The Jerusalem Post did an in-depth interview with Rabbi Ben-Dahan, Administrative Head Rabbi of the Rabbinical courts. Ben-Dahan points out that divorcing couples with mutually acceptable agreements win a get in two months. But he admits that about four percent of the cases take longer than one year to resolve.

Rachel Azaria, director of Mavoi Satum, an organization which advocates for and aids women who have been denied a get, states there are thousands of women left in limbo. This group asserts that many husbands who refuse a get for their spouses go on to live with other women.

Azaria believes the rabbis have tools to use against recalcitrant husbands. The court can freeze the husband's bank accounts, revoke driver's license or send them to prison.

I think these men use "financial blackmail," hoping to talk their wives out of support, division of property and child support. Women, willing to give up their rights, finally end up with a divorce. Or, wives with greater financial means buy themselves out of a marriage.

I read in The Christian Science Monitor that the rabbinate acknowledges there are between a few dozen and 200 dead-ended cases at any one time. Others say those numbers are incorrect.

It is clear to me that women in the Israel orthodox community enjoy an inferior status. In hearings for a get, women are told to sit and listen, be quiet and allow the husband to present his side only. Because of the number of complaints, the rabbinate called a conference to address the get issues but women and media were to be excluded. Because of dissension, the conference was canceled.

How can issues of divorce denial be discussed if women are to be excluded? So long as the husband has to agree to a get, religious women in Israel are disadvantaged and are at the mercy of their spouse and the rabbinical courts.

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