New Italian Divorce Law Has Effect on Jewish Divorce, Rabbi Says

Rabbis and their legal advisors here are considering the consequences for Jewish couples of Italy’s new divorce law. Previously, one expert noted, Jews could not be divorced in Italy even though the Torah permits it. Now Jews who were married by a rabbi can be. But the divorce will not be effected under Jewish law but under the new national law. The Chief Rabbi of Turin, Prof. Sergio Sierra, said: “Until now an Italian Jew could obtain a religious divorce but it would not have had any effect on his status in the eyes of the law of the country. Now this has changed.” He noted that the new law is more favorable to women than the Jewish divorce laws. “This (new divorce law) will have to be complied with, otherwise the get (religious divorce) will not be valid,” Rabbi Sierra said. He added that he had no complaints about women’s advantages under the new ruling.

In Ostia near here today, 60 rabbis opened the European Conference of Rabbis with a session on the religious factor in Israeli-diaspora relations. The three speakers–Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yosef Ovadia of Tel Aviv, Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan of France and Chief Rabbi Elic Toaff of Rome–agreed that aliyah was a Torah injunction and therefore not only a personal or political necessity but a religious commitment. Others present included Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen of Rumania, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Solomon Gaon of England and several American rabbis. Dr. Gaon presided at the first meeting in the absence of Chief Rabbi Emeritus Sir Israel Brodie of England, who was indisposed. The participants also visited the remains of a first-century synagogue.