keep in mind this guy is accused of not just bribery but forcing jewish women in abusive marriages to stay in the marriage with their abusive husband even in cases involving domestic violence and spousal rape.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/judge-accused-of-bribery-misconduct-to-head-jerusalem-rabbinical-court-1.430476

Sephardi Chief Rabbi
Shlomo Amar appointed Rabbi Yifrah to the post despite receiving
complaints had prompted him to remove the rabbi from the list of
candidates for the Great Rabbinical Court.


By
Yair Ettinger




May.15, 2012
1:34 AM


A rabbinical judge who has been accused of bribery and refusing to compel
abusive husbands to grant their wives a divorce has recently been
appointed head of the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court, one of the country's
largest and most important Jewish religious courts.


Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar appointed Rabbi Yisrael Yifrah to the
post despite receiving complaints about Yifrah that had prompted him to
remove the rabbi from the list of candidates for the Great Rabbinical
Court.


The head of a rabbinical court is roughly equivalent to district court
president in the regular judicial system, the highest level one can
reach below the Supreme Court.


Amar's associates said the appointment was made after he discussed the
allegations with Yifrah and apprised judicial ombudsman Eliezer
Goldberg, a retired Supreme Court justice, of the matter.


The complaints Amar received included one from a woman who accused
Yifrah, a veteran Jerusalem rabbinical court judge who has headed a
regional rabbinical court for many years, of humiliating her when she
asked for her divorce case to be heard in front of a different panel.


Mavoi Satum (Dead End ), an advocacy group that helps women whose
husbands refuse to grant them a divorce, says it has received complaints
and "evidence-based testimony" indicating that Yifrah has committed
extortion, asked for and offered bribes, and refused to compel divorce
even in cases involving domestic violence or rape. The organization made
the accusations in a letter it sent to Attorney General Yehuda
Weinstein.


An investigative report last year by the religious newspaper Makor
Rishon said Yifrah recommended that a woman who had been living in a
shelter for abused women reconcile with her husband, who had previously
been convicted of domestic violence, instead of pressing him to grant a
divorce.


Yifrah has denied the accusations made against him. The director general
of the rabbinical courts said in a statement that Yifrah is an
"esteemed and experienced rabbinical judge who is an expert in halakha
[religious law]."


There is no civil marriage or divorce under Israeli law, and Jewish law
requires the consent of both spouses before granting a divorce.