They have done it. At long last, the rabbis with heart and the rabbis with courage, who promised women over a year ago, that they would establish a special beit din to deal with issues of igun, have done so in Riverdale, NY, just across the Hudson from Bergen County.

They promise to work on the issues of freeing agunot, the chained women who are left in limbo forever, unless they cave to the demands of their recalcitrant husbands…and in cases of women refusing the get, making sure that the men get a fair shake too.

While mainstream rabbanim for the moment are taking a wait and see attitude, to determine whether or not they will accept the rulings of this beit din, Rabbi Simcha Krauss, who moved back to the US from Israel to be the Av Beit Din, promises that there will be transparency in all things, including the reasoning that they will use when making a psak din, something that is NOT required, but that they will do, anyway.

In actual agunah cases, they will not charge any fees. Their funding comes from donations and foundations, and this is a good thing, too. Money, is, after all, the main issue in most of these cases. And keeping things clean is paramount. We appreciate this transparency as well.

We offer a yasher koach to the dayanim, Rabbi Simcha Krauss, Rabbi Ronnie Warburg (a life-long Teaneck resident and expert on hilchos gitten and inyanim regarding igun) and Rabbi Yosef Blau, Dean at Yeshiva University and a dayan on the geirus committee, who have shown courage in their attempt to put an end to the nightmare of agunot and get-mail, and doing it scrupulously and transparently.

We hope the community will accept this beit din and abide by its decisions–if only to prevent women and children from being pushed off the derech.