When Divorce Withheld, Haredim Act – Sort Of

A husband might tell his wife he'll grant the get for $100,000, said Dov Hikind, a New York State assemblyman whose Brooklyn district includes many of ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. "It's one of the most horrendous things I've ever had to witness," Hikind said. "Women who sometimes for a great number of years are literally tied, their hands are tied."

 

When divorce refused, haredi society acts
Religious communities often use coercive tactics to pressure recalcitrant husbands into granting wives a 'get'. Tactics run the gamut from denying social, religious privileges to using financial, legal leverage
Associated Press

Yisrael Briskman's wife in Israel wanted a divorce, and a rabbinical court decided she should be granted one. But Briskman refused and fled to the United States, where the FBI says an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and his wife lured him to their New Jersey home, kidnapped him and said they'd bury him alive in the Pocono Mountains if he didn't relent.

Briskman said he was kicked repeatedly in the ribs at the home in Lakewood, robbed and shown the dark body bag he'd soon inhabit if he didn't free his wife from their marital bonds.

"For you to get used to the size," Rabbi David Wax is quoted as saying in the criminal complaint leading to his surrender to the FBI this month.

If this Sopranos-style plot is true - which the Waxes deny - it is an anomaly. But it's not uncommon for religious communities to use coercive tactics to pressure recalcitrant husbands into granting their wives a "get," or religious divorce. Tactics run the gamut from denying social and religious privileges to using financial and legal leverage.

And while few cases involving unlawful methods have been reported to authorities, rumors abound in insular religious communities about what can happen to someone who keeps a spouse chained to a defunct marriage.

"They take the man to the water, to the Hudson River, and they put his head in and if you don't give the get, you're not coming out of the water," said Estelle Freilich, recounting a story passed back and forth in Brooklyn, home to some of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities outside Israel. Freilich directs the New York-based Agunah International, a group that aids women whose husbands refuse to grant them a get.

The issue grows from the intricacies of Jewish law governing marriage and divorce. In Orthodox Judaism, men and women cannot remarry without a proper rabbinical divorce. Other streams of Judaism in the United States, such as the Conservative and Reform movements, generally honor civil divorces and don't require a separate religious document.
 
'Women literally tied for years'

Orthodox rabbis are required to try to reconcile marriages to prevent divorce, but if that fails, rabbinical courts can issue a divorce decree, or a "get" in Hebrew. But the get isn't valid until both husband and wife consent. If one party refuses, the other cannot remarry or procreate without the children being considered illegitimate and prevented from ever marrying religious Jews.

The aggrieved spouse becomes "aguna" - Hebrew for "chained."

[This is, of course, completely false. Women become agunot (plural of aguna). Men can remarry using a heter mea rabbanim, and they can live with a woman without marriage. The children from that relationship are not tainted in any way, and the man has not committed adultry. But a woman who has been denied a get by her husband and who sleeps with another man after that has committed adultery. Any children born to her are mamzerim, bastards, who cannot marry regular Jews – and neither can their  descendants for 10 full generations. Men have none of these restrictions. – FM editor.]

Religious officials say the vast majority of divorces in their communities are resolved amicably and rarely get to the aguna stage. But disgruntled spouses will occasionally flout the rabbinical courts, either out of spite or in an attempt to extort money or secure favorable divorce conditions. A husband might tell his wife he'll grant the get for $100,000, said Dov Hikind, a New York State assemblyman whose Brooklyn district includes many of ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.

"It's one of the most horrendous things I've ever had to witness," Hikind said. "Women who sometimes for a great number of years are literally tied, their hands are tied."

The situation in the United States and the modern Jewish Diaspora differs from that in Israel and the long-ago Orthodox communities of Eastern Europe because of the issue of jurisdiction. Israel's religious courts are official legal institutions, and can impose sanctions on recalcitrant spouses, ranging from driver's license suspension to imprisonment.

