Ex-Husband Appeals Jewish-Divorce Landmark Ruling
By Wency Leung An ex-husband is challenging a Canadian Supreme Court judgment that has been heralded as a major boost in the global cause for Jewish women's stronger religious divorce rights. The woman in the case doesn't think he has a chance. After nearly two decades of legal battles over her right to a religious divorce, Stephanie Bruker, 59, thought she'd finally settled a case that has been heralded as a breakthrough for other observant Jewish women who have become "agunah," or "chained," and unable to remarry after seeking a divorce. In December, in a landmark ruling for the intersection of civil and religious law, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered Bruker's ex-husband to pay $47,500 in damages for the years he denied giving her a religious divorce, called a "get," after swearing to do so as part of a civil divorce agreement. But in a last-ditch effort, Bruker's ex-husband is asking the Supreme Court to rehear the case, according...