Getting Tough: Israel Most Wanted

Have you seen these "men"?

All of these people shown above have one thing in common: they all refuse to give their wives a get, a religious divorce, leaving their wives stranded as agunot -- unable to remarry -- and these men have gone into hiding.

On the radio yesterday, I heard the interview of one woman as she bitterly explained her situation as an aguna. Surprisingly, (though very encouraging), when asked if she harbored any complaints against the Israeli Rabbinate, she alternatively praised their efforts to find her husband.

The Chief Rabbinate has gone on the offensive to help agunot, and is posting pictures on their website with descriptions of each individual recalcitrant husband; last know whereabouts, possible methods they used to change their appearances, and they provide the option to leave anonymous tips as to there where these people might be.

If you have seen any of them, PLEASE contact the Chief Rabbinate through their website (or email me and I'll send it to them).

The aguna on the radio asked for an additional minute on the radio station, to which the interviewer gladly granted. "The biggest problem is not the religious establishment -- I believe they are honestly doing their best to help me. The problem is the families of the men who help hide and protect them -- while our lives are held hostage [from remarrying]"

Do you know these people? Have you seen them? These moral and Jewish degenerates need to be found quickly, so their wives can be freed. If you've seen them, or have a clue where they are -- please contact the Israeli Chief Rabbinate via their website, their phone number 02-658-2822, or you can even contact the Israeli police (100).

In particular, 33 year old son of Anglo immigrants to Israel, Meir Briskman has refused to grant his wife a divorce for the past five years -- and he may have fled Israel. He may live in your community! Have you seen him?

"From our experiences, we believe that refusing a get [divorce] is a social problem," said Rabbi Eliyah Ben-Dahan, director of the rabbinic courts. "If we reveal the identity in a public forum of those men who refuse to grant their wives a get‚ then he will stop being accepted in his immediate environment."

Ben-Dahan added that even if the man in question has gone into hiding, it is likely that his close family may know his whereabouts. Publishing the man's name will bring shame upon his family, he said, hopefully prompting them to come forward with information that will ultimately free the woman in question."

Robyn Shames, director of the International Coalition of Agunah Rights, said she welcomed the move. "I think it's fantastic - any move by the rabbinic courts to find men in an unwanted marriage should be applauded. Efforts need to be made to encourage society to change how they relate to men who refuse to give divorces - they should be treated just like men who violently abuse their wives, because it is a form of abuse." (JPOST)

Let's use the JBlogosphere to find this guy...and bring him to justice.

Additional sources (in Hebrew) NRG

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Historic Ruling for Agunot

One issue that routinely raises consternation and despair within Orthodoxy is that of "Agunot" -- the "chained" wives, whose husbands refuse to grant them a "Get", a religious divorce. The lack of a "Get" prevents these women from remarrying, and there are known husbands around the world who refuse to free their wives. The reasons for their refusal range from attempts to force child custody settlements which favor the husband, extortion to pay less financial alimony which was guaranteed at the time of the religious marriage, gain shared assets or those of the wife, to petty revenge and attempts to cause additional pain to the wife.

While Orthodoxy attempts to grapple with this issue via pre-nuptial agreements, retroactive divorces signed at the time of marriage, and brute-force community pressure on the recalcitrant husband, the State of Israel's family court in Jerusalem issued a historic ruling yesterday which offers an additional solution to pressure the husband -- Judge Ben Zion Greenberger ruled that a husband who refused to give his wife a religious divorce for nine years will compensate her with NIS 550,000 (about $158,532.5), on top of whatever financial settlement they may reach regarding the divorce.

This legal decision is not a religious ruling, but from the State of Israel's secular Family Court.

The precedent was set in the case of an ultra-Orthodox woman who began the proceedings towards a divorce in 1998. The woman, who was physically abused by her husband and forced to flee her home with three children in tow, reached the High Rabbinical Court, where judges ruled the husband must give her a divorce.

But two years after this ruling the husband continued to refuse the divorce, and the woman appealed to the Family Court, demanding compensation for the distress her husband had caused her over the years, and for the denial of her right to marry again and go on with her life.

Prior to this precedent, courts had ruled that damages should be paid from the moment of the divorce's finalization, but the new ruling allows the wife to sue for damages for all the years in which her husband refused to give her a divorce, including the years her law suit spends pending in courts. (YNET)

In Israel, where marriage and divorce are religion-based and run by Israel's religious courts, its refreshing to see their sister civil-secular courts (big-brother courts?), pick up their slack and offer additional pressure on these miserable recalcitrant husbands that give Judaism and humanity a bad name.

It's unfortunate that it gets to this in the first place, and in the words of the woman''s attorney, "This is a huge step taken by the civil courts in order to compensate for the rabbinical courts' failure to solve divorce conflicts."

I wonder if Israel's civil courts would have helped with this issue even if there was total separation between religion and state.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד