S had a problematic relationship with her husband from the outset of her marriage. She suffered from violence that manifested itself in harsh verbal outbursts towards her, and her children. Her husband was diagnosed as needing psychiatric medication.

After three years of marriage, she filed for divorce but because her husband asked for “shalom bayit” she withdrew her request for divorce.  After attempts to rehabilitate the relationship between S and her husband  failed S applied for a divorce a second time.

This lawsuit was filed after professional attempts to rehabilitate the relationship came to naught, and after a hearing was held regarding alimony and the dissolution of the partnership in the apartment in the family court.  S. asked the bet din  to compel her husband to grant her a divorce on the basis of the violence he perpetrated against her and their children , his problematic behavior and unstable mental state. The bet din ruled that the parties should simultaneously undergo treatment by a clinical psychologist.

The psychologist determined that there was no chance that the parties could live together and that S’s husband suffered from a psychiatric illness that needed to be treated with medication. However 6 months later the bet din ruled that the couple needed to try to reconcile in spite of S’s husband problematic behavior.  S. informed the bet din that she would not return to live with her husband. Subsequently her husband requested that S be declared a “moredet” (rebel) by the bet din.

After a further year and a half of hearings, the bet din concluded that the wife’s divorce claim should be dismissed, and that her husband should not be required to give her  a get. The court recommended that the couple reconcile despite the psychiatrist’s professional opinion . S. appealed to the supreme rabbinic court and Rav Dichovski ruled that her husband had to give her a divorce within 30 days and if not he would be coerced to do so.

She appealed to the regional court to set a date for the divorce but the court preferred to ignore Rav Dichovski’s ruling to enforce the get.

This led S. to appeal again to the supreme rabbinic court and request that her husband grant her a divorce. S.’s husband agreed to give her a divorce for thirty thousand shekel and she rightly refused. In a subsequent hearing, the court demanded that the husband grant S a divorce and finally her husband granted her a get.

S was interviewed once she received her get:

“It was a difficult and dark time for me. The abuse I suffered from my husband was no less than the abuse I suffered by the batei din for not releasing me from my awful predicament and deciding that I should live with a person who was abusing me. Lucky for me, thanks to Mavoi Satum and thanks to the judge Rabbi Shlomo Dichovski I am a free woman today!

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 –  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 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.