IsraelLawMost people spend their energy on the divorce itself. Once the papers are signed, the get is delivered, and the court orders are in place, the assumption is that the hard part is over. Then life moves forward and a new relationship starts. What few people consider until they are actually planning a second wedding is what the divorce left behind: an alimony order still running through the Execution Office, a will that still names the ex-spouse, assets from the divorce settlement that could be dragged into a second division if the new marriage ends badly, and children from the first marriage whose interests now overlap with the new household's finances.
The questions this article addresses are practical ones. Who is actually eligible to remarry in Israel, and on what conditions? What happens to alimony the moment the ex-spouse walks down the aisle again? How do the courts handle child support when there are now two families involved? What property protections matter before the second wedding, and what paperwork has to be filed afterward? The answers differ depending on whether the parties are Jewish Israelis, foreign nationals, or some combination of both.
1. Who Can Legally Remarry in Israel
The starting point is Israel's split personal-status system. Under the Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law 5713-1953, the Rabbinical Court holds exclusive jurisdiction over the marriage and divorce of Jewish citizens and residents. For Jewish couples, this means there is no civil path to a second marriage inside Israel. The Rabbinical Court's marriage registrar (mazkirut beit din) will check the prior divorce documents before scheduling the ceremony.
The critical rule: a civil divorce granted abroad does not, on its own, entitle a Jewish Israeli to remarry in Israel. The Rabbinical Court requires a properly issued religious bill of divorce (get). The get is a parchment document written by a sofer (scribe) and handed by the husband to the wife in a formal proceeding before the Rabbinical Court registrar, with the formalities prescribed under the Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction Law and the rules of Jewish family law. Without it, the Rabbinical Court treats the parties as still married under Jewish law regardless of what any civil court has ordered.
Foreign nationals who married in a civil ceremony abroad and divorced abroad occupy a different position. If their original marriage was never recognized under Rabbinical law as a Jewish marriage (for example, a ceremony performed by a Reform rabbi that was not registered in the Israeli Rabbinical system, or a purely civil ceremony between two non-Jews), the Rabbinical Court may determine that no get is required for that specific prior marriage. This determination is made on a case-by-case basis. Anyone in this situation needs a written ruling from the marriage registrar before assuming they can proceed to a second ceremony in Israel.
Non-Jewish couples cannot marry in Israel at all, regardless of prior marital history. They marry abroad, then register the foreign marriage with the Population and Immigration Authority (PIBA) under the Population Registry Law 5725-1965. For a second marriage, PIBA will need to see proof that the prior marriage was dissolved before it will register the new one.
2. How Remarriage Ends Alimony
Spousal maintenance in Israel (mezonot ha-isha) rests on a specific legal foundation: the obligation of a husband to support his wife under the rules of Jewish family law applied by both the Rabbinical Courts and the Family Courts. When the ex-wife remarries, she acquires a new husband with that obligation. The prior obligation disappears on the date of the new wedding, automatically, without any new court order.
Both the Rabbinical Courts and the Family Courts apply this rule consistently. It does not matter whether the maintenance order was issued by a Rabbinical Court or a Family Court. The termination is automatic from the moment of remarriage, not from the date an application is filed or a court confirms it.
What does not happen automatically is the closure of the Execution Office file. If the ex-husband's wages are being garnished or his bank accounts are subject to a monthly standing attachment order, those mechanisms keep running until he acts. The Execution Office (Hotzaa LePoal, under the Ministry of Justice) does not monitor whether the ex-wife has remarried. It enforces whatever order it was given until told otherwise.
The practical consequence: an ex-husband who learns the ex-wife has remarried must file a termination application at the regional Execution Office, attach a copy of her new marriage certificate, and request that the enforcement file be suspended or closed. If the ex-wife contests the termination (claiming, for instance, that the foreign marriage is not valid under Israeli law), the matter is heard before the Family Court, typically within 8-12 weeks of filing.
Courts have also ordered ex-wives to repay maintenance received after the date of remarriage. Under the Unjust Enrichment Law 5739-1979, continuing to collect support that no longer has a legal basis is recoverable. The ex-husband who discovers the ex-wife remarried months ago and said nothing can apply for repayment of the sums collected since the wedding date, with interest.
3. Child Support After a Parent Remarries
Child support is owed to the child. The Israeli Supreme Court's landmark ruling in HCJ 919/15 (2017) established the current framework: each parent's obligation is calculated based on their respective income and the proportion of time the child spends in each household. Neither parent's remarriage changes this calculation automatically.
