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Canadian Court Invalidates Rabbinical Divorce Recognized in Israel

January 9, 1963
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A Jewish rabbinical divorce obtained overseas and recognized in Israel was declared invalid here today by Chief Justice J.C. McRuer of the Ontario Supreme Court. As a result, the court ordered the annulment of the marriage of a Toronto Jewish couple, Mr. and Mrs. Abram Schwebel.

The petition for annulment had been brought by Mr. Schwebel. His wife, born Hava Ungor, in Budapest, had married a Joseph Waktor there in 1945 and later received a Jewish rabbinical divorce from the man while in a refugee camp, in Italy. Both Waktors went subsequently to Israel, where their Jewish divorce was recognized. In 1957, while on a visit here, the woman married Abram Schwebel. They consulted a rabbi here before the wedding.

The Supreme Court here ruled, however, that the dissolution of the Waktors’ marriage was “invalid by the law of Hungary or the law of Italy.” Justice McRuer held that both Mrs. Schwebel and her second husband had acted in good faith. The couple have a child.

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