BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Concerns about the state intruding into a religious matter led the Senate to reject a bill Friday that would have required Orthodox Jewish men to grant their wives a religious divorce if they were seeking a civil divorce.

The bill failed in a tie vote, 22-22, two votes shy of passage, after winning preliminary approval on Wednesday.

“We see this as state intrusion on a religious matter,” said Sen. Rhona Kramer, D-Montgomery, quoting from an editorial in a Jewish weekly newspaper. Kramer, who is Jewish, told her colleagues, that the bill (SB 533) was well-intentioned, but that “we will be using a civil law to force someone to perform a religious act.”

The bill was offered by Sen. Lisa Gladden, D-Baltimore City, to resolve situations where women who are granted a civil divorce, even one not contested by their husbands, are not granted a “get,” a Hebrew word for a bill of divorce that only a husband can grant. Without the religious divorce, they cannot remarry as Orthodox Jews, although more liberal Jewish sects would allow it.

Gladden said it was a matter of fairness and equity. “If you’re coming to the courts, you have to come with ‘clean hands,’ ” putting up no barriers, she said. “This is [a] women’s rights issue,” Gladden said, a point made by other senators favoring the bill.

“The rule is a sexist rule” and the women “are in a bad situation,” said Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery. “I feel for them,” but “it is completely and wholly a religious rule.”

Raskin, a constitutional law professor at American University, said the bill did not meet the Supreme Court’s standard since it was not primarily secular in purpose or in effect, and entangled the state in a religious matter.

Del. Sandy Rosenberg, D-Baltimore City, is sponsoring a similar bill in the House.

llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com