What remarriage can do is trigger a legitimate application to the Family Court for a change of circumstances (baqashat shinui nesibot) if the financial situation has shifted materially. A parent who has children in the second marriage now carries competing support obligations, and the court will consider those when reassessing the first-family amounts. The competing obligation does not wipe out the first-family obligation; courts reduce rather than eliminate it.
Several things worth knowing about this reassessment:
- The new spouse's income is not included in the applying parent's calculation. Only the applying parent's own income matters.
- Step-children from the new marriage have no claim on the step-parent's finances under Israeli law. The new spouse's children from a prior relationship are not legally the step-parent's financial obligation unless adoption occurs under the Adoption Law 5741-1981.
- The court reassessment is not retroactive. It adjusts the amount going forward from the date the application is filed, not from the date of the remarriage.
- Applications filed speculatively, before a second child is actually born or before circumstances have genuinely changed, are routinely dismissed and may attract a costs order against the applicant.
4. Property Rights in a Second Marriage
The Spouses (Property Relations) Law 5733-1973 applies to second marriages exactly as it does to first marriages. The default regime: each spouse keeps property they owned before the wedding, and any property acquired during the marriage is subject to the balancing mechanism (izun misad) on divorce or death. Each spouse gets half of what was accumulated together.
The practical problem is that people entering a second marriage often arrive with substantially more assets than they had the first time. A divorce settlement. An apartment bought with the settlement funds. A business built during the years between marriages. Savings accumulated since the divorce. These are all pre-marriage assets that belong exclusively to the person who brought them in, but only if the ownership can be documented clearly at the time of divorce.
Without a prenuptial agreement, disputes over what was "brought in" versus what was "accumulated during" become common in contested second-marriage divorces. A poorly kept paper trail for pre-marriage funds is often the problem. The apartment purchased with divorce settlement money is traceable through bank records, but if some of the settlement funds were commingled with joint accounts during the marriage, the analysis becomes complicated and expensive.
A prenuptial agreement, approved by the Family Court or Rabbinical Court under Section 2 of the Spouses (Property Relations) Law 5733-1973, removes all of this ambiguity. It identifies pre-marriage assets explicitly and declares them to remain the separate property of the party who owns them. Courts enforce these agreements as written. The approval process requires a hearing before a judge or registrar who confirms that both parties understood what they were signing and did so freely. This takes 4-8 weeks and costs approximately NIS 1,650 in filing fees plus attorney preparation costs.
For foreign nationals with assets in multiple countries, the prenuptial agreement should address foreign-sited assets as well. An Israeli court can include the value of a London flat or a US retirement account in the izun misad calculation even if it cannot directly transfer title to foreign real estate. The obligation it creates is personal (one party pays the other an equivalent sum), not a direct property transfer. Addressing these assets explicitly in a prenuptial agreement before the wedding is far cheaper than litigating their characterization during a divorce.
5. Divorce Does Not Update Your Will
This is the one that surprises most foreign nationals, because it works differently than in England, Australia, and several other common law countries. Under Israeli law, neither marriage nor divorce automatically revokes a previously made will. The Succession Law 5725-1965 does not contain a provision making divorce an automatic revocation event. If your will names your ex-spouse as the primary beneficiary and you do nothing after the divorce, that appointment still stands in the document.
After remarriage, the situation becomes more complicated. The new spouse acquires statutory inheritance rights under Section 11 of the Succession Law regardless of any existing will. Under Section 11, a surviving spouse who is married at the date of death takes the moveable property and a half share of the estate when there are also children. This statutory entitlement cannot be fully excluded by a will (though it can be reduced if the testator follows the specific procedures under the Law). So when a divorced and remarried person dies without updating their will, there are now potentially three competing claims: the old will naming the ex-spouse, the statutory rights of the new spouse, and the inheritance entitlements of children from either or both marriages.
The resolution of those competing claims through contested probate proceedings before the Family Court or the Registrar of Inheritance Affairs is expensive and slow. Hearings take 18-30 months in contested cases. Legal costs for all parties can exceed NIS 150,000 combined. A new will drafted after the divorce and updated again after the remarriage resolves everything in advance.
The mechanics of updating an Israeli will are straightforward. The testator can revoke a prior will by a written revocation deed, by making a new will that expressly revokes the old one, or by physically destroying the original (though the latter creates evidentiary problems if copies exist). The new will must comply with Section 18 or 19 of the Succession Law (handwritten holographic will, or typed will signed before two witnesses who also sign in each other's presence and the testator's). The cost of having a lawyer draft a new will runs NIS 800-2,000 depending on complexity.
6. Registering a Second Marriage
The registration process depends on who the parties are and where the marriage takes place.
