Aguna

Woman receives Jewish divorce after three-year struggle following financial pressure on husband

The couple had lived in Florida for over a decade, before separating in 2023. The husband refused to grant the woman, L., a get, demanding increasing financial compensation for it.

MAY 4, 2026|ByTZVI JASPER

A WOMAN seeking divorce in a ‘beit din’ was the sole female in the room until the advent of ‘toanot.’ (Illustrative)

THE CHIEF RABBINATE’S Supreme Court for Appeals in Jerusalem: Israelis deserve a religious court system that honors both Halacha and human dignity, the writer asserts.

Rabbinical court chaos leaves Israelis trapped in a broken system - opinion

System failures, from missing files to postponed hearings, in Israel’s rabbinical courts are delaying justice and trapping families in legal limbo.

NOVEMBER 29, 2025|BySETH FARBER

A room at Camp Shura designed for families to part from the deceased who have fallen in Israel's wars.

The 'unspoken agunot': The wives of men whose deaths by Hamas were never confirmed - opinion

In contrast to the victim of get-refusal, the war widows desperately wanted to stay with their husbands. They became agunot due to evil forces from without.

MARCH 10, 2025|ByRACHEL LEVMORE

THE POSSIBILITY that a woman whose husband is in the IDF reserves can become ‘chained’ became an increasing problem after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War.

IDF soldiers’ wives at risk: The urgent case for conditional divorces

The Israel-Hamas War has increased the risk of women becoming "chained" in their marriages because they can't get a Jewish divorce.

JANUARY 25, 2025|ByEVE YOUNG

Divorce refusal will only be solved if everyone does their part - opinion

The bill dictates “divorce refusal” as the situation in which a court has issued a ruling requiring the husband to give a divorce that the husband subsequently ignores.

JULY 10, 2024ByALI ZAK

Prominent US Rabbi: Sex strike against divorce refusal 'destructive'

Schachter said that Jews are obligated to make significant efforts and exert social pressure on husbands who refuse to provide a get -- a religious divorce -- to their wives, leaving them agunot.

MARCH 13, 2024ByMICHAEL STARR

A poster illustrating the chained marriage of Rivka, 41, who has been refused divorce by her husband for 17 years, February 25, 2021.

Chief Rabbi David Lau establishes special rabbinical court to support agunot affected by war

An agunah is a woman unable to be divorced by her husband. During the Israel-Hamas war such cases have become noticeable enough to warrant rabbinical intervention.

DECEMBER 19, 2023ByYUVAL BARNEA

A PHOTO which expresses the pain, fear and frustration of the plight of agunot is part of a photography exhibit of Yad La’isha.

Yad La'isha: Jerusalem center fighting trapped marriages

Also known as “The Aguna Warrior,” Yad La'isha director Pnina Omer and her Jerualem-based organization fight to free women in trapped marriages.

MARCH 11, 2023BySHARON GIVATI

Pnina Omer, director of Ohr Torah Stone’s Yad La’isha, in front of an artistic photo exhibit on the pain of being in a trapped marriage.

In Israel, a crumb of bread is valued more than a woman's life - opinion

They simply do not view the people they judge as equal before the law, in fact, the opposite: they actively discriminate against women and frequently the non-religious.

MARCH 6, 2023ByKYLIE EISMAN-LIFSCHITZ

The Great Rabbinical Court of Appeals in Jerusalem.

This week in Jerusalem: A hope and a prayer

A weekly round-up of city affairs.

MARCH 4, 2023ByPEGGY CIDOR

WELCOME NEWS for Jerusalem’s cats – and dogs.

Change Jewish marriage methods to free agunot - opinion

Management of iggun assumes that agunah is a necessary, inevitable, unending fact of life. But iggun is not a law of math or terrestrial physics. It is literally, man-made and can and must be unmade.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2022BySHULAMIT S. MAGNUS