Woman who is stuck in her marriage according to Jewish law
For other uses, see Agunah (disambiguation).
"Aguna" redirects here. For other uses, see Aguna (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Haganah.
An agunah or aguna (Hebrew: עגונה \ עֲגוּנָה, aguná, plural: עגונות \ עֲגוּנוֹת, agunót; plural form: agunot; literally "anchored" or "chained") is a Jewish woman who is stuck in her religious marriage as determined by halakha (Jewish law). The classic case of this is a man who has left on a journey and has not returned, or has gone into battle and is missing in action. It is used as a borrowed term to refer to a woman whose husband refuses, or is unable, to grant her a divorce (which requires a document known as a get).
For a divorce to be effective, halakha requires that a man grant his wife a get of his own free will. Without a get, no new marriage will be recognized, and any child she might have with another man would be considered a mamzer (illegitimate). It is sometimes possible for a woman to receive special dispensation from a posek (halakhic authority), called a heter agunah, based on a complex decision supported by substantial evidence that her husband is presumed dead, but this cannot be applied if the husband is clearly alive.
Because of the difficulty for women in such situations, it has been a task for every generation of halakhic authorities to try to find halakhically acceptable means to permit such women to remarry. In the past it was not uncommon, due to the danger of travel and primitive means of communication, for people leaving home never to be heard of again; consequently rabbis often had had to deal with this issue. Over the past few centuries, thousands of responsa have been written to deal with cases of agunot.
In the past most agunah cases were due to a husband dying without leaving clear evidence of his demise, or becoming mentally ill (insane). Nowadays many agunah cases arise as a result of a husband withholding a get, perhaps seeking a more favorable divorce settlement, or out of vindictiveness.[1] In response agunah groups have organized to support these women and try to find a solution to this problem. Various remedies have been proposed, but as yet, no one solution has common acceptance. Nevertheless, the Jewish prenuptial agreement is one remedy which is in use in Modern Orthodox Jewish communities worldwide and is accepted by moderate halakhic authorities.[2][1]
^ ab"Get Refusal Is A Problem And The Solution Has Been Found". Jew In The City. 2020-08-05. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
^"Israeli rabbinic, legal groups partner for prenup in bid to prevent agunot". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2015-03-03. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
The Agunah is a 1974 English translation by Curt Leviant of the 1961 Yiddish novel Di Agune (די עגונה) by Chaim Grade. It was also published in a 1962...
Legal responses to agunah are civil legal remedies against a spouse who refuses to cooperate in the process of granting or receiving a Jewish legal divorce...
his whereabouts were unknown for any reason, the woman was considered an agunah (literally "an anchored woman"), and was not allowed to remarry; in traditional...
In 1990 Agunah Day was established by ICAR—The International Coalition for Agunah Rights—to raise public awareness of the plight of the Agunah and galvanize...
husband is missing without sufficient knowledge that he died, called an agunah, is still married, and therefore cannot remarry. Under Orthodox law, children...
in the wake of the Holocaust. Grade's most highly acclaimed novels, The Agunah (1961, tr. 1974) and The Yeshiva (2 vol., 1967–68, tr. 1976–7), deal with...
married to Sally Naiman. "Between Civil and Religious Law: The Plight of the Agunah in American Society" (Praeger, July 20, 1993, ISSN 0147-1074, ISBN 978-0-313-28471-7)...
In 1935, for example, the RA shelved its proposal for a solution to the agunah predicament. "Conservative Judaism" was adopted as an exclusive label by...
modern bet din (rabbinic court) in order to prevent the problem of the agunah, a woman not allowed to remarry religiously because she had never been granted...
times with the stated intent of keeping the Jewish woman from becoming an agunah in cases where the husband refuses to grant her a get (Jewish divorce document)...
the modern Beth din, rabbinical court, to help in situations such as the Agunah, a woman whose husband had left her without granting her a Get, the religious...
was said to have brought a dead man back to life to free his wife from agunah. Rabbi Hirsch Fraenkel was sentenced to imprisonment in Germany in 1713...
the laws of Agunah. While it is almost universally challenged there is some variation in the nuances of where ethicists take issue with Agunah. Plaskow recognizes...
a groundbreaking motion: Rabbi Louis Epstein offered a solution to the agunah predicament, a clause that would have had husbands appoint wives as their...
Angeles branch published Chaim Grade, including the Yiddish originals of The Agunah and The Yeshiva. In 1971, the Farband joined with Poale Zion, the Labor...
with the abandoned wife (agunah). Marriage, Divorce and the Abandoned Wife in Jewish Law: A Conceptual Understanding of the Agunah Problems in America "Jewish...
of Israel. Retrieved 23 August 2019. Sharon, Jeremy (23 August 2019). "Agunah Not Consulted in Failed Attempt to Obtain Divorce by Burial Delay". The...
This was to prevent women married to traveling merchants from becoming an agunah if the husband never returned. The rabbis instituted and tightened prohibitions...
Leviticus Rabbah, 25 Between Civil and Religious Law: The Plight of the Agunah in American Society, Irving Breitowitz, Greenwood Press, 1993. By coincidence...
did not give Jewish women the right to directly initiate a divorce (See Agunah), did Jesus' answers "in the house" to his disciples expand the rights of...
Subsequent to the Chmielnicki massacres, Heschel was lenient in allowing agunah (women whose husbands were only presumed dead) to remarry. Heschel's second...
to wait until he is located. This can lead to a situation similar to an agunah. According to biblical law, there is no need for a marriage ceremony between...
Global Information