News
Why a hundred rabbis had to give permission for Israel’s showbiz wedding of the year
The Israeli public have been gripped by this Charedi celebrity saga
November 19, 2021 18:21
The Israeli public have been gripped by this Charedi celebrity saga
November 19, 2021 18:21She’s the ex-wife of former Chelsea manager Avram Grant, famed for her bizarre stunts on Israeli TV. He’s the acclaimed frum actor who’s starred in the Netflix hit Shtisel.
Now Tzofit Grant and Shuli Rand have found love and tied the knot — but in an extraordinary wedding that required the approval of 100 rabbis.
The special permission was required because Rand’s first wife Michal, with whom he has seven children, refused to agree to a get.
In such circumstances, a man can be granted a “heter mea rabbonim”, a rarely-used rabbinical device that is not available to a woman whose husband refuses to give her a get.
The couple’s relationship has been the focus of extensive press coverage for a fascinated Israeli public since they went public several months ago.
Mrs Grant first entered the limelight when her former husband Avram left for England to become Chelsea manager in 2007, and she stayed behind with their two children, son Danny, now 27, and daughter Romi, 24.
She quickly grabbed public attention with a career as a TV presenter that saw her dubbed the “Israeli Ruby Wax”. Her stunts included drinking her own urine to assess its supposed health benefits,and submerging herself in a bath of molten chocolate. She and Mr Grant got divorced in 2016.
Mrs Grant, 57, is described in the Israeli media as secular, but in an interview last month said she had always kept kosher and was beginning to observe Shabbat, although she is not Charedi. The wedding took place at a secluded location not far from Jerusalem, with Mrs Grant barely recognisable from her TV appearances in a full-length wedding dress with long sleeves and a high shirt-collar neckline.
She told her groom: “I want to tell you to accept with complete conviction that I love you and I thank you for choosing me.” After the traditional breaking of the glass, Mr Rand sang the Breslov chasidic spiritual song, There is No Despair in the World.
Mr Rand, 59, comes from a distinguished religious Zionist family. His father, Yaakov Rand, was an education researcher who received the Israel Prize in 2001. His uncle was Reuven Feuerstein, the special-needs educational pioneer who helped treat Flora, the daughter of Sara Keays and the former Conservative Cabinet minister Lord Parkinson.
Rand wanted to be an actor, and abandoned religion in order to pursue his dreams. In his early 20s he became a star in Israel on stage and screen, winning theatre and film awards. But in 1996 he returned to Orthodox Judaism, becoming a member of the Breslov chasidic sect.
His experiences in and out of the religious world formed the basis of his acclaimed 2004 film Ushpizin, in which he plays a Breslov chasid who was once secular, whose life is upended when two criminals from his past life come to hide out in his succah.
His wife in the film was played by his real-life wife, Michal, who had no acting experience but was assigned the role in order to comply with religious modesty laws.
On TV, he has appeared in Netflix’s acclaimed depiction of Haredi life, Shtisel, playing a yeshiva rabbi, and also Autonomies, a dystopian drama depicting an Israel riven between secular and Orthodox Jews.
In the acrimony that followed the separation of the Rands and their claim and counterclaim against each other, Michal sued him for 2.5 million shekel — around £600,000 — to support their children, and refused to accept a get from him.
Mr Rand sought the exceptional dispensation from 100 rabbis of the “heter mea rabbonim” and having received this was allowed to go ahead and marry Tzofit.
Campaigners for “chained wives” who have been denied a get by their husbands claim the “heter mea rabbonim” has been used at least a dozen times in the past two years.
