Chief Rabbis Continue to Clash

The public quarrel between Israel’s two chief rabbis intensified today as they clashed over the possession of a file vital to the case of Hanoch and Miriam Langer, a brother and sister branded mamzerim (illegitimates) by the rabbinate and forbidden to marry the partners of their choice.

The file is in the hands of Yosef Adess, secretary of the Rabbinical Supreme Court. Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, ordered Adess to deliver the file to him but Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef issued contradictory orders. He told Adess to retain the file until he received written instructions from both chief rabbis in their capacities as joint presidents of the court.

At the nub of the matter is Rabbi Goren’s desire to find a halachic solution to the Langer case and Rabbi Yosef’s apparent objections to the way Goren is going about it. Rabbi Goren claims to have evidence that the first husband of the present Mrs. Hava Langer was not properly converted to Judaism when they were wed in Poland after World War II. According to Rabbi Goren, that marriage was invalid and the Langer children therefore were not conceived in adultery as a rabbinical court in Petach Tikva had ruled almost two years ago.

STATUS OF FIRST HUSBAND SPURS DEBATE

Rabbi Goren wants the case re-heard on the basis of his new evidence before a special three-man court consisting of himself, Rabbi Yosef and another rabbinical judge. Rabbi Yosef insists that the case be heard by a regular rabbinical court without the participation of either chief rabbi. Meanwhile, Mrs. Langer’s first husband, Abraham Borokovsky, has petitioned the Petach Tikva rabbinical court to confirm his status as a Jew. Borokovsky said Rabbi Goren’s attempts to cast doubt on that status has caused him great personal distress.

The latest controversy between the two chief rabbis arose after Borokovsky’s lawyer Yaacov Yaacobovitz, asked to see the Langer file in order to prepare his case. The file was in the possession of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim who refused to give it up without a written request from the two chief rabbis.

Attorney General Meir Shamgar advised Rabbi Nissim to turn the file over to the secretary of the Rabbinical Supreme Court since he had obtained it originally as a joint president of the court. Rabbi Yosef is standing by Rabbi Nissim’s refusal to release the file without an explicit request from both chief rabbis. Borokovsky’s case has been stalled meanwhile as has Rabbi Goren’s attempts to adjudicate the Langer case which has aroused bitter resentment against the religious establishment.