My husband and I are divorced civilly. We never went through the get procedure nor did he give me one. He was married under a Huppah y a rabbi this past Sunday. Does a get require a wife's signature? I think he forged it or lied if he did say we had a get. What are the consequences if he violated these laws? We are Ashkenazi reformed, but marriage is sacred and if he lied , forged or did not give me my get what are my options.
Thank you for reaching out to us with your question. I appreciate that this is a deeply painful and personal issue, and will try my best to be sensitive and yet fully accurate and transparent.
A get does not require a wife’s signature, but under almost all circumstances, it requires the wife’s knowledge and consent. If no one ever contacted you regarding the get, plainly he did not have one.
Forgery is possible, but very rare.
Reform rabbis will not necessarily require a get for remarriage. If the officiant at your husband’s second marriage was Reform, it is possible that the question never arose.
Competent Conservative or Orthodox rabbis generally would require proof of a get before officiating. There are circumstances under which they would instead declare that the first marriage was invalid, but again, that should not happen without your having been contacted and asked to accept a get.
In any of these cases, it would be best for you to either obtain a get, or else a formal statement from an Orthodox court that you do not require one.
I think a good next step, if you are comfortable with it, would be if you emailed me to clarify whether the issue of a get had ever come up, and the name and denomination of the officiant at your husband’s second wedding, and then hopefully I can better advise you.