March 25, 2008

Dozens of Israelis March to the Knesset to Demand Justice for Women Refused a Divorce by the Rabbinical Courts

Havatzelet Tabib-Tzada was both pleased and pained to discover that she is not alone. The 45 year-old mother of three from Beer Sheva read in the newspaper last week that NIF grantee International Coalition for Agunah Rights (ICAR) was planning a protest outside the Offices of the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem on behalf of the thousands of Israeli women unable to obtain a get (religious divorce).

“So I came here today and for the first time met other women who are suffering like me, because their husbands refuse to grant them a divorce,” said Tabib-Tzada. “We all have a lot of pain and anger. But it is also encouraging to know that so many organizations exist to help me. I was about to give up my battle with the rabbinical courts but now I can fight on.”

A young protestor makes her point
at the ICAR demonstration in Jerusalem.

Dozens of demonstrators gathered in Jerusalem last Wednesday on the eve of International Agunah Day (Fast of Esther). The protest was organized by ICAR, which was set up and is supported by the New Israel Fund and SHATIL and encompasses 27 social change organizations working to promote solutions to the problem of agunot (women whose husbands have disappeared) and mesoravot get (women whose husbands are unwilling to grant them a Jewish divorce).

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the Chief Rabbi of Efrat in the West Bank and one of Israel's best-known Orthodox rabbis, addressed the demonstrators. “The problem is not halacha,” he insisted. “Halacha allows a woman to be released from an unhappy marriage.  Marriage is not a prison. The problem is the interpretation of halacha by the rabbinical courts. This interpretation shames the Jewish people.”

With SHATIL's guidance and networking, ICAR has created an educational package that it is being sent to Jewish learning groups throughout the country. The kit contains traditional Jewish sources that present halachic solutions to the get refusal issue, delineating the abilities and responsibilities of the rabbinical courts to free these “chained” women.

The protestors, exasperated by the rabbinical courts’ rigid adherence to the standard that it is a man’s right to grant his wife a divorce, marched to the Knesset to lobby for a legislative solution. An ICAR sponsored Division of Property Bill  -- which responds to the issue that most husbands refuse a divorce because they seek to blackmail their wives into relinquishing all economic claims -- has passed its first reading in the Knesset. The bill will allow property to be divided between spouses without waiting for the husband to grant the official divorce, eliminating the financial issues that often fuel the prolonged battle for a get.

Zahava Fisher, NIF grantee Kollech – Religious Women’s Forum’s representative in ICAR, has formulated another new Knesset bill with Labor MK Orit Noked, which would make a get automatically binding one year after the rabbinical courts order a husband to grant a divorce. Currently, a husband who refuses to sign a get is not compelled to do so by the Rabbinate.

 
No longer alone, Havatzelet Tabib-Tzada (left)
marches to the Knesset.

To date, no legislation is in place to assist Tabib-Tzada, whose 25-year marriage broke down and reached the Beer Sheva Rabbinical Court two years ago. “My husband Eli wants all the money,” she says. “It is partly greed and partly a way of punishing me. I’ve lost a lot of nights sleep, but I work as a housemother in a hostel for the mentally ill. Seeing so much insanity around me has helped keep me sane.”

Rena Rosenblum, a 30 year-old scriptwriter from Jerusalem who has been seeking a divorce from her husband Eliahu for over four years, has received help from two ICAR organizations and NIF grantees Mavoi Satum (Dead End) and Yad L’Isha. They have helped her gain child support payments for her five year-old daughter and she is determined to receive her get from the rabbinical courts.

 

The demonstration attracted major media interest as Rena Rosenblum (left)
is interviewed by a radio correspondent.

Robyn Shames, Executive Director of ICAR said: “The rabbinical courts in Israel tell us there are 360 agunot. But that’s ridiculous. We know about thousands of agunot and I’m sure there are thousands more we don’t know about. The rabbinical courts want to pretend there is no problem, but there is and we won’t rest until the problem is solved.”