There are numerous women’s rights organizations working in Israel to assist agunos; women are denied a ‘get’ by their husbands. These organizations represent women in the nation’s batei din.

It is now reported the number of women refusing to accept a ‘get’ from their husband exceeds the number of agunos; the women refused a ‘get’ by their husbands.

According to the numbers released on Tuesday 18 Shevat by the Chief Rabbinate Batei Din, 56,000 couples were divorced in the past five years. The beis din does bring the couples to agreement in the overwhelming number of cases. In some cases, couples come with a pre-signed agreement and in many cases, the beis din arranges an agreement with them.

In the past five years, the batei din signed off on 6,950 divorces including 3,566 against the men and 3,384 against the women. In most of the cases, the ‘get’ is a process completed within a month or a few but in 809 cases, one of the couple refuses to give or accept the ‘get’.

Of those 809 cases, there are 382 recalcitrant men as opposed to 427 recalcitrant women. There were 888 rulings to give a ‘get’ in the past five years including 53 compelling it. 69 men were sent to prison for refusing. The women were not imprisoned or punished. In one case, a man has been imprisoned for 14 years – refusing to grant a ‘get’ to his wife.

Regarding granting a heter to marry another woman, this is a complicated procedure that is generally done if the wife is viewed as hopeless in trying to persuade her to accept a ‘get’ or if she cannot accept one due to her medical condition. This heter requires the president of the Supreme Beis Din to sign off on the heter. The file begins in a regional beis din and after the dayanim render their ruling, it is moved to the Supreme Beis Din for a ruling.

If the Supreme Beis Din rules in favor, then it is handed back to the regional level to implement the decision. Between 2012-2017, the beis din released 72 heter decisions. It is also pointed out that the number of husbands jailed for refusing to give a ‘get’ is close to the number of heterim given to husbands to marry a second wife.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)