My wife has just filed me for divorce and maintenance at the rabbinical court. This seems peculiar to me because when we went to register for marriage at the rabbinical court, although she is registered as being Jewish in her Identity Card, the rabbinical court refused to register us for marriage because she could not produce the documentation required to prove she was a Jewess . We married in a civil ceremony in Cyprus. How should I react ?
By: דיאנה שאלתיאל•Published on: 23 June, 2022Where a Jewish husband is served with a plea for divorce which ties in his wife’s maintenance at the rabbinical court, and there is doubt as to her Jewishness, then he should claim that the rabbinical court lacks jurisdiction. He would be advised to do this in two ways – in his written defence pleadings and in a separate plea to the rabbinical court asking it to reject the divorce plea on the grounds that it has no jurisdiction because his wife is not Jewish. If the rabbinical court decides that it lacks jurisdiction to hear the divorce plea, then the maintenance plea – included in it – will fall, too.