'There is something rotten in the Rabbinical Court'
Photo: Gabi Menashe
‘Chained’ woman: Rabbis worship men
Jewish communities all over the world are marking National Agunah Day for women whose requests for divorce are denied by rabbinical court
Jewish communities all over the world are marking National Agunah Day (Agunah – ‘”chained wife,” a woman who wishes to obtain a divorce from her husband, but whose husband is either unable or unwilling to grant her a halachic bill of divorce), raising the struggle of tens of thousands of women asking to end their bad marriages respectfully.
“Nineteen years of my life were taken away from me,” Rachel said.
“I harmed no one and took care of my children devotedly, but the vengefulness and maliciousness of the sarbanut (refusal to grant divorce) is a horrible thing.”
A poll conducted last year revealed that throughout Israel’s history some 100,000 women were defined as “chained,” and thousands are still unable to divorce their husbands; 12,000 women preferred to remain married over fighting the rabbinical courts.
Rachel waited 19 years to divorce her husband, who was abusive toward her and the couple’s six children. Even though she left the home, taking the children with her, the Rabbinical Court was unsympathetic toward her situation.
“There is something rotten in the Rabbinical Court,” she said.
“They worship the man. There is only discrimination there. Women are humiliated; you become nothing. The rabbinical judges have the halichic authority to grant the divorce despite the husband’s refusal, but they do not, and this is a great injustice.
“The imprisoned women must be released; the judges must open their eyes.”
Israel’s Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar said “we are fighting this phenomenon with full force,” and claimed the statistics are false.
‘Blinding the public eye’
“It’s a shame that instead of cooperating with the courts, the women’s rights groups exaggerate, causing people to lose interest,” he said.
“Most rabbinical courts impose sanctions on husbands who refuse to grant a divorce. It is true that there are some problematic judges, but how many? You can count the number of severe cases on one hand, and in most of them the husband is overseas.”
However, pleader Rabbi Reut Giat disagrees, saying “there is a change in the system; it is terribly slow, it is unsatisfactory, but it exists, because even the system cannot deny the evil that exists. But to say such things – it is simply blinding the public eye.
It is no coincidence that National Agunah Day is marked on the same day as the fast of Esther.
“It is the only day on the Jewish calendar dedicated entirely to the commemoration of a woman’s work,” Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, the chair of the Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women said.
"Esther swept an entire nation after her. The hope is that we will be successful in raising the same amount of awareness.
“The (“chained wives”) situation is reflective of Israeli women’s general situation and indicative of the fact that women’s rights were always a myth in this country. The State and our justice system are at fault, as they grant the halacha total control over the marriage institution.”
