I NEWS I YOU'RE COVERED With Our T•Shirt! G.E.T. Hopes To Help In The Getting Of A 'Get' JUDITH S. ANTONELLI Special to The Jewish News G Subscribe Today To The Jewish News And Receive A T-Shirt With Our Compliments! From the West Bank to West Bloomfield — and all points in between — The Jewish News covers your world. And with our T-shirt, we cover new subscribers, too. The T-shirt is durable, comfortable, easy to care for and attractive. And it comes in an array of adult's and children's sizes. But most important, your new subscription will mean 52 information- packed weeks of The Jewish News, plus our special supplements, delivered every Friday to your mailbox. A $56.70 value for only $29. A great newspaper and a complimentary T-shirt await you for our low subscription rates. Just fill out the coupon below and return it to us. We'll fit you to a T! Jewish News T-Shirt Offer Please clip coupon and mail to: Yes! Start me on a subscription to The Jewish News for the period and amount circled below. Please send me the T-shirt. JEWISH NEWS T-SHIRT 27676 Franklin Road Southfield, Mich. 48034 NAME This offer is for new subscriptions only. Cur- rent subscribers may order the T-shirt for $4.75. Allow four weeks delivery. ADDRESS CITY (Circle One) J. STATE ZIP year: $29 2 years: $49 Out of State: $37 enclosed $ (Circle One) ADULT EX. LG. ADULT LARGE ADULT MED. CHILD LARGE CHILD MED. CHILD SMALL 12 FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1990 et is the Hebrew word for divorce. G.E.T. is also an acronym for Getting Equitable Treatment, a New York-based organization which assists individuals seeking a Jewish divorce from a recalcitrant spouse. Its aim is to promote the use of a prenuptial agree- ment to prevent future prob- lems with divorce. The agreement, which engaged couples would sign, stipulates that in the case of a civil divorce, neither party will withhold from the other a religious divorce. The overwhelming number of problems in Jew- ish divorce involve men who, despite completion of civil divorce proceedings, refuse to give the get to their wives. Often the get is withheld as a means of bribery or blackmail regarding money, property, or access to chil- dren. The Conservative move- ment has dealt with the problem in two ways, both unacceptable to the Or- thodox. The Reform move- ment does not require a get. One method used by Con- servatives is the "Lieberman clause," which is added to the ketubah — the marriage contract. The clause, created by the late Rabbi Saul Lieberman, former head of the Jewish Theological Seminary, states that divorce disputes will be referred to the court, or bet din, of the Conser- vative movement, which shall take the necessary remedies. The civil courts in New York have abided by this. But Orthodoxy says Jew- ish law prohibits changing the ketubah even by adding to it. The second Conservative method is known as "kiddushin al t'nai," which imposes a conditional status on the marriage. The idea is that by signing the ketubah and con- secrating the woman to him "by the law of Moses," the husband is promising to abide by Jewish law. If he refuses to give a get, he is not abiding by Jewish law and thus there was never a valid marriage and a get is not required. This is totally unaccep- table to Orthodox rabbis, who insist that marriages cannot be conditional. "When a couple is deciding to get married, they can't be signing an agreement about a divorce," said Rabbi Menashe Klein of Boro Park, Brooklyn. The prenuptial agreements disseminated by G.E.T. stipulate that in the event of divorce, spouses will appear before a Rabbinical Court to terminate the mar- riage according to Jewish law. Some versions also state that breach of contract en- titles the injured party to legal damages and relief by civil courts. The agreements do not deal with the division of property and assets. There are currently eight different prenuptial agreements written by Or- thodox rabbis, and rabbinic consensus on the subject ap- pears remote. The primary issue, accor- ding to halachic authorities, is that a Beth Din cannot "coerce" a husband into giv- ing a get. Asked if being required to live up to the terms of a prenuptial contract is not similar to being required to live up to the terms of the marriage contract, the Boston rebbe, Levi Horowitz, replied that the ketubah is a document separate from the institution of marriage. It delineates the husband's financial obligations to the wife, but the marriage holds even if he doesn't provide, Horowitz explained. In any event, it cannot be enforced. Rabbi Aaron Soloveitchik of Chicago, a halachic au- thority whose opinion would be highly respected if he were to endorse one par- ticular document, agreed that the Bet Din has no au- thority. Even if the husband has signed an agreement he cannot be forced give a get, Soloveitchik said. G.E.T. is opposed to mak- ing the divorce contingent on property settlements or visitation rights. In order to obtain their get, women have been known to forfeit apartments, bank ac- counts and even child sup- port payments. In some cases, women have been forced to give up custody of their children. Judith Antonelli is a staff writer for the Jewish Advocate in Boston.