Posted on 03/08/22
| News Source: MATZAV
A beis din in Netanya has revoked a marriage after the shocking revelation that the husband was not Jewish.
The tragic episode began after a woman, a bas kohen with three daughters, appealed to the beis din for a get. The lawyer of the “husband” thereupon informed the beis din that it was not qualified to adjudicate the case, since the husband was not Jewish — and provided documents to prove this.
As to why the man married a Jewish woman, he explained that his Ukrainian mother only revealed she wasn’t Jewish three years ago, when she was about to leave Israel for Canada.
The beis din discovered that the mother and grandmother were indeed non-Jews, despite their Israeli identity cards saying the opposite. Tragically, two of the man’s brothers also married Jewish women in Israel and started families.
Since the case was not under the beis din’s jurisdiction, the dayonim instructed the couple to settle their custody and alimony issues in a state family court.
The beis din warned that that this incident was yet another indication of importance of halachically ascertaining that immigrants from the former Soviet Union are really Jews.