A few hundred years ago, rabbinical courts in isolated Jewish communities in Europe had relative autonomy, said Rabbi Michael Broyde, a law professor at Emory University in Atlanta and a member of the Beth Din of America, the country's largest rabbinical court. American rabbis operate within the realm of legal, protected behaviors to convince a spouse that a get is in order.

"In no way, shape or form does any rabbinical court ever direct conduct against the party that's a violation of secular law," Broyde said. "I've never encountered a story like (the one in New Jersey) in my sittings on a rabbinical court."

But the court can issue a "seruv" - the Jewish equivalent of a contempt of court citation. Such a move directs rabbis to keep the person from receiving certain honors in the synagogue, and can even block entry to the synagogue. In a society where the synagogue is at the center of daily life, often that threat can be enough.

And if that doesn't work, the community can take matters into its own hands. The group ORA, or the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, exists to do just that.

Rabbi Jeremy Stern of New York City, ORA's executive director, said communities can exert social pressure by persuading the spouse's friends and family to shun them and deny them financial support until they give the get. The group has also resolved cases by suing a husband in civil court for infliction of emotional distress, but promising to drop the tort as soon as the divorce is granted.

"From our perspective, the withholding of a get is a form of domestic abuse," Stern said. "The entire community says, 'We won't tolerate this kind of abuse in our community.'"

In Jewish neighborhoods across the country, protests have been organized outside the houses of recalcitrant spouses to embarrass them. Hikind, the Brooklyn assemblyman, said he's personally attended several such demonstrations. Other visible ostracism includes signs posted around the spouse's neighborhood and notices placed in Jewish religious publications.

In Briskman's case, an order by the Israeli rabbinate instructed the community not to do business with him or extend him any kindness. It also urged followers not to give him a place to stay and ordered he serve a year in prison - perhaps one reason he left the country.

Federal prosecutors say Wax, 49, and his wife, Judy Wax, 47, lured Briskman to their Lakewood home in October. He was handcuffed and blindfolded and forced to repeat in English and Hebrew that he would release his wife from the marriage. The couple surrendered to the FBI on kidnapping charges July 18 and are free on bail, pending indictment by a grand jury. They face life in prison if found guilty.

David Wax is also charged with making a telephone threat to Briskman's father in Israel, telling the father he'd get a bullet in the head if he didn't give the wife's family $100,000 within two hours.

Lawyers for David and Judy Wax say they will plead not guilty.

The 'get law'

Community-based sanctions are only effective so long as the individual is tied to that community. As societies have become more fluid and long-distance travel cheaper, it's become easier for a spiteful spouse to skip town and resettle in a place where they won't face repercussions, rabbis said.

"In Lakewood, a relative close-knit community, that would be effective," said Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, a key leader in the enclave of Lakewood, home to about 10,000 Orthodox families and one the world's largest Jewish academies. "This is not done lightly. It's done extremely rarely, when the Beth Din (rabbinical court) has exhausted every other option."

In 2009, a divorce between two Israeli-born Florida residents broke down into extended litigation over the husband's refusal to grant a get unless the wife, Oranit Shaked, agreed to pay legal fees and alimony.

"He knows the impact of what a get would do to me," Shaked testified during the divorce trial. "I have no control over my future. If I want to get married, I can't get married."

The court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction over the religious aspect of the marriage and couldn't force him to give a get. That prompted Shaked's attorney, Martin Kofsky, to approach south Florida lawmakers about introducing a legal remedy for future divorces.

"The response I got was, we have some Orthodox male constituents, and we don't want to lose them," Kofsky said.

To this day, Oranit Shaked's husband, Eran Ben David, has not granted her the get, her attorney said. Shaked, an emergency-room pediatrician, is free to remarry in a civil court, but an Orthodox rabbi would not perform a marriage for her and any children she birthed would be considered "mamzers," or bastards.

In New York State, lawmakers have responded with what's colloquially referred to as the "get law." It requires anyone who was married in a religious ceremony to confirm that they have removed any impediments to their spouse's remarriage before being granted a civil divorce.

The get law is a good start, but doesn't help all couples, said Hikind, the state assemblyman.

