ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LONDON
SOURCE: RON KAMPEAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
UNTIL HER HUSBAND grants her a religious divorce, observant Jews must not speak to him.
In David vs. David, Rachel wears power suits and sells high-tech medical equipment; Moses is a computer programmer.
Theirs is a 1990s divorce, but with an ancient twist: Their most potent weapons have been plucked from the weathered pages of Jewish law.
Rachel David, acting through the British rabbinate, won a rare order against her recalcitrant husband: Until he grants her a religious divorce, no observant Jew may speak to him or come within six yards of him.
The order, called a ``nidui,'' could have an impact throughout the Jewish world, where women's groups are increasingly pressuring religious authorities to do more to help women like Rachel David.
``This sends out an important message for other recalcitrant husbands,'' said Blu Greenberg, an American feminist campaigner for women's rights within Jewish law, speaking from New York.
Rabbi Berel Berkovits, the religious judge behind the nidui, said: ``It's having a powerful effect. It's depriving him of his social freedom, and he's sensitive to that.''
Moses David, contacted recently by phone, said only that he was outraged by the order but would not comment further.
His reaction pleases Rachel David, who said that since the nidui, her husband has taken action to renew negotiations that might lead to a settlement including a divorce. ``This is hurting him. He's the sort of person who likes to be welcomed into people's homes,'' she said.
The nidui was a response in kind to the equally ancient punishment that David imposed on his wife. Although he initiated their civil divorce after she left him, he refused to assent to a ``get,'' a religious divorce.
For younger wives who remarry in civil ceremonies, not receiving a get can be devastating. Ancient rabbinical laws dictate that the children of their second marriage are ``mamzers'' - bastards shunned by the Jewish community.
The same is not true of children fathered by Jewish men who remarry in civil ceremonies, as long as those offspring are born to Jewish women. That has offered men in many Jewish communities a relatively painless way to harass or pressure former spouses.
``It's grossly unjustified,'' said Rachel David, 30. ``It's got to be put right.''
The Davids married in 1983 when she was 17 and he was 30, then separated in 1991. Rachel David cited abuse and took their three children.
David was convicted of assaulting his wife after the separation and was given a suspended sentence in 1994.
``Violence is a sense of control,'' Rachel David said. ``Now, he's trying to stretch his control out.''
The religious judge who handled their case, Pinchas Toledano, admits he did little for Rachel David, arguing that Jewish law left him no choice. He derides David as an ``actress'' for going to the news media.
``The husband creates the union, saying, `Thou art wedded unto me by this ring according to the law of Moses and Israel,''' Toledano said. ``The wife is passive. That's the law.''
Like thousands of other women in the the same position - called ``agunot,'' or chained women - Rachel David faced an uncomfortable choice: Abandon prospects of remarriage, or abandon Judaism.
``Judaism is my life,'' she said. ``I observe all the commandments, I keep the Sabbath and eat kosher food, and it's important that my children do, too. I won't run away just because I have problems.''
Rachel David sought a shunning order after hearing that rabbis belonging to small ultra-Orthodox sects in New York had used the nidui. Rebuffed by Toledano, she approached Berkovits, who is higher in the hierarchy.
Already under pressure from Jewish women's groups to find creative solutions to the divorce dilemma, Berkovits saw the nidui as an answer. The mainstream Orthodox rabbi persuaded his colleagues to issue the order in January.
``We knew it would have repercussions throughout the community,'' he said.
And beyond. Jewish law operates on precedent, and other Orthodox communities will take notice of the order to shun a recalcitrant husband.
The director of Israel's rabbinical courts said he welcomed the British rabbis' action, although he said existing laws in Israel suffice to deal with the problem.
``Here we can force a husband to give a get,'' said Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan. ``We can take his driver's license away, we can get him fired, we can close his bank account. In some cases we can put him in jail.''
But Israeli feminists say those laws do not go far enough. There are still an estimated 1,000 agunot in Israel, many with husbands already in jail.
Non-Orthodox Jews are also affected by the divorce problem. Jews who have married in Reform and Conservative synagogues often seek an Orthodox divorce to be certain their future children will avoid the ``bastard'' stigma.
Greenberg, the American feminist, said a nidui would have less impact in the United States, which has a diverse Jewish community of 5 million people, than in Britain, with its cohesive community of 300,000.
``There's no centralized authority in the United States,'' she said. ``A man shunned in one community could move to another.''
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) David. color.by CNB