The Chicago Rabbinical Council, a nonprofit that has a kosher certification arm, has developed what it says is an innovative model for Jewish divorce, which combines mediation and binding arbitration to address legal, religious and communal dimensions of divorce. The CRC program allows divorcing couples to begin in mediation, turn to the beit din, or religious court, for arbitration on disputes that they cannot resolve and then return to mediation. If mediation breaks down fully, the case can proceed to arbitration.
