Saturday, March 22, 2014

Get with It!

Under Orthodox Jewish law, only a husband has the right to grant a divorce.

"I am chained to a dead marriage," reports Lonna Kin of Monsey, NY, in an article for today's New York Times written by Jennifer Medina.  It's also in the Jewish Journal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/us/a-wedding-amid-cries-of-unfinished-business-from-a-marriage.html?_r=0

http://www.jewishjournal.com/bloggish/item/modern_orthodox_protest_against_agunah_wedding_in_vegas

For nearly ten years Lonna has been trying to obtain the legal document called a get that ends a marriage under Orthodox Jewish law.  

Her divorce under civil law was finalized in 2007, but under religious law she can't remarry without a get.

She's an agunah--a chained wife.

Her ex refuses to issue the get until she gives him $500,000 and full custody of their 12-year-old son.

Meanwhile, he remarries in Las Vegas--with a crowd of Orthodox Jews protesting.

Medina reports "a deepening crisis among Orthodox Jews--hundreds of women held in hostage in a religious marriage, in some cases for years after civil cases have been settled."

These believers have started the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot to publicly shame recalcitrant Orthodox ex-husbands into cooperation.  

The ex, who lives in Las Vegas, has worshipped at two Orthodox synagogues affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.  A maverick rabbi from Monsey granted him permission to re-marry without the get, so that under Orthodox law he now has two wives.

Word to Orthodox Judaism: get with it.  Give women the right to declare a divorce.

Otherwise, Lonna is chained also to a dead religion.

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