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    • Shir Lavi Znati: Fighting for women’s right to divorce
    Duluth

    Shir Lavi Znati: Fighting for women’s right to divorce

    Eira Gwyneth Posted on

    Shir Lavi Znati, a lawyer, is a happily married young woman with three young sons, so it was difficult for me to understand why she was so concerned with the plight of women whose husbands did not receive (a Jewish divorce document) without which they can never remarry and start a new family.

    “I have always had a great need for justice,” she explained. “I found it morally wrong to use the Torah to make women suffer or to exact revenge. I was always sure that God never intended it to be used in this way.”

    Years before, I had told her the story of my two brothers in World War II, who were in the Royal Australian Air Force. My younger brother Athol, 21 years old, was shot down by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s troops while flying over Tobruk. His plane and his body were never found. My older brother Phil was married when he was sent to war in Papua New Guinea. Our Rabbi (Jacob Danglow) persuaded him to receive for his wife in case the same tragedy should befall him. Fortunately, that was never necessary.

    The struggle of Jewish women denied divorce

    Given the number of young married men who have fallen in battle in Israel and whose bodies have not been recovered or who have been captured, their fate is unknown and the agunotwho will never be able to remarry, Lavi Znati is now trying to get the Israeli Defense Forces to take a similar approach. The aim is to get married soldiers to leave a power of attorney that will enable them to issue a divorce on their behalf if the husband has suffered a head injury, is unable to grant a divorce, or is missing in action.

    Their first success in freeing a aguna was in 2019. Yehudit’s husband (not her real name) flew to the US 13 years ago during their divorce proceedings without giving her a receiveand left her with a three-year-old son. Yehudit was in her early 30s and secular. She took a partner but could not marry him. She did not understand that she could not enter into a new relationship because, according to Halacha, she belonged to another person.

    The Rabbinical Court’s department for Agunot (“chained women”), Jerusalem. (Source: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)

    Through her husband’s brother, Lavi Znati managed to contact him in America. For six months, she spoke to him regularly on the phone and used her legal and social skills to consult with him.

    “I tried to understand him – why he wanted to keep them captive,” she said. She sensed his need for recognition – that he was not a bad father even though he was gone. Eventually he admitted he had done the wrong thing, returned to Israel and granted the get. He met his son again, now 16, and began to renew his relationship with him. In doing so, he also gained something significant in his esteem.

    On August 5 this year, the Ministry of Religious Services proposed receive-Deniers will be punished with sanctions such as the withdrawal of their driving license and passport. be with youThe law was problematic for many women because it did not go far enough. Thanks to an organization called Mavoi Satum, Lavi Znati and her colleagues managed to achieve a better solution through hard work. She spoke before the Knesset and was heard very politely. Out of 120 Knesset members, only six voted against it.

    The new law applies to all receive-Denier in terms of the punishment that the husband can be punished with. Financially, he must pay the wife for each day he refuses to grant the get. His name can be published on social media as a get refuser. People can be told not to let him into their synagogue and not to do business with him. He can even be imprisoned and deprived of his livelihood. He can lose his credit card and his bank account can be frozen. He cannot own stock in a company.

    My last question to Lavi Znati was how she raises her young sons in relation to women. She told me how her three-year-old son told her about his day in kindergarten:

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    “He said, ‘I knocked over the tower that a little girl had built. But it was okay. I kissed her afterward because she was crying.’ I sat him down and explained to him that it was a cruel act after she had worked so hard to build the tower. And that he shouldn’t have kissed her without her permission.”

    I hope that Lavi Znati’s three little boys will grow up with her sense of justice and compassion.

    (Full disclosure: Lavi Znati is my granddaughter.) 

    The author has written 14 books. [email protected]



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    Eira Gwyneth
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