It’s an embarrassing fact that Jewish women trying to get a get (writ of divorce) from recalcitrant husbands are often better protected by secular courts than they are by Jewish batei din.
According to Haaretz, a court in Israel has taken another major step forward in relieving agunah issues.
A husband who refused to divorce his wife was ordered to pay her NIS 550,000 in compensation for the mental anguish he caused her.
Moreover, though the wife held a rabbinic ruling ordering her husband to grant her a get – a religious divorce – the Jerusalem Family Court ruled that a husband’s refusal to do so could entitle the woman to compensation. That applied even if the wife lacked a religious ruling.
