Living with a Collar Around my Neck As a young ultra-Orthodox woman of marriageable age, nothing really prepared me for what ensued. Oped by Orel Silam | August 16, 2019 This year, Tu Be’av – the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Av – marks for me the freedom to love: to love life, …
On International Women’s Day 2019, OTS’s Yad La’isha: The Monica Dennis Goldberg Legal Aid Center ran its annual “Women Moving Mountains” desert hike (Eshet Hamidbar in Hebrew), which brought together more than 300 women to show their support for and to advocate on behalf of agunot. One of the participants was veteran Israeli journalist Noa …
Read moreIsraeli “Kan 11” News report on Yad La’isha’s “Women Moving Mountains”
Halachic Prenups Increasingly Common in the US; Israel Lags Advocates of such agreements argue that this extra financial burden is a strong motivating factor for recalcitrant partners to grant a divorce. By Jeremy Sharon | March 20, 2019 Some 84% of Modern Orthodox rabbis in the US ensure that couples they marry sign a halachic …
Read moreHalachic Prenups Increasingly Common in the US; Israel Lags
Do We Love Our Daughters Less Than They Do Theirs? This week, we mark International Aguna Day, traditionally held on Ta’anit Esther, the fast on Purim eve. (An aguna is a Jewish woman who is “chained” to her marriage.) BY KENNETH BRANDER | MARCH 13, 2019 “All the books of the prophets and all the holy …
Jerusalem Rabbinical Court ordered shaming of a recalcitrant husband who fled to Gibraltar In an unusual step, the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court allowed the publication of details of Eli Sompo, who has been refusing to give his wife a divorce and anchoring her in their failed marriage after fleeing and disappearing in Gibraltar. The goal: to …
How can I sign up or sponsor a participant? Photos from last year’s hike
Get-refusal is also violence On this day devoted to fighting violence against women, give a thought to ‘P’, whose husband has refused her a divorce for 19 years P. is 59 years old and has been chained to her husband for 19 years. For 19 years she has been waiting for her freedom, praying to …
Freedom is not with the Rabbinical Court By Pnina Omer – Jerusalem Post Oped, 10/6/2018 In a recent column, USA based attorney Alan Dershowitz protested the detainment of a US citizen in Israel, a citizen whose sole crime, according to Dershowitz, is the fact that he happens to have a son who refuses to give a religious …
Rogel, a Religious Woman is Not a Chair Pnina Omer – 31/10/2018 Last week, Rogel Alpher published a column in Haaretz in which he related to Tzvia Gorodetzky, an aguna, or chained woman. In order to illustrate your opinion of Tzvia’s status in marriage, Alpher labeled her a “chair,” a “piece of property” and a …
24/08/18 Recalcitrant grandfather fined for blocking daughter-in-law’s divorce Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court justices rejected the petition of a man who is encouraging his son to refuse his wife a divorce to cancel the penalties that were imposed on him, setting a new standard for punishment. The wife’s advocates: “The Court has proven that the liberation …
Postcards from Freedom Ten stories of ‘bound women’ morphed into ten illustrations gracing Rosh Hashana greeting cards, part of an initiative by Yad La’isha. Arutz Sheva Staff, 21/08/1 S, an aguna – Hebrew for a ‘bound woman’, whose husband has refused her a divorce – who recently received her get and with it her freedom, …
Congratulations to G of Germany, who flew in to Israel last Thursday and received her long-awaited get — thanks to the exceptional efforts of her advocate, Tamar Oderberg of Yad La’isha: The Monica Dennis Goldberg Legal Aid Center and Hotline. G, now 41, married her husband in 2002; the couple had two children and lived together in …
