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Procedure for Obtaining a Get
• Documents and
Information requested by the Beth Din – The Jewish Court
• Beth Din’s
Standard Get Procedures
• Refusal to Appear at
the Beth Din
• Special Circumstances
• Fees
Documents and Information requested by the Beth Din – The Jewish
Court
• Ketubah or Jewish marriage contract and civil marriage license, if available;
• Date of the marriage ceremony, and its location;
• Name, address of officiating Rabbi and his religious affiliation;
• All known names of husband and wife in every language. This includes any nicknames that the husband and wife are known by
• All known names of husband’s parents and wife’s parents in all languages;
• Birth religion of parents of both husband and wife;
• Official photo identification, i.e. driver’s license, passport, etc.;
• Documentation from previous divorce(s), including religious as well as civil, if applicable;
• Conversion documents, if applicable.
Beth Din’s Standard Get Procedures
• A standard Get procedure is non-adversarial and does not involve legal proceedings.
• The Get procedure is initiated by one of the parties by contacting the Beth Din. A date is set for both parties to appear in front of the Beth din, and an arrangement for payment of the court fee.
• Each participant may be accompanied by a family member or friend.
• The Get, is a 12 line document, handwritten by an experienced scribe, on parchment, under the guidance of a specially trained Rabbi. Once the document is completed and signed by two authorized witnesses, the husband hands the document to the wife in the presence of those witnesses. At this point the Get takes effect and the couple is religiously divorced.
• Once the Get has been given by the husband and received by the wife, the officiating Rabbi cuts the Get parchment, so that it can never be used again. This document is permanently retained in the Beth Din files, along with other necessary records relating to the religious divorce
• The Beth Din issues a certificate of release (P’tur) to each party, which verifies that the Get has been given and accepted in accordance to Halacha (Jewish Law) thereby granting both man and woman the right to remarry. This is generally done after the civil divorce is finalized. The certificate is generally sent via regular mail within a few weeks.
• The entire divorce procedure is conducted in Hebrew and English (or if necessary in the language understood and spoken by both parties) and usually takes approximately 2 hours.
Refusal to Appear at the Beth Din
• If one of the spouses refused to appear in the Jewish Court, the Beth Din will contact them via phone or letter. The letter referred to as a Hazmana or invitation requests from the spouse to contact the Beth Din for an appointment within 14 days. The letter is sent either via certified or regular mail depending on the Beth Din.
• The Beth Din will send a second and if necessary a third summons (Hazmana) to the recalcitrant spouse, if no response is received.
• If no response is received after three summonses have been issued, the Beth Din will issue to the unresponsive spouse a Hasra’os Seruv, a letter forewarning the issuance of a contempt order, should the spouse continue to ignore the Beth Din’s summonses.
• If its warning is not heeded, the Beth Din as a rule will issue a Seruv (contempt order or writ of recalcitrance) that declares the spouse to be “recalcitrant” and subject to public ostracism and censure. The sanctions that can be applied include: Picketing in front of the mesarev's (the unresponsive spouse) home or workplace. If the husband is the mesarev, his congregation may be asked to deny him the honor of being called up to the Torah. The hechsher or Kashrut supervision of the Mesarev’s business may be refused or withdrawn after a seruv is issued. Notice of this declaration is sent to the spouse with a copy to the recalcitrant spouse. The Beth Din will also issue a seruv if one of the parties to the Get refused to abide by the decision of the Jewish Court.
Special Circumstances
If either the woman or the man can not appear at the Beth Din due to geographic constraints or they are unwilling to meet each other, the Get can be given and received through a messenger.
There are two types of messengers that can be employed in this situation; a sending messenger and a receiving messenger. The sending messenger stands for the husband and his duty is to hand the Get to the wife or her messenger. The receiving messenger represents the wife and his duty is to receive the Get from the husband or his messenger and then hand it to the wife.
The rabbinical court must nominate the messenger of each of the participants. A special document allowing the messenger to represent either the man or the women is produced by the Beth Din and must be presented to the husband before he hands over the Get and to the wife before she accepts the Get.
Fees
The standard fee for a Get is approximately $500 which includes the fee for the rabbi, scribe, and the witnesses. Actual fee may vary in different Jewish Courts, as well as additional fees might be added for arranging special services, such as a Get by proxy or messenger.
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Jewish Divorce: The Get (Gett) Text
in Hebrew and English
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Resources and Information for
Obtaining Jewish Divorce (Get)
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Jewish Divorce: Orthodox Perspective
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The Get Procedure: Obtaining a
Jewish Divorce
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Marital Assets and Alimony
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Custody and Child Support
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Agunah Issues
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Getting a "Get." The last resort. by Daniel Hadar
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Jewish Divorce: Conservative
Perspective
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The Get Procedure: Obtaining a
Jewish Divorce
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Marital Assets and Alimony
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Custody and Child Support
–
Agunah Issues
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Jewish Divorce: Reform
Perspective
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Is a Get Necessary: by Rabbi Jeff
Goldwasser
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