Thanks in large part to a police checkpoint set up to identify individuals violating Israel's ongoing coronavirus lockdown measured, a man who had been refusing to grant his wife a divorce was arrested and soon thereafter consented to dissolve the marriage.
The man has had refused to grant his wife a divorce for over four years. While the two came to a court-arranged agreement to proceed with the divorce in 2018, the husband reneged on the agreement and has since refused to free his wife from the marriage, rendering her an "agunah."
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An agunah ("anchored") is a Jewish woman who is trapped in a religious marriage as determined by the Halacha – Jewish law. These cases sometimes involved the wives of soldiers missing in action or men who have disappeared under various circumstances, but for the most part, agunot cases involve men who simply refuse to grant their wife a divorce.
Thousands of agunot live in Israel and around the world, waiting to be freed from their marriages.
Five weeks ago, after several hearings seeking to reach an agreement by which the husband refused to abide, a Tiberias court issued an arrest warrant against him.
Through the involvement of the Ohr Torah Stone Yad La'isha Legal Aid Center, an advocacy group dedicated to helping gunot, the efforts to facilitate the divorce were increased.
With news of the warrant, the man reportedly left his job and even his family, telling his children that he was "being tormented by their mother." His whereabouts remained unknown until earlier this week when he was stopped at a police checkpoint in the Modiin area in central Israel that had been set up as part of the efforts to enforce the nationwide corona lockdown over the High Holidays.
When the officer manning the checkpoint ran the man's ID, it was flagged as one linked to the subject of an arrest warrant and the man was immediately taken into custody.
After spending the night in jail, he agreed to grant his wife the divorce unconditionally.
"I have no words to express my gratitude to God and to his remarkable messengers from Yad La'isha and in particular the incredible Adv. Tehila Cohen," the woman said after finally gaining her freedom.
"For the past four years I have been trapped and over these past few months Tehila went above and beyond in order to free me from this status. The professionalism, dedication, care and countless hours working on my case are just a small part of the support I received. I also want to thank the rabbinical court who worked over the Sukkot holiday period to help secure the divorce."
Pnina Omer, director of Ohr Torah Stone's Yad La'isha, also expressed her thanks to the rabbinical court for working to expedite the resolution over the holiday.
"Time and again we're exposed to these stories of women being extorted as part of divorce proceedings. The gett [divorce decree] has become a tool by which women can be abused, extorted, controlled and threatened by their spouse. We can't continue to watch this happen. I take this opportunity to urge the relevant leaders to take responsibility and find halachic solutions that will address agunot and gett-refusers.
"We have a moral responsibility towards our fellow Jewish women to make sure they are not be abandoned to suffer," she said.
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