Plight of Jewish ‘chained women’ trapped in broken marriage
By Erica Chernofsky
BBC News, Jerusalem
Shoshana is lonely. She has been raising her three children alone for almost 15 years. She is a not a widow, she is not divorced, she is what is known in Hebrew as an aguna, or a “chained” woman, because though she wants to, as a Jewish woman, she cannot free herself from her marriage to her husband.
Shoshana’s case is now being handled by Tehilla Cohen, one of the extraordinary women rabbinical court advocates from Yad L’isha: The Monica Dennis Goldberg Legal Aid Center and Hotline. OTS wishes Shoshana — and all women who are being held captive by husbands who refuse to divorce them – a speedy resolution. No woman in the world deserves to be victimized in this way.
