17 March 2011, International Agunah Day. The Center for Women’s Justice (CWJ) is marking International Agunah by calling on the legislators, judges, and decision-makers of Israel to use all the tools at their disposal to release women from the chains of unwanted marriage.

It is unconscionable that in the year 2011 in the modern State of Israel, women’s basic right of freedom to be unmarried if she so chooses is not supported by the government.  CWJ calls for the following solutions:

·         Promoting the use of halakhically valid prenuptial agreements in all Jewish marriages in Israel

·         Instituting oversight of the Rabbinical Courts in Israel

·         Legalizing diverse alternative organizations and institutions in Israel for conducting marriage and divorce

·         Removing the absolute authority for marriage and divorce in Israel from the Rabbinical Courts   

Moreover, based on the study released this week by ICAR and Kolech illustrating that the general public is not aware that prenuptial agreements are available as a preventive measure, CWJ, a proud member of the ICAR coalition, calls on the government to allocate public funds for an education campaign aimed at promoting the widespread use of prenuptial agreements across Israel.

At CWJ, our hope is that Agunah Day will soon become obsolete.

For more information on CWJ solutions to the agunah problem, go to www.cwj.org.il.  Or write to cwj@cwj.org.il