Posted on 02/02/2002 12:59:38 PM PST by AdrianZ
Judge rules moving child to Israel is too dangerous
By The Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – The current wave of violence in Israel makes it too dangerous for a woman to take her 2-year-old daughter to live there, a judge ruled in awarding custody to the child's father. Judge R.A. Ferguson Jr. ruled last week that if Katrina Lurie leaves the country, she will forfeit custody of Libby Korn to ex-husband Michael Korn, first violinist with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. Ferguson said in his ruling he considered the "day-to-day dangers of living in Israel due to military and suicide bombings having occurred on a random basis."
Lurie, 28, said the ruling left her demoralized. "I feel totally powerless," she said. "It's totally unbelievable. I don't think it's a judge's place to decide what is the safest country for my child to live in."
Korn, 34, and Lurie met in Israel, where she had emigrated from Estonia; he came from Siberia. They began dating in 1997 and decided to get married. At that time, Lurie worked as a costume designer and Korn played with the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra. In October 1997, Korn found work with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and also gave private lessons.
Lurie followed him in December, but later decided she needed to go with Libby to see her parents in Holon.
The March 2000 trip, which was supposed to take a month, lasted more than a year, prompting Korn to take action in Israeli courts. He accused his wife of kidnapping their child and demanded she be returned to Birmingham.
"I didn't have anything from my daughter in those 14 months she was in Israel. No pictures. Nothing," Korn said.
The Israeli courts ordered Korn to pay support and ordered Lurie and Libby to return to Alabama. They came back in May 2001. Korn's lawyer, Jack E. Held, said the Birmingham judge's ruling makes perfect sense. Held said that besides the dangers of Israel there are other factors, such as that Libby had dental problems while in her mother's care.
He also said the mother testified she planned to return to Israel with or without Libby.
"Libby has a wonderful place to live in Birmingham," Held said. "Why send her in harm's way when her father is here in this country?" A hearing is set for Feb. 14, and Lurie said she hopes the judge will change his mind.
I don't think it's a judge's place to decide what is the safest country for my child to live in."Not satisfied with legislating from the bench, our jurists now want to dictate our foreign policy.
A droll and predictable response to a contrary ruling from a less than mediocre mind.
Her remarks would, of course, have taken the form of lavish praise for the judge had the jurist instead decreed that Israel is the safest place for her to scurry off to with a child only half her own.
She sounds as though she's the sort of person who should be rendered and kept as 'powerless' as possible.
The father (and the court) may have valid reasons to suspect his wife's motives and plans. From the news story, it seems that the last time the ex-wife took the kid out of the country she was only supposed to go for a month, but then kept the child away from the father for 14 months. Plenty of American parents have completely lost contact with their kids when the other parent took them off to some foreign country and the American courts lost jurisdiction. Maybe Mr. Korn has good reason to fear that will happen with his daughter.
A two year old needs regular contact with BOTH parents. I don't know why the ex-wife in this case feels she has to move to Israel, but I think that for the child's welfare she should probably defer her move, at least until the child is a lot older.
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