The Supreme Court Has Been Asked to Intervene in a Dispute among Rabbinic Judges

In keeping with Deuteronomy 16:18, Jews in the Diaspora have for centuries gone to rabbinic courts to adjudicate civil disputes. Orthodox Jews today see it as a religious obligation to choose such a court, known as a beit din, for litigation with other Jews. In America, this involves both parties submitting to binding arbitration, which gives the beit din substantial authority that has been upheld by the legal system. Yet unhappy litigants from time to time appeal to state and federal courts, and in one such case—involving multiple batei din issuing contradictory rulings—Westchester County’s Judge Linda Jamieson forcefully intervened in favor of one Moshe Bain and against both Samuel Strulovich and the rabbinic judges who had ruled in the latter’s favor. Strulovich in turn appealed to the Supreme Court for an emergency stay.