"The rabbis, the leaders, they're concerned about this, but what's the solution?" he said. "I just don't know."

All halakhic solutions to the aguna issue have been rejected by leading haredi rabbis – even when those solutions are taken right out of the pages of authoritative rabbinic rulings from the Middle Ages.

In fact, most haredi rabbis hold that a coerced get – meaning one achieved by beating or physically threatening the man or his parents – is not valid, even though this type of coercion was common in rabbinic haistory.

Most of the attempts to resolve the aguna issue have come from Modern Orthodox rabbis, and the state-sponsored Israeli rabbinic courts' powers to jail and coerce recalcitrant husbands date from a time Modern Orthodox and Zionist Orthodox rabbis dominated the rabbinate.

Now that the rabbinic courts are haredi-dominated, their use of these coercive powers has not increased. In fact, they appear to have decreased, with recalcitrant husbands going many years – sometimes more than a decade – before being jailed.

In the US, ORA, the organization cited above by the AP, is not a haredi organization – it is Modern Orthodox.

And what Rabbi Wx and wife allegedly did is extremely rare. The only haredi rabbi of note who backs this type of thing is Rabbi Belsky from Yeshiva Torah Vodaas and OU Kosher.

The truth is, haredim have done next to nothing to resolve the aguna problem, and the AP's story is basically bunk.

Comments

[yechiel spiro]

WHAT DOV HIKIND DOESNT SAY IS ALL THE CASES WHERE THE WOMEN WHO REFUSE TO GO TO A BAIS DIN IN THE FIRSTPLACE, THE WAY JEWS SHOULD BE DIVORCING,AND BRIBE BELSKI OR OTHERS LIKE HIM TO ARRANGE FOR A BEATING/KIDNAPPING AS A MEANS OF EXTORTING A GET FROM HIM. SO NOT EVERY AGUNA CASE IS AN AGUNA. THERE ARE MANY PRETENDERS OUT THERE. see:lonnakin.blogspot.com

[Shmarya]

THERE ARE MANY PRETENDERS OUT THERE. s
Posted by: yechiel spiro | August 28, 2011 at 12:15 AM

Like one out every 500 to 1000.

Just give your wife the get already and stop whining.

[Yoel Mechanic]

Hikind said. "Women who sometimes for a great number of years are literally tied, their hands are tied."
---------------------------------------
I wish proper English language could be used here: he should have said "figuratively tied" Why can't people learn the difference between literally and figuratively?

[Get]

Shmara maybe be as kind and remind people abouta kind man who owns a hat store on kingston ave who hasn't given his wife a GET for like 12 years already

[Jake]

Reform Judaism accepts a civil divorce.

Conservative requires a get within two weeks of a civil divorce decree.
If either party do not do their part in the get process the Concervatives toss the case to their national bet din to do a hakpaat nissuin,basically a annulment of the marriage.

[Daniel Herzl Ben-Dov]

How do you get away with reposting an article from the Associated Press? Are you an AP member, Shmarya?

[CALA NY]

Chassidim are above the law with their behaviors, they do it best. They rob the children of a mother, as punishment for her wanting out of the marriage. Google Chassidim and divorce and see the horrifying stories I have collected. The point is to force a woman to remain in the marriage "or you will never see your kids again for the rest of your life". Pretty. And then, these kids become the molesters of the next generation.

[george]

What this article fails to say is that there are many women who refuse a get. No beth din will isue a get unless bath the husband and wife agree. There are many woman who hold out for money and will not accept a get. Most woman who go thru the get process first have the husbands arrested for abuse in order to force them to submit to their demands.
There are tow sides to the story and the article only presents one side.

[Shmarya]

What this article fails to say is that there are many women who refuse a get. No beth din will isue a get unless bath the husband and wife agree. There are many woman who hold out for money and will not accept a get. Most woman who go thru the get process first have the husbands arrested for abuse in order to force them to submit to their demands.
There are tow sides to the story and the article only presents one side.

Posted by: george | August 28, 2011 at 08:57 AM

Please.

You still can't comprehend what you read, can you.

