Rabbinical court grants wife only a fraction of her ketubah in mutual-violence divorce

A couple in their 30s, parents of children, repeatedly acted violently toward each other during their marriage. The wife, who is represented in the account, struck her husband several times. In one argument he shoved her, causing a concussion. Even so, the couple stayed together, and she later withdrew a police complaint she had filed against him.

The marriage finally collapsed after they bought an apartment through the government housing lottery program, Price for the Winner, with major financial help from the wife’s parents. When the key was being handed over by the contractor, the parents asked the husband to stop using drugs and enter rehabilitation. He refused, they said they would not give him the apartment key, an argument broke out, and he hit them.

The family court later reached agreements on child support and visitation. The apartment issue was also settled, with the parents’ loan repaid and the wife buying out the husband’s share of the home. But at the rabbinical court, the wife demanded her ketubah, valued at 180,000 shekels. She accused her husband of daily alcohol and drug use, smoking in the yard in front of the children, gambling, and violence against her. She also argued that she had not received his share of social rights in the family court.

The husband countered with videos that he said showed she was the violent one. He denied drug use and said the alleged gambling was actually investment activity in digital currencies. Rabbinical judges said that a full ketubah usually requires proof that the divorce was directly caused by the husband’s fault, such as infidelity, sexual misconduct, or violence. Here, they ruled that the violence was mutual and that the key-day confrontation, while painful and regrettable, did not justify the full ketubah. They ordered payment of one-tenth of the amount, 18,000 shekels, concluding that a woman can claim her ketubah even when she was violent toward her husband.