NCJW Israel Program Report February 2010

In this edition:

• Message from Shari Eshet
• The International Coalition Of Agunot Rights (ICAR)
• The Center for Women's Justice (CWJ)

Dear friends,

February 25th is International Agunot Day, and while it was designated as such only seven years ago, the agunot issue has been around for 2,000 years and has been a focus of NCJW activities for over one hundred years.
 
At the beginning of the 20th century, the NCJW women of America would help Jewish women in Europe look for husbands who had disappeared in the "Goldena Medina" of America -- and had left them agunot (chained to a marriage) in pre-World War I Europe. With typical NCJW gumption, the NCJW women would track down many of these husbands, armed with only an old address and Hebrew name to go on. If found, the usually remarried husbands were either "asked politely," or not very politely -- as bigamy is illegal in the United States and warrants deportation -- to sign on the dotted line. Some husbands truly wanted to bring their wives and children over but were embarrassed that they could never earn enough money to do so. NCJW women would generously give them the money and help with the papers to bring their wives over.
 
Over the next hundred years, NCJW would sign petitions and work with what ultimately became the International Council of Jewish Women to find recalcitrant husbands in order to free women chained to unwanted marriages all over the world. Today, Jewish women continue to work together to find creative new solutions that would not leave the decision in the hands only of men, but would allow for pre-nuptial arrangements and other legal ways of freeing women from the unilateral power of the husband to divorce. While in some circumstances women can divorce men, only men can form new relationships without a get and have legitimate children from such a relationship.
 
Here in Israel, a democratic Jewish state, religion and state are not separate. However, one thing should be clear: women and their status under law should not be up for grabs. Women's issues such as abortion, marriage, divorce, conversion, and child support should not be used as weapons in political and religious confrontations within the State of Israel. Jewish law, in its pure and original form, calls for dignity, honor, and respect for Jewish women. Politics -- as is usually the case when it becomes tangled with religion -- has made a mockery of that Jewish value.
 
We at NCJW, along with the Israeli organizations that we support, believe that women need to be taken out of the religion-politics fight. In this edition of the Israel Program Report, I have included two short updates on the International Coalition on Agunot Rights (ICAR) and the Center for Women's Justice -- both of which have been supported for several years with grants from NCJW's Israel Granting Program. These organizations are fearless and successful advocates for agunot rights for women in Israel and all over the world. So, please remember the agunot on February 25th -- the Fast of Esther, the day before the celebration of Purim -- in whatever way you find appropriate for your community, your section, your synagogue, your family. You can find a special reading for Purim on NCJW's website.

As a recipient of this newsletter, you'll also receive alerts from NCJW when there are opportunities to speak out on behalf of women in Israel. Please share the power of the NCJW Action Center with your friends and family, by sending them a link to sign up and take action, too.

Chag Purim Sameach, 

Shari Eshet
Director, NCJW Israel Office

ICAR is a coalition of groups working to create social change for women through legislation. In November 2008, ICAR won passage of an amendment to Israel's  property division law which limits a husband's ability to use the power of the get to extort a property or other settlement during the divorce process. The bill was drafted and initiated by ICAR and its passage was due to the hard work and combined efforts of all 27 member organizations, including NCJW. At crucial moments, NCJW members and supporters like you rallied to send messages in support of the bill directly to the Israeli Knesset. The new law is the most important change to family law in Israel in the past 30 years and will help thousands of women and children annually.

Over the years, ICAR's efforts have helped stop the ongoing attempts to expand the authority of the rabbinical courts beyond personal status issues. The fight against this bill continues to this day, and only last month, ICAR thwarted yet another effort to pass the bill in the ministerial legislative committee of the Knesset.

For more information on this and other issues relating to women in Israel, read NCJW President Nancy Ratzan's most recent op ed on the rights of women in Israel.  

CWJ is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance the rights of women to equality, dignity, and justice under Jewish law. By filing strategic lawsuits, advocating creative approaches to Jewish law, and engaging the media and policy makers, CWJ promotes systemic solutions to the complex religious dilemmas that challenge the status of Jewish women, particulalry regarding matters surrounding divorce and conversion.

CWJ has adopted both "top-down" and "bottom-up" strategies to achieve its mission and goals, targeting its appeals for change both to Israeli elites -- its courts, the academia, and the Knesset, as well as to the public at large -- students, newlyweds, housewives, and business people. As part of its public education program, CWJ has created a series of YouTube videos based on true stories taken from cases before the religious courts in Jerusalem that deal with marriage and divorce.