Orthodox feminists push for agunot

By · February 28, 2007

An Orthodox feminist group is launching an advertising campaign on behalf of agunot, whose husbands refuse to give them a get, or Jewish bill of divorce. The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance campaign, which includes a petition with nearly 2,000 signatures calling for rabbis and the Orthodox community to end the plight of agunot, is timed to coincide with the observance of the Fast of Esther on Thursday. “The plight of agunot is a disgrace to all Jews who adhere to Jewish law,” JOFA President Carol Kaufman Newman said. “It is our obligation to challenge those rabbinic courts which operate clandestinely and are arbitrary in their rulings to issue clear guidelines that will resolve this injustice.” JOFA took out a six-page advertisement in The New York Jewish Week under the headline “Does Anybody Hear? Does Anybody Care?” which includes signatories’ names. The situation of agunot, who are unable to remarry without a religious divorce, has figured high on the agenda of the 10-year-old feminist alliance.