A Guide to Jewish Divorce and the Beit Din System was just published on the JOFA website. It is impressive and thorough and will hopefully be a useful resource for couples, families, educators and rabbis involved with Jewish divorce cases. Here is an excerpt from the introduction:
JOFA’s aim is to work with husbands and wives, rabbis and communities so that men and women can enter into marriage with security. In the event of the dissolution of a marriage, we would like to see the incidence of iggun (the state of being an agunah) eliminated. We take this idealistic stand knowing it will take some time to alleviate such a major problem. Until that time, JOFA’s goal is to help educate the community about the divorce process and iggun and particularly, to help litigants in a Jewish divorce make informed decisions as they proceed through the beit din (rabbinic court) system.
They have also published a beit din comparison grid to help provide information on the practical differences between different batei din. For now the list is limited to batei din in the NY Metro area.
You can also check your mailboxes if you're on the mailing list for the JOFA Journal. I just got mine yesterday, and the issue is a comprehensive collection of stories, resources and halakhic explanations of the problems and some of the potential solutions...
Posted by: Esther Kustanowitz | July 28, 2005 at 11:09 PM