In an unusual and sharply worded ruling, the president of Israel’s Great Rabbinical Court, Rishon LeTzion Rav Dovid Yosef, ordered a child custody case transferred from the Petach Tikvah Rabbinical Court to a new panel in Yerushalayim, declaring that severe parental alienation involving children must be treated as a matter of “life and death.”
The decision was issued approximately three weeks after the father filed his appeal and during the court system’s summer recess. Rav Yosef directed that the case be removed from the Petach Tikvah panel headed by the city’s chief rabbi, Rav Binyamin Atias, together with Rav Dovid Grozman and Rav Ben Tzion Rabin, and transferred to a Yerushalayim Rabbinical Court panel headed by Av Beis Din Rav Yitzchok Oshinsky.
The case had been proceeding before the Petach Tikvah Rabbinical Court for more than four years. According to the appeal, the mother had severely alienated the couple’s three children from their father over an extended period, ultimately resulting in the children having no contact with him for approximately a year and a half.
The father appealed to the Great Rabbinical Court through his representative, senior to’en rabbani Rav Mordechai Shainin, raising a series of serious allegations concerning the lower court’s handling of the case. Among other things, the appeal alleged that court orders had not been adequately enforced and that numerous professional evaluations and warnings submitted to the court had gone unaddressed, even as the estrangement between the father and his three children continued to worsen until contact ceased entirely. The appeal maintained that the Petach Tikvah court’s handling of the matter failed to halt the alienation and ultimately enabled the situation to deteriorate further.
At the beginning of his ruling, Rav Yosef described the case as involving “matters of life and death concerning the minors, with ongoing parental alienation from the father.” He cited a special protocol he issued this past Sivan governing the preservation of relationships between parents and children and requiring urgent intervention in cases of parental alienation.
Rav Yosef wrote that “in accordance with the protocol we published to make every possible effort to prevent parental alienation,” immediate intervention was warranted.
The president of the Great Rabbinical Court then addressed the history of the case in Petach Tikvah, explaining that his decision came “after we were exposed to the manner in which the case was handled by the court over an extended period regarding the severance of contact between the appellant and his three children, which has continued for approximately 14 months.”
Rav Yosef said the current situation could not be allowed to continue.
“This horrifying situation, in which children are alienated from one of their parents, cannot be accepted, and every possible means must be employed to stop and change it. This is a sad, severe and complex case that requires an urgent legal and therapeutic response.”
In light of those circumstances, and “for reasons also related to the management of the proceedings and the appearance of justice,” Rav Yosef ordered that responsibility for the case be transferred to the Yerushalayim Rabbinical Court panel headed by Rav Yitzchok Oshinsky.
Rav Oshinsky has dealt extensively with parental alienation within the rabbinical court system and approximately three years ago published a detailed article outlining “methods for dealing with parental alienation in the rabbinical courts.”
Rav Mordechai Shainin, the to’en rabbani representing the father, hailed the decision as an important intervention that could offer the children and their father an opportunity to restore their relationship.
“This is a courageous and important decision, and first and foremost, a new hope for three children who for a long period lost their relationship with their father, and a father who lost them. The decision proves that the president’s protocol on parental alienation has been implemented in practice within the rabbinical court system and has not remained merely on paper. After the honorable president was exposed to the shocking handling of the case over an extended period, he issued a ruling within a short period of time and in the midst of the court recess, ordering that the cases be transferred to another panel and another city.
“The message is unequivocal: Parental alienation cases are ‘bereavement cases’ involving living orphans and bereaved parents. Decisions alone are not enough, and therefore assertiveness is required, and when necessary, effective and swift enforcement as well.”
The organization “Ga’aguim Shel Yeled,” which assists parents and children dealing with parental alienation, said the ruling carries significance extending beyond the individual family involved.
“The importance of the decision also lies in its message to the system: When a particular method of treatment fails to stop the estrangement, it must not be continued merely out of inertia. The welfare of the children requires knowing when to change direction.”
{Matzav.com}
