It happened in October 2019 in the Israeli city of Haifa. Not in Tehran and not in the old times. A rabbinical court ruled that two brothers, ages five and eight, be taken from their mother and handed over to the custody of their violent father. The mother was not accused of neglecting or corrupting them. Her “sin” was in signing them up for swimming therapy provided by a woman (not a man) and feeding them non-kosher food. The rabbinical judges ignored the welfare authorities’ recommendation that the children be left with their mother, as well as the children’s objections to moving in with their father.
Rabbinical judges, authorized and paid by a state that is considered modern and enlightened, gave custody of two helpless children to a father accused in the past of threatening his wife and convicted of threatening public servants. Indeed, the woman had violated her commitment to raise the children in accordance with a religious lifestyle. However, had she not made that commitment, she may not have been given custody since rabbinical judges have been known to prefer adherence to the way of the Torah instead of the welfare of the child.
