The Agunah Crisis: What Is The Answer?
Esther Schonfeld
It continues to amaze me that not all couples are signing halachic prenuptial agreements to eliminate the issue of get-refusal, especially in light of the growing agunah crisis. When I meet with clients and ask why they did not sign a prenuptial agreement, the response is almost always the same–“I never thought this could happen to me.” Others have admitted that they were told it was not necessary.
The newest dispute arises with the International Beit Din, which has been attempting to utilize two halachic tools to resolve cases where a get is being withheld or not accepted. The rabbis use the mechanisms of declaring the witnesses from the wedding not kosher or declaring that there was a preexisting flaw in the husband that was not disclosed to the woman prior to the wedding, so that the marriage was a mistake…
