Free the Agunot

The Agunah crisis has become an embarrassment for the Jewish community. 

While the issue has long been a stain on our people, it has now reached far beyond our community through the internet and other media, with petitions now directed at high-ranking U.S. government officials, asking them to pressure their employees to give Gittin (Jewish divorces) to their chained wives (Agunot). 

We call on every recalcitrant husband to immediately grant Gittin to their ex-wives, but the most effective solution, with the broadest reach, would be one that focuses on the real source of the problem: the Halakhic (Jewish legal) grounding that grants these husbands the power to chain their wives to failed marriages.  While these men may be abusing the system, it is the system that must be changed in order to free these women. 

We the undersigned members of the Jewish community therefore call on rabbinic authorities around the globe to put an end to this shameful crisis once and for all, and enact one of the many solutions that have been put forward by well-respected rabbis such as those that would render the original marriage invalid or authorize Batei Din (Jewish courts) to free these women.  Anything less would be an abdication of their halachic responsibilities and will only allow the problem to continue, bringing more shame on the Jewish community.