New York—The International Agunah Beit Din, under the supervision of Rabbi Simcha Krauss, will begin functioning in February. The announcement was made by Blu Greenberg, President of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA), at the organization’s bi-annual conference held last Sunday at John Jay College. The Beit Din will refer to and consult with experts, generally leaving decisions about financial and custody matters in the hands of secular courts. The Beit Din will have one ultimate goal: to free agunot (chained women) from the bondage of a non-functioning marriage. More than 1,000 women attended the conference.
For the first time since Rabbi Emanuel Rackman’s attempt to set up a Bet Din to free agunot in the 1990s—one shut down by opposition from mainstream Orthodoxy—and after centuries of frustration and inaction affecting one of the most complex of human relationships, the methods of dissolving marriage are being seriously challenged from within the Torah community.
For a thousand years, limited rabbinic remedies to end a failed marriage have been available. Annulment could be granted based on several conditions, among them invalid money transfer (the ring) or lack of full disclosure by bride or groom. Would the marriage have taken place if the woman or man had prior knowledge of pertinent information? Divorce “because I want to…” was far more difficult and required the cooperation of both parties: the husband had to give the get, the wife had to accept/reject it.
Then recalcitrant husbands discovered “get-mail.” It was nothing like “you’ve got mail.” Get-mail is when a woman needs a divorce because she lives under intolerable circumstances, especially in cases involving domestic violence and verbal abuse, and her husband holds her and her family over a barrel, because he has the power to withhold the get for money, custody and whatever terms he decides will give him what he wants. Even then, there is no guarantee he will grant the get. The Agudath Israel is against even pre-nups because “They set the wrong tone at the start of a marriage.” And yet it is the agunah issue more than any other in Orthodox Judaism that confronts, head on, the notion that halakha is based on ethics and human rights. Only last month, rabbis, who were ostensibly on the side of freeing agunot, were busted by the FBI for all kinds of unsavory reasons, not the least of which was inflicting torture on recalcitrant husbands.
Even with the prenuptial “agunah-prevention” agreements that are signed by many Modern Orthodox and some yeshivishe couples, more than 50% of Orthodox women in Israel have reported that their husbands have warned their wives that they would suffer from loss of home, sustenance and children if they wanted a get—not to mention how they would clean out her parents… In haredi communities in Israel that number is even higher.
Much of the status of the get situation in the international Orthodox world was discussed last June at a special JOFA Conference in New York, featuring agunah activists, legal and Torah scholars, rabbis, and Israeli politicos. The biggest challenge, the panelists said then, and Krauss said now, is acceptance from the haredim and the office of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. He hopes the haredim will see that the Modern Orthodox have offered a solution that could be emulated by them. The Israeli Rabbinate approval is important if the Beit Din is to carry weight in the Israeli court system. As he told Jewish media, “No one wants agunot.”
Prior to undertaking the leadership of the International Beit Din, Krauss sought the counsel of scholar Rabbi She’ar Yashuv Cohen, president of Haifa’s rabbinic courts and former chief rabbi of Haifa, and other rabbinical authorities. Noted rabbis and legal experts have given their support and their name to the formation of the International Beit Din. Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, an early supporter of pre-nups, is a much respected rosh yeshiva, posek and chief justice of the rabbinical high court in Jerusalem. A third prominent Israeli rosh yeshiva is also giving his support but asked to remain nameless at this time.
The International Beit Din was incorporated in the United States. Six to ten dayanim (judges), none of them women, will sit on the panel. Already chosen are Rabbi Yosef Blau, longtime mashgiach ruchani (spiritual advisor) at Yeshiva University and Rabbi Joseph Polak, who was Hillel director at Boston University and chairs the halakha committee of the Boston Beit Din. In addition, colleagues in the mental health professions will work with court. While women will not be dayanot, they will act as advocates.
The prime objective of the Beit Din will be to issue a get on a case by case basis. Time limits for the resolution of cases will be established and no money beyond established fees will ever be paid. “Total transparency within the protection of privacy… is a core principle,” assured Greenberg. The court will consider “pre-existing deficits including studies of violence and abuse.”
It is anticipated that the International Beit Din will be a teaching mechanism, and will act as a model for all batei din. “Its goal is to free agunot and ultimately self-destruct,” said Greenberg.
The new Beit Din will be empowered to find solutions. Rabbi Adam Mintz, one of the rabbis on the Beit Din, told the story of how, in 1928, Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin recognized that halakhic solutions alone were not enough to solve the agunah situation in America. But Orthodox support was missing, especially when the Conservative Movement issued its decrees regarding the matter. Mintz then told the story of Rabbi Akiva and the Roman authorities discussing agunot, wherein agunot were likened to the poor, and like the poor, they must be supported and assisted.
“We must be the community of support for the new Beit Din… is our job, in the spirit of Rabbi Akiva, to protect this new Beit Din from detractors and see it established as an accepted norm in the Jewish community…Backing down is an approach in insecurity. If we have the self confidence, if we have a community that is firmly committed, we will move forward.”
Simply put, the goal of the International Beit Din is to free agunot. “We will,” stated Blu Greenberg, “line up the political ducks to assure support. We need to get the support of the community.” Rabbi Krauss, she said, has been vetting prospective dayanim to assess their character, integrity, commitment and latitude of interpretation. The Beit Din “will respond to the needs,” she assured. “Delays will not be tolerated.”
“We are at a critical moment in the history of Torah Judaism …On the agunah issue we have an opportunity to basically strengthen the (American and Israeli) community because this is a shared issue.” Noting that “for the first time women are now part of the halakhic and Torah community,” she said, “ we have strength we never had before….If there is one community between the United States and Israel [that cares about the plight of agunot], there will be strength to accept the (Beit Din’s) decisions.”
Rabbi Asher Lopatin, another participating rabbi, and the Rosh Yeshiva of Chovevi Torah in Riverdale said, “In some ways the problem of agunah is unifying us,” said the scholar. “As long as we have recognized poskim, the Beit Din is something people all over the Orthodox world will see.” He predicted “people will be flooding to this Beit Din. The problem is universal, one shared by the entire community.”
The International Beit Din is not affiliated with any political party or organization. It does hope to have its decisions received by Israel’s Minister of the Interior. Although it anticipates experiencing a shortfall of funds, Greenberg said “we will seek contributions: it will be the responsibility of the community….Everybody wants to end this problem.” Securing money, predicted Greenberg “will be the easiest fundraising I’ve ever done.”
Rabbi Simcha Krauss is the thirteenth generation of fourteen generation of rabbis. He was a pulpit rabbi at several Young Israel congregations, taught at Yeshiva University in New York, and was president of the Religious Zionists of America. In 2005, he made aliyah and now teaches at Yeshevat Eretz Hazi in Jerusalem.
He told the Jewish Week, “I am not a revolutionary, and I understand that halakha [Jewish law] moves slowly, but it’s been too slow. It’s time.” In the meantime, the Rabbincal Council of America Executive Director, Rabbi Mark Dratch, told them that doesn’t know enough about the new Beit Din’s approach to condemn or support—though he admits that some of the rabbis involved do have credibility. The RCA wants to see the game plan before they decide, one way or another.
One thing is certain. This Beit Din, according to reactions of other RCA rabbis when they hears the names of the rabbis involved, and who prefer to remain off the record, say it is definitely “problematical,” and cannot be dismissed. One was pessimistic enough to tell the JLBC, “Someone will get to She’ar Yashuv Cohen and he will back off.”
By Maxine Dovere
