Faber, Salamon

Salamon Faber was the Rabbi of the Kew Gardens Anshe Sholom Jewish Center in Queens, and Chair of the Queens Bet Din. He died in 1998. The Vaad Harabonim of Queens, the Board of Rabbis, was founded in 1960 by several rabbis from congregations in Queens in order to unite the Orthodox Jewish community and to provide religious services, including kosher certification standards, a chevra kadisha (Jewish burial) society, a bet din religious court to handle legal disputes and process Jewish divorces, and a forum for debate and discussion of religious issues that affect the community. The Vaad Harabonim of Queens now includes rabbis from all over Queens and Long Island who serve on a voluntary not-for-profit basis.

A bet din is a religious court that hears Jewish legal disputes and processes Jewish divorces. As with legal disputes, special guidelines are in place to ensure the impartiality of the member rabbis in divorce proceedings. Jewish law requires a Jewish bill of divorce, a get, in order to dissolve a Jewish marriage. The hope is that a standard get procedure is non-adversarial and does not require litigation. No grounds are needed for a divorce and no personal questions are asked when there is mutual consent. According to Jewish law, neither party may remarry until the get is given and accepted.

The get procedure is standardized according to Jewish law and supervised by a qualified rabbi or rabbinic court. One of the involved parties contacts the bet din to initiate the get procedure and/or to set a date for both parties to appear before the bet din for the get procedure and arranges for payment of the fee. When both parties appear before the bet din, the get is written by an authorized scribe and signed by two authorized witnesses, adult males who are religiously knowledgeable and committed and are not related to each other or to either the husband or wife. The wife affirms that she accepts the get of her own free will, without any conditions or stipulations. The husband makes an official decree of delivery of the get of his own free will in English and Hebrew and drops the get into the wife’s bare hands. The wife takes possession of the get and walks a few steps, indicating that she has received the get. The get is cut so that it cannot be used again and kept in the files of the bet din. The bet din issues a document to both parties stating that a get has been given and received and each party is free to remarry.

If the husband and wife cannot, or do not wish, to meet in person, a representative may be appointed to act in the husband’s stead, in which case the same rules and procedures apply as when the husband delivers the get in person. After the wife receives the get, the get itself is cut so that it cannot be used again and sent to the office of the bet din, along with the document indicating that there was a representative for the husband and a note giving the exact date and hour of delivery of the get, the names of the witnesses in Hebrew and English and the addresses of the witnesses. A document is sent to both parties certifying that the get has been processed by the bet din and that both parties are now free to remarry according to Jewish law.

The bet din usually requests copies of the civil and Jewish marriage documents (ketubah) and the civil divorce documents as well as the date and place of the Jewish marriage ceremony, the name, address and affiliation of the officiating rabbi, the full English and Hebrew or Yiddish names of the husband, the wife and the husband’s and wife’s fathers, the birth religion of the husband, the wife and their fathers, any conversion certificates along with the date and place and name, address and affiliation of the rabbi who performed the conversion, and two forms of identification of the husband and the wife.

From the guide to the Queens Bet Din Gittin / Rabbi Faber Records, 1947-1994 (bulk 1974-1992), (American Jewish Historical Society)