A Tel Aviv district judge has ruled that a non-Jewish girl who was seduced by an Israeli Jew could not sue him for breach of promise to marry her because Israeli law bars Jews from marrying non-Jews.
The ruling was made by Judge H.S. Levenberg in voiding an earlier court decision barring the youth from leaving Israel. The judge said he was not happy with his ruling but that under the law there was no other option. The non-Jewish girl, according to court records, met the Jewish youth in Tiberias and she lived with him, becoming pregnant. According to the records, the youth decided to abandon the girl and she appealed for support to the courts, obtaining a stay on her lover’s plans to leave the country.
Judge Levenberg held that because of the ban on such marriages, the youth was not bound by his promise to marry the girl because it could not legally be implemented. Therefore, he ruled, a preach of promise claim had no validity.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
