Women protest plan to expand power of rabbinical courts
During a recent trip to one of the conferences held across the U.S. and Canada recently on tackling domestic violence, I had an interesting dialogue with some Jewish women about the problem of Agunah - or "a chained woman." It came down to some feeling that the male-dominated religious leaders in Judaism were furthering the abuse by invalidating the women asking to leave the marriage. Almost all said rabbis they knew would minimize the man's abuse or cheating and tell the women they had to stay & "work it out." Of course it only got worse.
The answer to this problem lies in our leadership taking a hard, long and honest look at the needs of these women. Keeping the family together is good - but not when one member puts their needs above the family or has a personality disorder that is making that impossible. Indeed, it hurts the family more when a civil break would help heal wounds and restore sanity to the family in psychic pain from covert or overt abuse. I support these women in their struggles.
"Remember, its not what they say, its what they DO you have to pay attention to!"
Members of 25 groups that support women who were refused a divorce rally in front of PM's Office against plan to broaden jurisdiction of rabbinical courts
Neta Sela Members of Icar, the International Coalition for Agunah Rights, which includes 25 organizations that support women who were refused a divorce, rallied in front of the Prime Minister's Office Sunday in protest of a plan to expand the jurisdiction of the rabbinical court to apply also after the divorce was granted.
The women's groups are concerned that a new bill approved by the ministerial committee on legislation last week may benefit men while hurting women. The bill puts the authority for exercising the court's rulings in the court's hands, rather than in the hands of the enforcement authorities like it used to be in the past.
"The haredi MKs threaten a coalition crisis day-in day-out and the cabinet members cave in to their demands every time and impose on the public decrees that are impossible to bear," Ikar representatives said.
"The bill undermines the status quo on state and religious affairs, and hurts women who are undergoing a divorce or those who have been refused one" they said. "The bill is part of a growing trend to expand the rabbinical court's authority at the expense of women in Israel."ORIGINAL
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