From ‘Desert Woman’ to Free Woman

Hot off the press!  The lovely woman in this photo, Ilanit (on left), just received her divorce after years of suffering.

For seven years Ilanit was denied a divorce by her abusive husband – a violent man who threatened her life and was even arrested for violating a restraining order.  Exactly one year ago, Ilanit and her running group attended “Eshet Hamidbar” – literally ‘Desert Woman’ – the annual desert hike in support of agunot produced by Yad La’isha: The Monica Dennis Goldberg Legal Aid Center and Hotline in partnership with Marathon Israel.

Eshet Hamidbar was Ilanit’s first exposure to Yad La’isha’s activities freeing and empowering agunot; she told us her story and became our client. She never would have believed that she would be attending this year’s “Eshet Hamidbar” event on February 20-21 as a free woman!

We always say divorce is a miracle; this time Yad La’isha advocate Deborah Brisk helped make the miracle happen when at 9 AM in the morning, when the hearing began, she announced that they simply would not be leaving without a get in hand. Brisk threatened Ilanit’s husband with sanctions and legal expenses until he, who had started his day saying that the divorce will never happen, ended his day at 4:30 PM by granting Ilanit her coveted divorce papers. Needless to say, Brisk made sure that she did not have to acquiesce to any of his demands in exchange for her freedom.

Congratulations to Ilanit, and warmest wishes for a new life of meaning and happiness.