i24 News – An Israeli woman who refused to receive a get was sentenced to prison on Sunday for the first time in the country’s history.
Israeli law follows halacha, meaning there is no civil marriage or divorce. Because of this, for a divorce between Jews to be legal, the husband must provide the woman a get and the woman must receive it.
Get abuse – refusal to give or accept a get – results in neither person being able to remarry according to halacha. This is more common among men who refuse to give over the get, with sanctions usually placed upon the refusers.
In 2016, Israel’s Justice Ministry ruled that husbands who refuse to grant a religious divorce to their wives could be indicted and face prison. During that same year, there were 285 cases of refusal.
However, in this instance, the woman refused to accept the document from her husband, resulting in the first case of a recalcitrant wife getting imprisoned.
The couple married in 2000 and had two daughters, now 13 and 16, before the husband began the divorce process. He initially went through the civil courts with the woman refusing to appear at any hearing, before filing for divorce with the rabbinic court in 2018.
According to the Petach Tikvah Rabbinic Court, the woman did not show up for any court summons. Over four years of refusal, the court placed sanctions upon the woman, including taking her driver’s license and freezing her bank accounts.
She was ordered to meet with a psychologist, who “determined that she refused to accept reality and release her husband,” according to the court.
The court received approval from Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Rav David Lau to arrest the woman culminating in Israel’s police breaking into her house to arrest her.
There is a procedure in the rabbinical courts that can skirt the woman’s refusal and allow the husband to remarry, provided 100 rabbis agree to the move. Between 2012 and 2017, permission was granted in 125 cases.
is this halacha or zionism?
Regrettably, many of the women in our circles that claim to be agunah’s are actually being m’agen their husbands r’l. When one gets married kdas Moshe v’yisroel if a divorce is necessary it likewise must be k’das Moshe v’yisroel. It’s important to note that the use of arkois is a severe isur doraysa r’l! This past Parshas Mishpotim a kol koreh was released in Eretz Yisroel reminding all of said isur. (I will furnish a copy to the editor of Matzav who can publish it should he wish). Meanwhile, Hgaon Reb Shmuel Kamentsky shlita and Hgaon Reb Shlomo Miller shlita told me they would cosign such a proclamation if the Batei Din in Lakewood, NJ drafted and signed one.
The woman is ALWAYS right! All men are evil. Only the mother is a good parent. Never the father.
Long since overdue and Great move for this woman, as well as any other woman emulating her.
BTW I am available despite my exceedingly heavy schedule to sign the היתר מאה רבנים even before the High Holidays and even Gratis, as I comprehend how important this signature would be:- Even more important than my signature on a פרוזב