The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed a decision to not apply Jewish law in a divorce action between a conservative rabbi and his attorney wife who met in Israel in 1988 and married in a Pennsylvania religious ceremony in 1989

The parties moved from Israel to the United States to further the plaintiff’s career opportunities as a Conservative rabbi. He found employment in the United States as the rabbi of a Conservative synagogue in New Haven, where he served for nearly twenty-eight years, until March, 2020, when the synagogue elected not to renew his employment contract during the pendency of this action. The defendant, who is educated and trained as an attorney, worked as a Social Security disability attorney, a paralegal, and a nonprofit executive. At the time of this action, she was unemployed and had not worked as an attorney since 2015, despite efforts to find employment. While married to the plaintiff, the defendant was the primary caregiver to the parties’ four children, all of whom are now adults, with the youngest reaching the age of the majority three days after the trial court rendered judgment. The defendant also assumed numerous volunteer responsibilities in connection with her role as the rabbi’s wife, including hosting weekly dinners and other social events, organizing children’s groups and other educational programming for the synagogue, and attending and leading certain services at the synagogue.