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Case: HCJ 3691/14 Plonit v. High Rabbinic Court, et.al.
September 9, 2015
Read High Court of Justice decision 3691/14
In 2012, the rabbinic court placed a two-year-old on the mamzer blacklist when his mother asked the court for special permission to marry. The reason she needed to obtain “permission” to marry was because she was nursing and, according to Jewish and Israeli law, a nursing mother needs special permission to marry since she is “halachically” suspect that she would give physical preference to her new husband over the child of her ex. Her milk belongs to her ex-husband. When asking questions about the nursing habits of the mother, the rabbinic judges began to suspect that the new husband-to-be might have fathered the child while the mother was still married to her ex. This would make the child a mamzer.
In 2014, CWJ petitioned the Supreme Court to dismiss the mamzer decision, declaring that rabbinic courts have no jurisdiction to make any determination regarding the mamzer status of our client’s child, or of any minor, since minors, by definition, have not asked to marry or divorce. Rabbinic courts only have jurisdiction over matters of marriage and divorce.
The Court remanded the case to the rabbinic court to reevaluate whether or not the child was a mamzer.
In 2015, the Court dismissed the case after the rabbinic court declared our client’s child kosher, retracting the prior stigmatization (again thereby avoiding the issue in principle).