Jewish Divorce Insights
Eliana regularly writes about matters impacting Jewish separations and divorces. In her blog posts, she provides practical information and useful tips regarding Yeshiva tuition, Rabbinical courts, gets and other issues.
Eliana also hosts a podcast covering divorce, separation, co-parenting and other unique considerations that arise when couples in the Jewish world divorce. Guests share their opinions and perspectives on divorce to both counter the stigma and drive for reform within the Jewish community. Listen here.
Recent Blog Posts
New Appellate Division Decision on Importance of Arbitration Agreement Formalities: A Cautionary Tale
I have extensively blogged on the importance of formalizing arbitration agreements in the context of divorce or post-judgment actions in compliance with the applicable Court rules, offering technical and practical advice if you considering arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution avenue to resolve your case. The recent New Jersey Appellate Division case of Kotsogiannis v.... Continue Reading…More
A Big Win for Get Advocates as Appellate Division Rules that Publicizing Get Refusal Protected by First Amendment
In what has been touted as a monumental victory for Agunot in New Jersey, yesterday, the Appellate Division released a decision stating that a video publicizing a husband’s Get refusal is protected by First Amendment principles of freedom of speech. In S.B.B. v. L.B.B., the Appellate Division reversed a decision by the lower court finding... Continue Reading…More
Compliance with Agreement to Submit to Bais Din’s Jurisdiction on the Issue of Get Not Optional, Appellate Division Rules
Recently, several decisions have been released by the Appellate Division concerning when, where, how, and when a Court compel parties to submit to the authority of the Bais Din on Get-related issues. My February, 2023 blog entitled “Appellate Division Rules That A Court Cannot Compel Arbitration on Get Issue Absent Agreement” described the case of... Continue Reading…More
A Tale of Two Forums: From Bais Din to the Appellate Division and then Back Again (and Again, and Again)
The recent Appellate Division decision of Litton v. Litton presents an extreme case of what happens when a litigant agrees to submit his or her dispute to arbitration in Rabbinical Court, Bais Din, but then decides not to accept the outcome. To describe this case as a long road of litigation would be a profound... Continue Reading…More
What Jewish Matchmaking Teaches Us About Having a Better Divorce
Thanks to an introduction by my corporate partner, Gabriel Herman, I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a special friend and client of Fox Rothschild, Aleeza Ben Shalom, of the Netflix series Jewish Matchmaking, for the podcast I host called Jewish Divorce Talk. As the name implies, Jewish Divorce Talk is a show about Jewish... Continue Reading…More
From Dog Bites to Divorce: Differing Interpretations of Jewish Law Cannot Defeat a Motion for Summary Judgment
While not my usual blogging fare, a recent case dealing with a discrete issue of Jewish law arising in the context of a dog bite case caught my eye because of its potential applicability to all areas of the law, including divorce. The star of the show in the Appellate Division decision, Joseph Bernstein v.... Continue Reading…More
New Bill – A1475 – Offers a Potential Avenue for Legal Relief to Victims of Get Refusal
My recent blog post, Appellate Division Rules That A Court Cannot Compel Arbitration on Get Issue Absent Agreement, discussed the constraints faced by secular courts in the context of Get refusal. The article identified the significant difficulties faced by courts when asked to intervene in aid of agunot – women chained to a dead marriage... Continue Reading…More
Redefining Your Exodus: What Divorcing Couples Can Learn from Arranged Marriages
An oldie but a goodie. This blog post was originally published on April 14, 2014. With Passover approaching next week, it is an opportune time to re-share and allow you, once again, to redefine your exodus. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Passover begins this Monday night [editorial note from 2023: Wednesday night, don’t panic]. It is the commemoration of Jewish... Continue Reading…More
Appellate Division Rules That A Court Cannot Compel Arbitration on Get Issue Absent Agreement
Get refusal is an issue to which secular courts have yet to find an adequate solution because of constraints implicating freedom of religion and the state’s prohibition against entanglement with religious doctrine. In New Jersey, the issue has been undecided for several decades, with the trial courts remaining divided on the issue of whether a... Continue Reading…More
Payment for Gap Year in Israel: How to Draft Marital Settlement Agreements to Ensure it is Paid
New Jersey is among the minority of states requiring divorced parents to pay for college tuition on behalf of their children. While there are many criticisms of this particular law – including the disparate treatment between requiring payment from divorce parents, but not those who remain married – there are aspects of this law that... Continue Reading…More
