Iggun: Halakhic or Political Problem?
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There are halakhic methods to free agunot, without the husband's cooperation:
-- hafkaat kiddushin: the beit din's retroactive annulment of the marriage;
-- get zikkui: a get given by a bet din to free the get- refusing husband of the offense of refusing to give a get, thus conferring a benefit to him, which can be done without his consent or even his knowledge.
Few Orthodox rabbinic courts apply these methods widely or at all, and several that have done so have been subjected to organized defamation, delegitimization, and intimidation campaigns.
Some Orthodox courts use these methods but refuse to make that public, thereby foreclosing help to agunot as a whole and refusing to be a vehicle in ending iggun by normalizing the freeing of agunot as policy:
if men knew that wives would be freed by rabbinic courts if they were being coerced to stay in the marriage or extorted to exit it, iggun would cease.
Shulamit Magnus’ book, Jewish Marital Captivity: The Past Present, and End of a Historic Abuse, documents all this and demonstrates the ego and organizational politics behind actions to shut down courts that free agunot and the institutional, political, and financial benefits of keeping iggun going, not ending it.
Project Miriam will list information only about courts that have a declared or documented, de facto, policy of freeing all agunot using established halakhic methods.
It is the policy of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement to use all halakhic methods to free agunot, with a commitment to that outcome in all cases.
The following is the communication by the outgoing Av Beit Din (Head of the Court) of the Joint Beit Din of the Conservative movement, Rabbi Lionel Moses, describing its process:
“The website of the Rabbinical Assembly (RA) lists all the certified Mesadderei Gittin in the Conservative Movement. If the person making the inquiry does not know rabbis in the Conservative Movement, they can contact the office of the Rabbinical Assembly, which will help them find a certified Mesadder/et Gittin.
“Once a person selects a certified RA Mesadder/et Gittin, he or she will be given the contact information for the Mesadder/et Gittin. The two parties can then talk on the phone, meet on Zoom or in person. The Mesadder/et Gittin will then start trying to find the spouse, speaking with him or corresponding with him and encouraging him to authorize the Mesadder Gittin to write the Get.
“Should the encounters with the spouse fail to gain the cooperation of the spouse, the case is turned over to the Joint Beit Din of the Conservative Movement. The Mesadder/et Gittin then is instructed by the Av Beit Din to create a detailed dossier of all correspondence and all forms of communication, both written and oral, which the Mesadder Gittin has had with the spouse, thereby providing evidence of spousal recalcitrance, or worse.
“Each member of the Joint Beit Din is sent a copy of the dossier, and if the case is clear cut, a virtual vote is held to approve Hafqa'at Kiddushin. The Mesadder/et Gittin is then authorized to write a Shtar Hafqa'at Kiddushin and to send it to the woman, indicating that the original Kiddushin were null and void ab initio and the woman is free to remarry whomever she chooses to marry.
“That is a brief outline of the process that, for the most part, leads to the delivery of a Get, but where that is impossible to achieve, the woman is freed to remarry under the aegis of Hafqa'at Kiddushin.
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“Obviously, each case is sui generis and requires the expertise and pastoral skills of the certified Mesadderei Gittin.”
The following is the statement of the mesader gittin of the Masorti movement in Israel, stating that Masorti follows this same policy:
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"The RA follows the same policy in Israel as outlined by Rabbi [Lionel] Moses. We operate under the auspices of the Joint Beit Din, of which Rabbi Moses serves as Av Beit Din.
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" I have served as the Rabbinical Assembly’s Mesadder Gittin in Israel for the past two decades.
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"Rabbi Shlomo Zacharow."
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Project Miriam welcomes and will publicize information about any rabbinic court that has a declared or empirically evidenced policy of, and commitment to, freeing agunot using established halakhic methods, with no payoffs.