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Opinion

The Jewish divorce controversy explained

How and why rabbis are trying to avoid a clash between secular and Jewish law

August 27, 2021 12:51
get refusal.jpg
3 min read

When the government agreed to recognise get refusal as a form of domestic abuse, it was welcomed in the Jewish community as an important step that could help free agunot trapped in a dead marriage. But nothing is quite that simple. 

Over the past few weeks dayanim, women’s groups and civil servants have been holding talks in an effort to avert a potential clash between secular and Jewish law. 

Rabbis fear that if a recalcitrant husband were prosecuted as an abuser and then he offered to give a get to save his skin, the get would be invalid because in the view of halachah it would have been offered under duress rather than freely given. 

According to Jewish law, a get must be given by a man and accepted by a woman of their own volition.