This past July, Sharon Shenhav, director of the International Jewish Women’s Human Rights Watch and an international women’s rights lawyer, convened a symposium at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs to discuss the halakhic opportunities for agunot (women whose husband refuse to grant them a Jewish divorce). Justice Menachem Elon, Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, and Professor Ze’ev Falk (z’l) joined more than a dozen prominent scholars to deliver papers on the topic.
Rabbi Eliahu Ben Dahan, the representative of Israel’s religious court, defended the rabbinate’s record in eliminating cases of agunot and spoke of the more than 100 files that were settled within the year. He was politely upbraided by Dr. Ruth Halperin Kaderi and Susan Weiss. Dr. Kaderi, who has written extensively on the subject of freeing agunot and Weiss, an attorney who steers women clients through the Bet Din system, pointed out that these women were no longer agunot because they had relinquished most or all of their financial rights to obtain their freedom.
““The supportive handshakes at the symposium in Jerusalem were beartening.””
A note of promise rested with Rabbi Rackman. He declared his commitment to the halakhic validity of the case law used by his Bet Din that frees agunot when the husband refuses to issue a get, even when the marriage is over. While not a display of unanimous support, the many supportive handshakes and discussions following the formal presentation of papers was heartening.