Breaking up, as the classic song notes, is generally hard to do. But in the Orthodox community, divorce can be particularly trying, especially for women. That’s because intransigent husbands can hold up the process by refusing to give a get, or a religious writ of divorce. In some cases, husbands use the get as a…
Aviva Klein For the past several months, the subjects standing before Aviva Klein’s camera have not been the usual assortment of musicians, celebrities and fashion labels who hire her for their album artwork or style shoots, but agunot, women who are chained in marriages they no longer wish to be a part of thanks to…
I think it’s high time we deal with the issue of mamzerut. I was exposed to the subject as a result of my work as a rabbinic advocate in Israel, working with women who were denied divorces and agunot, women chained to dead marriages. Through this work, I became familiar with a host of issues…
A woman gestures at a Jerusalem demonstration to help agunot / Haaretz We’re familiar with the stories of recalcitrant husbands who refuse to give their wives a get, a religious writ of divorce, effectively preventing them from remarrying. But less discussed is the heart-wrenching experience of women whose husbands are alive, but unable to interact…
Bobby and Chelle Medow are happily married — and have been for almost 50 years. Yet one Sunday evening in January, the St. Louis couple made contingency plans for a divorce. And 31 other Orthodox married couples joined them. They are part of a small but budding movement that is being promoted by some Orthodox…
A source close to Aharon Friedman, the estranged husband of Tamar Epstein, is denying a report that he has granted his wife a religious writ of divorce, or get. This week, the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, or ORA, issued a flyer and fundraising call announcing that “Tamar is Free,” leading to an erroneous…
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…
A new independent rabbinical court to address the issue of agunot, so-called “chained women” whose husbands refuse to give them a religious writ of divorce, will be launched next year. The announcement of the court, or beit din, was made Sunday at the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance conference in New York. Rabbi Simcha Krauss of…
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