Grunis orders Hebrew date on court documents

Supreme Court president orders courts to includi the Hebrew calendar date alongside secular date on letters, summons.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Supreme Court President Asher Grunis 390 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
Supreme Court President Asher Grunis 390 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
Supreme Court President Asher D. Grunis has ordered all courts to begin including the Hebrew calendar date along with the secular date on all letters and summons issued by the court system, the Legal Forum for Israel announced Tuesday.
The organization contacted Grunis recently to complain that official court documents listed only the secular date – but not the Hebrew one, as required by law.
According to the 1998 Law for Using the Hebrew Date, all public institutions have been obligated for the past 14 years to include both Hebrew and Gregorian dates in their official correspondence.
The civil court system has been systematically ignoring this law and only the rabbinic courts have complied with it, said the Forum in a press release.
The organization’s attorney, Hila Cohen, had argued in a letter to Grunis that there is nothing more “simple and obvious” in a Jewish state “in which the law sets the Hebrew language as the official language” that “official documents from the court system should note the Hebrew calendar date.”
In a recent letter to the Forum, Barak Lazar, head legal adviser for the court system, informed Cohen that Grunis had issued a directive throughout the court system to conform with the 1998 law and ensure that the Hebrew date appeared on all official documents.
Lazar qualified the enforcement of the 1998 law only by noting that it would be implemented as quickly as technology would allow.
Nahi Eyal, CEO of the Forum, said that noting the Hebrew calendar date is an essential symbol for a Jewish state.
“I am happy that President Grunis recognized the error and decided to rectify it as he understood that the courts cannot violate the law.”
Eyal also said that observance of the law throughout the country must start with the courts and that if the courts ignore laws legislated by the Knesset, one cannot expect others to obey the laws.
He concluded by commenting that fixing this issue by including the Hebrew calendar date in court documents was a good way to start the new Hebrew year of 5773.