesy)
wedding.88
(photo credit: courtesy)
An agunot advocacy group has written Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann to protest the planned appointment of 13 new rabbinical court judges - all haredi - the organization said on Sunday. The 10-member committee that chooses the judges is due to decide on the appointments on Monday. It has six haredi members and falls under the jurisdiction of the Justice Ministry. The panel has rejected any compromise that would appoint non-haredi judges, said Raut Una Tsameret, spokeswoman for Dead End, an organization that is active on behalf of women who are denied a Jewish divorce. The 13 new judges will represent a significant proportion of the 96 judges who serve in the rabbinical courts, she said. Tsameret said the judges were eligible to serve until age 70, so they were likely to serve for three or four decades. Dead End sent the justice minister a petition signed by 900 people calling on him to bar the appointments committee from meeting until an agreement is reached allowing for "more moderate" religious judges to be appointed as well. A demonstration is planned outside the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem on Monday.