Divorce Israeli Style

Under Israeli rabbinical law, no woman can get a divorce until her husband utters the magic formula, "I am willing." Husbands may refuse, but to do so can mean imprisonment. That is what happened to Adrian Schwartz, a convicted rapist, and Yehia Avraham, a perpetual ne'er-do-well. Both are stubbornly behind bars in Ramla while their wives face the prospect of never being able to get rid of them.

Adina Schwartz married Adrian, a laborer, in 1967. "He was handsome, had an athletic build and played chess and soccer well," she recently recalled. There was one problem: Adrian stayed out late at night, explaining that he was playing cards. In fact, he was raping women (at least six in the course of three months) on Mount Carmel. Schwartz seems destined to be behind bars a long time: he has served only one year of his 14-year rape sentence, and his jail time for refusing his wife a divorce will not be credited toward the remaining 13 years.

The other husband, Yehia Avraham, a onetime shoemaker, explains his refusal unhesitatingly: "Marriage comes from God; only he can end it. I feel good in jail." Indeed, says his wife Ora, 43, "Yehia has enough food, and it is free. He has a synagogue and prays all day. Life is good to him." He never liked working, she observes, and never supported her from the day her parents made her marry at age 14 until the day Yehia threw her out eleven years later.

Some rabbis believe prison officials should beat the two husbands into submission. "I am ready to beat him myself," says one rabbi about Schwartz. A better solution is being sought to these cases, and others, by Zalman Shoval, an opposition member of the Knesset. He introduced a bill that would take at least some marriages out of the hands of rabbis and might also lead to further legislation, placing divorce as well as marriage under civil jurisdiction.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.