Question:
If two parents disagree over how religious the school their children attend should be , can a court dealing with a plea concerning this ,take the initiative and make its own “compromise” decision on choice of school, without having a full discussion on it ?
Answer:
No ! The Supreme Court of Justice ruled in September 2003 that Ashkelon Rabbinical Court had been wrong to make its own unilateral “compromise” ruling that three children who attended secular educational frameworks and whose father wanted them to attend private ultra-Orthodox institutions should attend state religious schools as a “compromise”.
The mother had petitioned to the Supreme Court of Justice after her appeal to the Greater Rabbinical Court had failed. Although it rejected her claim that the family court and not the rabbinical one had jurisdiction over their children’s education , it cancelled all the orders made by the rabbinical court, including a 200 shekel fine it imposed for each day the children remained in secular educational frameworks, in contempt of its order.
“ The paramount factor must clearly be the children’s good. Surely, it is likely that there will not be a match between a compromise of some kind and the children’s good,” it held, adding that preference should be given to the children’s good .
An expert's opinion on what was in the children’s good should have been obtained before any decision was made , the court continued. This had not been done, it said. Accordingly, it ordered the district rabbinical court to obtain a report from a suitable source expressing an opinion about which educational framework would be best for each of the couple’s three children. Until this was done, the children should continue learning in their current , secular frameworks, it held.