Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Ex-Wife of Congressman Aid Receives Religious Divorce After High Profile Battle

The ex-wife of an aide to a U.S. congressman has received a religious writ of divorce after fighting a high-profile battle for years, an organization for agunot said.

The announcement of the religious divorce, or get, for Tamar Epstein came from the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, or ORA, on Thursday.

Epstein, who lives in Pennsylvania and received her civil divorce three years ago, was an agunah — a woman refused a get — for at least three years. Without a get, which is issued as the sole prerogative of a husband, observant women cannot remarry.

The issue of agunot has been in the news often in recent months, following several high-profile cases, including Epstein’s.

ORA in its campaign for Epstein’s religious divorce used media pressure, public protests and a billboard to target Aharon Friedman, Epstein’s estranged former spouse and an aide to Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.).

“We are so happy for Tamar and her family, and relieved that this tragic saga has finally come to an end,” ORA wrote in a statement to supporters.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.