Israeli court punishes American for son's divorce refusal

In a first ruling of its kind, Israeli rabbinical authorities have seized the passport of an American businessman and barred him from leaving the country for more than a year claiming he is responsible for his son's refusal to grant his wife a divorce.
With the draconian punishment, Israel's rabbinical court system has dramatically extended its reach by punishing a parent for his son's actions in a bid to solve a bitter, yearslong divorce dispute.
Under millennia-old Jewish law, a woman needs the approval of her husband to dissolve a marriage. In Israel, where all marriages are subject to religious law, this norm has left thousands of women in legal limbo due to husbands who refuse to grant divorces.

In recent decades, the rabbinical courts have gained the authority to impose various sanctions against recalcitrant husbands. But legal experts say that never before have they punished a husband's parent in this case claiming that the father is helping his son live a life of luxury in the United States while leaving his estranged wife languishing back in Israel.
"It's really shameful that this is the only way to solve the terrible plight of this miserable woman, by incarcerating or confiscating the passport of her father-in-law. There should definitely be an alternative way," said Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, founding director of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women at Israel's Bar-Ilan University.

Israel's state-sanctioned rabbinate oversees many aspects of daily life for the Jewish majority, including marriage and divorce.
There are no civil marriages, meaning that couples must marry or divorce according to religious law or travel abroad for a civil ceremony. Some women's rights advocates say the religious laws stem from a patriarchal tradition and put the woman at a disadvantage. Christians and Muslims marry according to their own religious customs.
Among the most contentious of Jewish rites is the one that grants men disproportionate power in divorce. Women who are not granted divorces are often forced to relinquish their child custody rights or alimony payments to convince husbands to accede.