Jewish Israelis remarrying in Israel
Apply to the local rabbinical marriage registrar (mazkirut beit din). Present the prior divorce documents: the get certificate (megivut) showing the prior marriage was dissolved by religious divorce. The registrar reviews the documents, confirms the get is valid, and schedules the ceremony. No separate civil registration is needed; the Rabbinical Court marriage record is automatically transmitted to the Population Registry.
Foreign nationals who cannot marry in Israel
Non-Jewish couples, interfaith couples, and many others who fall outside the Rabbinical Court system cannot marry in Israel regardless of prior marital history. They travel abroad to marry in a civil or recognized ceremony, then register the foreign marriage with PIBA under the Population Registry Law 5725-1965, Section 19.
For a second marriage registration at PIBA, the documents required are:
- Foreign marriage certificate with apostille (Hague Convention countries) or consular legalization (non-Hague countries)
- Certified Hebrew translation of the marriage certificate by a sworn translator
- Proof of dissolution of the prior marriage: the apostilled divorce decree, or the get document if the prior marriage was Jewish
- Identity documents (passports, Israeli ID card if applicable)
PIBA registration fee for a civil status change: NIS 80. Processing time: 4-8 weeks at most population offices. Appointments can be booked through the Ministry of Interior portal (gov.il).
Recognition of the prior divorce
PIBA applies a private international law analysis to the prior divorce before accepting the new marriage registration. Most US, UK, EU, Canadian, and Australian court divorce orders are recognized by PIBA without difficulty. Problems arise with certain forms of administrative divorce (notably talaq repudiation under some legal systems) that Israeli private international law may not recognize as valid. If there is any doubt about whether the prior divorce will be recognized, the safer route is to obtain a declaratory recognition order from the Family Court before approaching PIBA. This takes 3-6 months and costs approximately NIS 3,000-5,000 in legal fees.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Spousal maintenance (mezonot ha-isha) ends automatically from the date of the ex-wife's new marriage, because the legal basis dissolves when she acquires a new husband. However, the Execution Office enforcement file does not close on its own. The ex-husband must file a termination application (Form EX-5) at the regional Execution Office with proof of the remarriage. Filing fee: NIS 650 (2026 rate under the Court Fees Regulations 5767-2007). If the termination is disputed, the matter goes to a Family Court hearing. Courts have ordered repayment of maintenance received after remarriage under the Unjust Enrichment Law 5739-1979.
If you are a Jewish Israeli and your first marriage was recognized by the Israeli Rabbinical Court system, then yes: a civil divorce alone does not enable a second Rabbinical Court marriage. The Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law 5713-1953 requires a valid get for a second marriage to be performed in Israel. Foreign nationals whose prior marriage was a civil ceremony not recognized as a halachically Jewish marriage may not require a get, but the Rabbinical Court makes this determination case by case. Consult a family law attorney before approaching the marriage registrar.
Not automatically. Child support under the Supreme Court's HCJ 919/15 (2017) framework is owed to the child and a parent's remarriage does not change it on its own. If you have children in the second marriage, those new obligations count as competing financial responsibilities, and you can file a baqashat shinui nesibot (change of circumstances application) at the Family Court once a child is born. Courts typically reduce first-family monthly payments by 15-25% in this scenario rather than eliminating them. Court filing fee: NIS 1,460. The new spouse's income is not considered, only yours.
A prenuptial agreement matters more before a second marriage than a first. People remarrying typically carry significant pre-existing assets — a divorce settlement, an apartment bought between marriages, a business built alone — and often have children from a prior marriage with their own inheritance interests. Without a prenuptial agreement approved by the Family Court or Rabbinical Court under Section 2 of the Spouses (Property Relations) Law 5733-1973, any appreciation on those assets occurring during the new marriage may be subject to equal division if that marriage also ends. Total cost of court-approved prenuptial agreement: NIS 1,650 filing fee plus NIS 4,000-8,000 in attorney preparation costs.
No. Under Israeli law, neither marriage nor divorce automatically revokes a will. If your will names your ex-spouse as the primary beneficiary and you do nothing after the divorce, that appointment still stands. After remarriage, your new spouse acquires statutory inheritance rights under Section 11 of the Succession Law 5725-1965 regardless of the prior will, creating competing claims that contested probate proceedings can take years to resolve. The fix is straightforward: revoke the old will and execute a new one after every major change in marital status. Cost of a new Israeli will: NIS 800-2,000.
Licensed Israeli attorney practising family law, real estate, and international private law. Advises foreign nationals and diaspora families on Israeli legal matters from initial planning through court proceedings.
About the author