The article is largely written in a gender-neutral way.

Here's an excerpt:The issue grows from the intricacies of Jewish law governing marriage and divorce. In Orthodox Judaism, men and women cannot remarry without a proper rabbinical divorce. Other streams of Judaism in the United States, such as the Conservative and Reform movements, generally honor civil divorces and don't require a separate religious document.…

Orthodox rabbis are required to try to reconcile marriages to prevent divorce, but if that fails, rabbinical courts can issue a divorce decree, or a "get" in Hebrew. But the get isn't valid until both husband and wife consent. If one party refuses, the other cannot remarry or procreate without the children being considered illegitimate and prevented from ever marrying religious Jews.

The aggrieved spouse becomes "aguna" - Hebrew for "chained."Of course, men are not agunot as I noted in my editorial note:[This is, of course, completely false. Women become agunot (plural of aguna). Men can remarry using a heter mea rabbanim, and they can live with a woman without marriage. The children from that relationship are not tainted in any way, and the man has not committed adultry. But a woman who has been denied a get by her husband and who sleeps with another man after that has committed adultery. Any children born to her are mamzerim, bastards, who cannot marry regular Jews – and neither can their descendants for 10 full generations. Men have none of these restrictions. – FM editor.]Past that, very few women refuse gets compared to the men who withhold gets to extort and/or torture their wives.

The Rabbinute will tell you this. All major batei din dealing with gitten will tell you this.

[george]

That other george is not me. You acn tell by the icon.

[george]

You misunderstood what I said. Most of what you said is correct.
There are as many women who refuse to give a get as there are men.The article is biased in favor of women despite what you answered. A man may have a way out but it happens so infrequently since most rabbonim will not allow it. That said the playing field for divorce is a levelfor both sides.

[Shmarya]

You misunderstood what I said. Most of what you said is correct.
There are as many women who refuse to give a get as there are men.The article is biased in favor of women despite what you answered. A man may have a way out but it happens so infrequently since most rabbonim will not allow it. That said the playing field for divorce is a levelfor both sides.

Posted by: george | August 28, 2011 at 10:59 AM

Please.

There are as many women who refuse to give a get as there are men.

False. As I noted above, the Rabbinute and all major batei din dealing with gittin will tell you that you are wrong.

he article is biased in favor of women despite what you answered. A man may have a way out but it happens so infrequently since most rabbonim will not allow it.

False.

Men can live with a woman while still officially married to his wife.

Women cannot live a man while still officially married to her husband.

A man has the option of heter mea rabbanaim.

Women have no such option.

Give your wife her get already or tell your friend or relative to give one to his and stop lying.

[emes]

One again Shmarya you show that you don't have the foggiest idea what is going on. The most premier Bais Din in Bnei Brak ruled in favor of Mr. Briskman. The rashanta then went to some pals in the rabbanut who tried to rescind the ruling. They had no power to do so and they were severely reprimanded by one of their own, Dayan Fisher. So get your facts first.

Secondly, once a woman goes to secular court she is in contempt of Bais Din and halochoh and cannot receive a Get. A bais din that gives her a get is then just a reformers who will rot in hell with all the YU thugs who conveniently overlook halochoh because they are so enamoured with sex and the female body.

[jancsipista]

emes- dont forget the female body is the real emes not you fershteist.

[george]

To Emes. You are 100% correct.

[Shmarya]

One again Shmarya you show that you don't have the foggiest idea what is going on. The most premier Bais Din in Bnei Brak ruled in favor of Mr. Briskman. The rashanta then went to some pals in the rabbanut who tried to rescind the ruling. They had no power to do so and they were severely reprimanded by one of their own, Dayan Fisher. So get your facts first.

Secondly, once a woman goes to secular court she is in contempt of Bais Din and halochoh and cannot receive a Get. A bais din that gives her a get is then just a reformers who will rot in hell with all the YU thugs who conveniently overlook halochoh because they are so enamoured with sex and the female body.

Posted by: emes | August 28, 2011 at 02:37 PM

Ah, the shoteh gamur returns to spew his lies and stupidity.

