NCJW's Petition to Protect Agunot Yields Pledge of Action from Knesset Leaders

June 6, 2006, Jerusalem, Israel -- On behalf of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), MK Zahava Gal-On today delivered a petition including nearly 2,500 signatures to President Moshe Katsav. The petition urges Israel's leaders to protect agunot, women chained to dead marriages, by facilitating their ability to gain divorces. In the meeting, MK Gal-On also secured a commitment from President Katsav to convene a summit of rabbinical experts, issue experts, and representatives of women's organizations to discuss the tragic situation facing agunot.

MK Gal-On -- who was joined at the meeting by Shari Eshet, director of NCJW's Israel office, and Naomi Houminer, an NCJW member -- was heartened by the president's response.

"I am proud to be part of this effort to speak out with NCJW on behalf of agunot. Women chained to dead marriages face a life of inequality and injustice that simply can not be accepted. I look forward to working with President Katsav to create a forum to address this dire situation."

NCJW President Phyllis Snyder, who presented the petition to MK Gal-On with a delegation of NCJW leaders in May 2006, applauded the proposed action.

"When we presented this petition to President Katsav, we presented more than paper. We presented a promise -- the promise of thousands of members of the National Council of Jewish Women who are committed to safeguarding agunot in Israel and around the world. It is our hope that, through this new forum, we can help to bring an end to the injustice which traps Jewish wives in intolerable marriages and denies them their basic human rights."

NCJW is a volunteer organization, inspired by Jewish values, that works to improve the quality of life for women, children, and families and to ensure individual rights and freedoms for all through its network of 90,000 members, supporters, and volunteers nationwide.

Contact:
Vanessa Schnaidt
212 645 4048 x179; vschnaidt@ncjw.org