13 Apr
Culture, Misc, Religion

Thousands of Little Pharaohs: The Plight of the Agunah

By Martin Berman-Gorvine In this Passover season, consider the plight of Jewish women whose marriages have ended but whose (former) husbands refuse them a get (bill of divorce), which only the man can grant under the traditional version of halachah (Jewish religious law). The spectacle of thousands of Jewish men behaving like little Pharaohs, in whose hands is the power to enslave or free their former wives, has become sadly familiar. Not so well known is the inner world of the agunah. What are the emotional and spiritual consequences of being “chained” to a dead marriage? I spoke to “Deborah,” a former agunah from an Orthodox community in England, who was married for 13 years and had two children with a man who refused her a get for nearly five years following their February 2007 civil divorce,...

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06 Jan
Latest

Now even Jewish grandmothers hate the Israeli Rabbinate

By Sarah Breger Grandma is fighting back. The Center for Women’s Justice, the Israeli non-profit organization dedicated to upholding a woman’s right to just treatment in the Rabbinical Courts in Israel has created a series of web clips highlighting the injustices and injuries that result from the very workings of the courts. Issues such as agunah, conversion and divorce have been reported about in the Israeli and Jewish press for years but these videos are hoping to reach a broader audience and make the public sit up and pay attention to the biases of the rabbinical courts that act behind closed doors. In each video the fictional character, Savta Bikorta (Critical Grandma) tells a true story revolving around the Rabbinate. In one, the rabbinical courts rule that although a husband is molesting his daughter the courts will...

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