1. It doesn't matter who ruled what for Briskman. A recognized beit din had ALREADY ruled against him. Your second shot beit din does not have the halakhic power to ignore or overturn the first beit din.

2. No matter Briskman's status, your contention that a woman cannot go to secular court with the permission of a beit din is absolutely incorrect.

In your perverted, sick little mind, any step taken by a woman to free herself from scum like you is forbidden.

But it is not forbidden – not now and not ever.

You're a shoteh, an ignoramus, a buffoon.

Instead of lying and spewing your stupidity on blogs and the mikva, GIVE YOUR WIFE A GET.

Stop holding her hostage, you disgusting piece of human garbage.

[emes]

Shmaryah

I welcome your opportunity to make an utter and total fool of yourself. Curses from you are like the curses of a donkey.

1) "A recognized Bais Din rule against him already." How can they rule against him when the first Bais Din far more prominent and not bribed ruled in his favor?
2) I understand that you loathe yiddishkeit because you were rejected by the Rubashkins for obvious reasons and then went on a campaign of lunacy and began rejecting every basic tenet of Yiddishkeit. But so did these women do similarly by going to secular court. They do not need Gittin at all. They are apikorsim and all the gedolim ruled one may not marry thjem anyway.

In the following order, please do the following:
1)Get your facts right for once.
2) Get laid and
3) Get psychiatric help. It would appear based on your cursing that ylou really need it.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: emes | August 28, 2011 at 05:29 PM

What a fool you are.

Your lies and your delusions won't carry with most people.

Now go give your wife the get she asked for and shut up.

[Isa]

Suppose the husband is evil will not grant a get short of 'bullet in the brain'

The woman CAN 'remarry' providing that she hooks up with some Reform or Conservative convert that never went to the mikve.
Don't need some 'liberal' ruling that might occur in the future.

No matter what anybody says, the future children are not 'tainted'

True she will have to move away, most probably live in a secular community.

But it is preferable than to be 'chained' or try to employ a 'hit squad' of incompetents that will bungle the job.

[Sam]

Shmarya,

Can you get us some real reporting on the severe beating that took place yesterday that is allegedly also involving a get?

http://www.boroparkscoop.com/2011/08/just-in-home-invasion-person-in-serious-condition.html#more-4028

[Shmarya]

Shmarya,

Can you get us some real reporting on the severe beating that took place yesterday that is allegedly also involving a get?

http://www.boroparkscoop.com/2011/08/just-in-home-invasion-person-in-serious-condition.html#more-4028

Posted by: Sam | August 28, 2011 at 06:38 PM

It isn't yesterday. It was last week, and I reported on it then.

[emes]

shmarya

I am willing to pay for your psychiatric treatment to cure you of your extreme inability to control your anger as well as extreme frustrations for never having exercised all your pent up sexual energy due to your extreme fear of women.

Now get reall you asshole. Since when do we care what the majority of people who can't translate a single line of chumash think. you can reject halochoh as you have already done but you cannot change it . you can become reform, an apikores or even your own brand of jewry call asshole jewry with you being the grand rabbi, you potz, but the fact remains, a get through secular court is invalid. choose where you want to be.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: emes | August 28, 2011 at 07:10 PM

Again, you couldn't paskin your way out of a torn paper bag.

Normative halakha does not hold like you and, as I've pointed out many times previous, pretty much every Rishon doesn't hold like you.

You're a sick, disgusting piece of crap.

Give your wife her get, stop extorting her, and grow up.

[emes]

whatever you say asshole. I am happy to be in the company of the following: Rav Sternbuch, Dayan Fisher, Dayan Abramsky, the Bdatz who all paken that if you are in arko'oys, noget.

But of course you delusional bachelor meshugeneh, you know better. please tell me on which siman in shulchan oruch you are relying on? do you rely on schlechter and willig? they always use the word normative when their halochoh is the secular court.

[Shmarya]

Right. Chose the most extreme haredim, say they hold like you, and declare victory.

And, of course, avoid mentioning all the times they don't hold like you.

