Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State: Israel's Civil War (Brandeis Series on Gender, Culture, Religion, and Law & HBI Series on Jewish Women)
“An important new book on an important issue.”  —Jewish Ideas Daily“Weiss and Gross-Horowitz’s important book expertly chronicles the stories of six agunot, literally “chained women” – women who wait for years to be released from their unwanted marriages. The authors vividly portray the many problems involved in the divorce process in Israel, in which all divorces of all Jews must go through the state-backed rabbinical court. The narratives about women’s destroyed lives are interwoven with incisive legal-halakhic analysis, Israeli legislative history and political philosophy.”—Lilith“What to do about get refusal has become, at last, a major issue of concern for the Modern Orthodox community. . . . A timely and useful book. . . . Compulsively readable, gory with injustice. ”—Forward“The book details the personal stories of six women, trapped for years by vindictive men who abused them mentally, emotionally, and physically, and at the end of the day destroyed their lives forever. Each account tells the story of a specific woman and her personal struggle to become unchained from a recalcitrant husband, some cases lasting almost twenty years. These six women are not all religious, yet due to the nature of divorce in Israel, they were all in the same awful predicament when they chose to end their marriages... A disturbing portrayal of the nature of modern divorce in Israel.”—Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews