LEGAL COUNSEL AND REPRESENTATION
Twenty percent of women who get divorced in Israel experience blackmail or are denied a divorce. Sometimes it’s hard to label an experience when it is happening to you. Throughout the years we have met many women who don’t know that a divorce process doesn’t have to be this way.
If one of the following happens to you, you are likely being refused a Get or are in danger of being an Agunah:
- Your husband sets conditions for the divorce.
- Your husband claims he wants “Shalom Bayit” in court despite the fact that you live separately.
- Your husband is artificially delaying the divorce proceedings.
- Your husband has disappeared within Israel or has fled abroad and does not show up for hearings.
- Your husband threatens to flee abroad as part of the discourse surrounding the divorce.
- Your husband has a medical condition that makes him unable to provide a Get.
- The case is stuck in court and there has been no significant progress.
We have been representing Agunot and those denied a divorce in their struggle for a Get for over twenty years. Using the legal and halakhic knowledge accumulated in the organization, we present the grounds for filing a divorce to the courts, and demand that sanctions be imposed on the husband until a Get is granted. Where necessary, we also deal with the appeals, subpoenas, delivery of the Get, etc. If the husband is unable to provide a Get or is not present, we seek creative halakhic solutions to free the wife from her marriage without a divorce. In cases where the national courts do not provide an appropriate solution, we also enlist the help of private courts.
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Want to learn more?
Read the stories of some of the women we helped.
A's story
S’s story
S. was married for only a few years, during in which time she had two children. After the birth of her second child, her husband was arrested on suspicion of fraud and organ trafficking. The shocked S. was left alone with two children, unable to support them on her own. Her husband’s parents refused to help her, and all the burden of caring for her children and their upbringing fell on S and her parents. With the help of Mavoi Satum, S. filed a claim for child support against her husband’s parents. After many hearings, a compromise was reached, where the husband’s parents pay NIS 1,500 a month for their grandchildren’s child support, thus making it easier for S. to provide financial stability to her children.
K’s story
K – a French immigrant – had four children with her husband. When K lived with her husband in France he abused her, didn’t support the family or take care of the children .The family immigrated to Israel but her husband refused to stay. K. filed for divorce, but on the day the lawsuit was served, the husband left Israel and left K. an Aguna. Bet din representatives urged K’s husband to grant her a divorce, but he refused. Mavoi Satum filed a lawsuit on behalf of K, which was delivered to her husband in France. The husband did not respond and the bet din gave a verdict without his response. K. received compensation for her aginut to the amount of NIS 124,000, which she can collect from her husband’s share in the apartment they purchased in Israel.
D’s story
D was married for 10 years and spent 6 of those years trying to separate from her husband .She filed a claim for child support in the Bet Din , and a divorce agreement was signed between the parties in which custody and child support was agreed upon. It was also decided to settle mutual claims. Despite the signed agreement, D’s husband refused to grant her a divorce and he demanded “shalom bayit” even though they had been living apart for over a year. After a number of hearings the bet din demanded that D’s husband grant her divorce since the parties were separated and he was not fulfilling any of his duties as a husband or a father.
Despite the ruling ordering the husband to grant a get, the husband refused to do so on several occasions when he was summoned to the bet din. At this point D approached Mavoi Satum, and we began to represent her. We applied to the bet din to compel the husband to grant a divorce and for the bet din to impose sanctions against him. The parties were granted a hearing in which the husband did not appear. The bet din preferred to settle the issue through mediation but the mediation failed . Mavoi Satum appealed to the bet din to immediately issue a “chiyuv get” (a divorce order) and a restraining order including a ruling that he must pay child support. Following our request D’s husband granted her a divorce after 7 years of separation.