Now give your wife her get already and stop extorting her and torturing her.

[emes]

shmarya. anyone who disagrees with you is extreme.

go get a life. if you love women so much, marry one. you are pathologically afraid of them, that's why ypou never married.

[facts]

http://rabbiniccorruptionatrcc.blogspot.com/

http://mamzeralert.blogspot.com/

[jancsipista]

emes- youre the lowest, you call shamrya all those dirty words but it only shows youre true character that you cant take criticism, he shmarya not once used potz or youre other demeaning words now i really know who you are di bist a durnisht.

[jancsipista]

emes- di bist a gurnisht less then zero,

[facts]

jancsipista you obviously never read what shmarya wote. i can take whatever critisim you feel like posting. facts are facts and the emes is that a woman in arko'oys is halachically unable to receive a get.

now go to blazes you ignouramous

[jancsipista]

facts- you must be emes i see youre playing games here changing youre names you cant be honest thats the bottom line youre a fake fraud and a phony towards youreself and others you cant fool me maybee youreself which youre doing nicely.

[chicago sam]

If I were a woman who was being held hostage, I would tell my ex and his stupid rabbi to ge kakan offin yam. What these women really need is not a get, but some "get up and go" and leave Orthodoxy altogether. Women must take responsibility for their decisions.

[Shmarya]

the emes is that a woman in arko'oys is halachically unable to receive a get.

now go to blazes you ignouramous

Posted by: facts | August 29, 2011 at 05:16 PM

That is absolutely false.

You are taking the a priori position of the most extreme rabbis and then applying to everyone else under every circumstance.

95% of Orthodox and haredi rabbis do not support the position you take. Even the 5% who do do so only lechatchila.

You're a shoteh.

Now give your wife her get and stop extorting her.

[facts]

1stly assuming your assertions were correct, we only go after the majority where there is a sofek not a vadai. if we were to go after the majority we would be chrisitans or moslems.

the halkochoh is clearcut. in arko'oys, in cheirem, no get.

are all these rabbis below irrelevant or extreme? get real!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.mishpattsedek.com/KolKoreh-70Rabbis.htm

please produce one godol who claims otherwise.

someone who disputes halochoh can get get married without a get.

[Shmarya]

Please.

As I wrote above you're a fool.

1. This is a very old kol koreh.

2. A number of the rabbis who *allegedly* signed it are dead.

3. The kol koreh prohibits anyone from going to police or secular court unless there is an immediate danger to life.

4. As you know, many hasidic groups go to secular court without meeting the requirements of that kol koreh – including, I think, a group or two whise rabbis signed that kol koreh.

5. The kol koreh ignores the poskim who hold mesirah does not apply in a democracy, and those who hold that it doesn't apply to a broad number of crimes,

6. It is signed by the most extreme haredim, but no one else.

7. Its position is that when a husband refuses to give a get, or when he refuses to go to beit din, a seruv should be issued – but no other steps, like going to secular court, can be taken.

8. This position has resulted in hundreds of agunot worldwide, and it ignore the position of Rishonim and poskim far greater than these men.

9. It puts the term rabbis in quotation marks when referring to rabbis who disagree with them, something that any normal person can recognize immediately as the writing of a kanoi. Rav Pam would never have signed it written that way, yet his name is on it.

10. Shmuel Barenbaum allegedly signed it. His position on mesira allowed Stefan Colmer to sexually abuse dozens of children.

11. There are dozens of rabbis who hold differently from the rabbis who signed that kol koreh (and from those who probably did not sign, but had their names added anyway, as kanoim are want to do).

12. People like you use kol korehs like this to extort your wives and withhold their gets. You're sick. Emes is sick. Not one of those rabbis who signed that kol koreh would support you or support your behavior.

