Larisa Trembovler

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Larisa Trembovler (Russian: Лариса Трембовлер Hebrew: לריסה טרימבובלר, sometimes written as Larissa Trimbobler in the English media) is the woman who has married Yigal Amir according to Jewish religious law.

Yigal Amir assassinated Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin and currently serving a life sentence. Larisa holds a Ph.D. in philosophy, has published a novel in Russian (A Mirror for a Prince) and practices Orthodox Judaism.

1 Initial relationship with Amir
2 Marriage to Amir
3 Conjugal vists and artificial insemination
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Initial relationship with Amir

Trembovler met Amir when he was a teacher of Judaism in Russia on a mission for the Israeli government. After her immigration to Israel from the former Soviet Union, she first started visiting Amir with her husband (with whom she had four children) for humanitarian reasons. After Trembovler expressed ideological support for Amir they began exchanging letters and speaking on the phone. She was fired from her job and divorced her husband, because of her growing personal ties with Amir.

Larisa subsequently announced that she had become engaged to Amir and that they would request to marry while Amir was in jail. In January 2004, after their request was filed, the Israel Prisons Authority announced that it would prohibit Amir from marrying in jail. During April 2004, the Tel Aviv District Court reviewed the decision regarding a request by Yigal Amir to get married in prison.

At the time, the Prisons Commissioner instructed his legal aides to prepare a case to defend the decision, to be based on security considerations. But Amir's lawyers said it violated their client's basic rights and would not hold up in court. They noted that several Palestinians serving multiple life terms for Palestinian political violence have been permitted to marry in prison. Legal analysts have said the Supreme Court would likely uphold any appeal by Amir's lawyer, unless specific legislation is enacted prohibiting him from marrying.

[edit] Marriage to Amir

In August 2004 Amir and Trembovler married according to Jewish law, which permits a prospective husband to grant a form of "power of attorney" to a chosen representative, who can then transfer a wedding ring, or something of similar value, to the prospective wife with the full legal authority of the husband and so thereby conclude a valid Jewish marriage. According to Jewish law this is a contractually valid marriage. The emissary only transfers the ring and possibly also the ketuba (i.e. "marriage contract"), but only the husband himself can actually consummate the marriage, which is now what Amir seeks to accomplish with conjugal visits from his new bride as permitted by Jewish law.

On July 2005 their marriage was validated by an Israeli Rabbinical Court; however, the prison administration issued a statement saying that its policy concerning conjugal visits for Amir will not be changed. Meanwhile, a group of 396 persons, among them leading figures of the Russian-speaking Jewish community in Israel signed a petition demanding to stop the violation of this "basic human right".

Trimbovler submitted the petition after the Interior Ministry refused to register Amir and Trimbovler as a married couple, despite the fact that the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court decided in July 2005 to approve their marriage by messenger in September 2005. Haaretz noted that Israel's Justice Ministry had defined Amir's marriage as "problematic" because according to a past ruling, a marriage ceremony not conducted in the presence of a rabbi from the Chief Rabbinate is unrecognized. [1]

[edit] Conjugal vists and artificial insemination

On February 6, 2006, Haaretz reported that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz had ordered the Interior Ministry to register Amir and Larissa Trimbovler as a married couple in response to a petition filed by Trimbovler. Amir and Trimbovler the filed requests with the Prison Authority and petitions to court to enable them to hold conjugal visits to have a child with Trembovler through artificial insemination.

In March 2006 the Israeli Prison Service allowed Amir by his petition to have a child with Trembovler through artificial insemination. The Service was to study how this process would be conducted without Amir leaving the prison. A week later it reported that Amir was caught when he tried to give his wife a previously prepared plastic bag with semen. The visit was ended. [2] [3] [4]. After the incident a disciplinary tribunal denied him Larissa's visits for 30 days and phone calls for 14 days. [5] The insemination treatments were withheld due to a petition rendered by several members of Knesset.