By: Ariella Haviv

In a landmark resolution to one of Israel’s longest-standing cases of get refusal, a woman who had lived for over 20 years as an agunah—a Jewish woman chained to a marriage due to her husband’s refusal to grant a “get” (a religious divorce) was finally released from her marital captivity this week.

As reported by VIN News on Wednesday, the breakthrough was made possible through an unprecedented joint initiative involving the President of Israel, the Minister of Justice, the Rabbinical Court system, and the Public Defender’s Office. The case, which has drawn the attention of both civil and religious authorities for over two decades, concluded in the Rabbinical Court of Safed (Tzfat), where the man ultimately signed the get, the religious document required to finalize a Jewish divorce.

The couple had originally married in the United States, where they raised three children. In 2002, the woman sought a divorce through a U.S. rabbinical court, but her husband refused to participate in the proceedings. A contempt order was issued against him, but no further progress could be made.

Nearly a decade later, in 2011, the man traveled to Israel to attend his son’s bar mitzvah. At that point, the woman refiled for divorce in the Israeli Rabbinical Court system. The court issued an order preventing the man from leaving the country. Despite rulings from both the regional Rabbinical Court and later the Great Rabbinical Court, the man refused to comply with the judicial mandate to grant a get.

According to the information provided in the VIN News report, the Israeli judiciary imposed escalating measures to compel the man to comply. In a rare decision, the civil courts sentenced him to prison in 2012 for refusing a court-ordered get, where he served seven years. During his incarceration, the Rabbinical Court implemented further sanctions, including revoking his access to strictly kosher food in prison—one of the harshest measures permissible under halacha and law. Still, the man persisted in his refusal.

The case took a dramatic turn in 2019 when, in an exceptional legal maneuver, the Israeli police prosecution charged the man with criminal contempt for “violating a court order intended to protect a person.” He was tried and convicted in the Haifa Magistrate’s Court and sentenced to an additional 18 months in prison. His appeal was subsequently denied.

At this juncture, Attorney Avraham Sofer, representing the man through the Public Defender’s Office, presented a proposal: the man would agree to grant the get in exchange for a presidential pardon and immediate release. As VIN News reported, this proposal initiated a delicate and multifaceted negotiation process that required the involvement of top legal and rabbinical authorities, as well as political and humanitarian actors.

The proposed resolution prompted swift action from the Pardons Department of the Ministry of Justice, led by Attorney Limor Goldenberg-Hadad. The department reviewed the legal and humanitarian dimensions of the case and engaged in direct dialogue with a representative from the Rabbinical Court who had long advocated for the woman.

As the case details were compiled and analyzed, the Pardons Department submitted a comprehensive recommendation to both the Minister of Justice and the President of Israel, citing the woman’s prolonged suffering and the extraordinary circumstances at play.

The woman had not only endured decades of marital captivity, but was also facing a serious medical condition that added urgency to her plea for freedom. Her request was ultimately framed as a humanitarian appeal for state intervention in the face of religious injustice.

Following the Pardons Department’s recommendation, both Justice Minister Yariv Levin and President Isaac Herzog reviewed the case. In a move described by VIN News as unprecedented in recent memory, President Herzog agreed to commute the man’s sentence—on the explicit condition that he grant the get without further delay.

A special court session was convened in Safed, attended by the husband, legal representatives, and Rabbinical Court officials. After extensive deliberation, the man finally relented and signed the get, which was immediately validated by the court. Only then did the President’s Office issue the formal letter of sentence reduction, finalizing the man’s release from prison.

President Herzog’s office issued a formal statement recognizing the significance of the decision: “The decision in this case was a necessary step. The President of Israel has done and will continue to do everything in his power to assist women who are denied a get in their distress. The power of pardon is a vital social tool that occasionally provides solutions to complex social and humanitarian issues.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin acknowledged the moral complexity of the decision: “Despite the difficulty of granting a pardon to someone undeserving of it, I saw it as my duty to save, quite literally, the tormented soul of a woman who had remained an agunah for more than 20 years. I hope this will allow her to begin a new chapter in her life, as she so rightly deserves, after so many years of imposed suffering.”

Attorney Goldenberg-Hadad, head of the Pardons Department, emphasized the emotional weight of the case, calling it “heartbreaking.” She noted that the woman had endured years of pain in her pursuit of justice and freedom, and had done so while coping with the burden of a serious illness.

As reported by VIN News, this case represents not only a personal victory for one long-suffering woman, but a benchmark in the use of legal tools—both civil and religious—to address the problem of get refusal in Israel. It is one of the few known instances in which the power of presidential pardon has been explicitly tied to the granting of a get, reflecting a convergence of civil compassion, religious authority, and legal innovation.

Attorney Avraham Sofer, speaking on behalf of the Public Defender’s Office, noted: “This was the longest-standing get refuser in Israel. We are glad we were able to help find a solution that allowed the get to be granted and led to the man’s immediate release.”

The successful resolution of this case may pave the way for future interventions on behalf of agunot (plural of agunah) trapped in similar circumstances. While Israel has enacted a variety of legal mechanisms—such as financial sanctions, travel restrictions, and even imprisonment—to compel compliance in get cases, critics argue that enforcement remains inconsistent and that women often wait years for justice.

This case has demonstrated that cooperation across branches of government—when mobilized with urgency and intent—can deliver results even in the most intractable cases.

After more than 20 years of legal battles, religious rulings, and personal hardship, one woman has finally been granted the freedom she sought for more than half her life. Her release marks a milestone not only for herself and her family, but for all those working to resolve the plight of agunot in Israel and around the world.

The question now turns to whether this exceptional case will remain an anomaly—or become a precedent for more assertive action in the fight against religious coercion.