13. Give your wife her get. Stop extorting her. Stop torturing her. Be a man already for once in your pathetic life.

[facts]

1. The Torah is 3,000 years old, a bit older than you.
2. The alleged rishonim you allegedly refer to are dead.
3. The halochoh is that you may not go to the police unless there is a threat of life or safetly, if you don't like it join the reform movement at www.yu.edu
4. The chassidic movements who go to court without a hetter are corrupt.
5.Which poskim hold that mesirah unless related to immediate safety can be done? No gedolim hold that. Democracy does not remove the issur of mesirah.
6. Never knew that Rav Shmuel birenbaum and the Bobbover Rebbe are extreme. Load of BS.
7. You show your complete misunderstanding of halochoh. If someone refuses to go to any Bais Din and are not the nitvah with the right to insist on their own bais din, and a hazmonoh is sent 3 times, then a hetter to go to secular bais din is obtainable.
8. No posek and certainly no rishon holds that if you are oyver mesirah and in arko'oys, you get a get. please name one. King Richard the Lionheart? who. Nmae names and sources please, not bold unsubstantiated statements.
9. and 10. Rav Pam let the corrupt thug issie belsky run around Torah Vodaas. Issie is the one who has pal'ed up to many of the molestors.
11. Rav Elyashiv holds even in a case where a woman has not gone to secular court that unless the man wishes to divorce his wife, he cannot be forced to do so. Is he also extreme? Of course he is but Herschel Schlachter who converted Ivana Trump knowing she would keep nothing now their is the great paradigm of normative halocho. rav Elyashiv can put all your 100's of YU rabbis in his baby finger when it comes to learning
12.There were dozens of Rabbis who wished to sign the Kol Koreh but are weaklings afraid to stand up to Jeremy Stern and the other criminals of the femninist getora et al.
13. When any woman pulls out of arko'oys and goes to bais din, she is welcome to go and petition for the get. if the bais din rules she is entitled to it, she will get it.

[facts]

Your claims that there is no mesirah in a DEMOCRACY are not only disingenious but illogical. If one has a bad character and hates someone, since according to you there is no MESIRAH in the US (being a democracy), then one can just file false allegations against whomever one pleases and it is not mesirah.

Well what do you think these women who want a divorce do all the time? wake up and smell the coffee? Invent abuse and molestation accusations. Not only Shmarya are you foolish but extremely naive. This is mesirah, mesirah and more mesirah. as the shulchan oruch states yordim le'gehonom ledore doros ve'ainom oylim.

have a good chodesh, stop being naive and thinking these women are innocent victims and get a life and find a wife. you are such a humanitarian and compassionate man, there should be lines waiting to marry you. But oops I forgot you collect money for a living, you are not wealthy and these superficial AMerican Japs are interested in one thing materialism.

By the way is it MUTTAR TO MASSER ON YOU to the IRS claiming you do not declare your income?

You'll probably write back and say, you do declare it. Every cent, come on, we know you do not. And even if you do, you the chief Rebbe of tnhe Pie in the Sky chassidim gave us a hetter to maaser on you.

[Dani]

I can't read through all the comments because people are being petty, but in response to the actual article: Shmarya - Rachel Levmor, who works with agunot on behalf of the Beit Din in Israel, told me that over 50% of get withholdings in Australia are women refusing to take a get from their husbands. And it is far from easy to get a heter to remarry, there or elsewhere.
You're right that it's rare in the US and even Israel, but it does happen, and if we're being sensitive to the pain of being trapped in a marriage, we have to acknowledge the men as well.

[Shmarya]

Rachel Levmor, who works with agunot on behalf of the Beit Din in Israel, told me that over 50% of get withholdings in Australia are women refusing to take a get from their husbands.

This may be due a peculiarity of Australian law that removes some of the advantage men have in withholding gets, or it could be because the beit dins in Australia are more progressive on this issue than elsewhere – or it could be someone here isn't telling the truth.

But what is just as likely is that the beit dins in Australia are slow to declare a man in violation but faster to declare a woman in violation.

All over the world in every major beit din, all independent analysis shows far more men withholding gets than women refusing to accept them.

And the penalties for women who are made agunot by men who are extorting them are draconian.

A man whose wife will not accept a get has several options that include pelegish and heter mea rabbonim.

A woman has NO options.