During the course of her short, 3-year marriage, M.A. suffered from physical, economic and verbal violence and lived under the complete control of her husband who, among other things, took her credit card, refused to give her money and disconnected the phone line to prevent her from having contact with her friends and family. He said he wanted her “all for himself,” and in fact, he lived his entire life “all for himself,” never explaining where he was or what he was doing and often staying out all night long.

M filed for divorce; the rabbinical court listened to her husband, who claimed that he wanted “shlom bayit – a peaceful home,” and sent the couple for counseling. Needless to say, M cooperated, but her husband did not. Any yet – although he didn’t attend the counseling sessions or try in any way to modify his behavior – he continued to insist that he loved his wife, and would not divorce her under any circumstances.

Enter Yad L’isha: the Monica Dennis Goldberg Legal Aid Center and Hotline for women, which specializes in cases of mesuravot get and agunot.  Advocate Tamar Oderberg (left) was able to turn around the court’s decision, M received her long awaited divorce, and a fair and equitable agreement was attained, regulating custody of their daughter, visitation rights and child support.

M is the 30th woman to be freed from the chains of aginut by Yad L’isha, so far, in the calendar year 2014.