Max Morrison Legal Aid

OHR Online

Ohr Torah Stone Women's Programs

YAD L'ISHA - The Max Morrison Legal Aid Center and Hotline For Women

Director: Batsheva Sherman, Advocate and Attorney at Law

Founding Director: Susan Weiss

History:

In 1997, the Monica Dennis Goldberg School took the next step of initiating a Legal Aid Center and Hotline, staffed entirely by graduates of the School of Advocacy and offering legal advice and representation at no cost for women who would otherwise have nowhere to turn.

The Center specializes in the most difficult cases of agunot -- women whose husbands cannot be located or refuse to give them a religious divorce. Most of the time, the cost of a woman's freedom to remarry or have more children is simply money. The Legal Aid Center is working to stem the injustice of financial extortion for divorce, pressing for rabbinic and legal solutions to this widespread problem.

The Legal Aid Center and Hotline has already acquired religious divorces for scores of women who were previously unable to afford legal representation. More importantly, the Center's efforts have effected widespread changes: a special rabbinical court has been established in Jerusalem to deal exclusively with agunot, and the Knesset has acknowledged the need to place legal pressure upon recalcitrant husbands, passing a law that revokes their professional and driver's licenses. Today, Legal Aid operates centers in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, employs seven advocates and one director, answers some 50 Hotline calls a week, and serves approximately 160 clients at any given time.

What we do:

The Legal Aid Center offers assistance to Israeli women of financially limited means in legal matters pertaining to the process of obtaining a get. Clients are offered legal advice as well as representation in the Rabbinical Courts. In addition, callers to the Hotline receive free advice in matters pertaining to personal status and divorce.
The Legal Aid Center and Hotline specializes in cases of agunot- women whose husbands cannot be located or whose recalcitrant husbands are refusing to give them a get. Most of the time, the cost of freedom is 'just' money. But a woman trapped in marriage risks remaining an agunah forever, never again to marry or have more children, unless she pays the price of a divorce - any price. The dedicated Advocates are working to stem the injustice of extortion for divorce. The Advocates are pressing for Rabbinic and legal solutions which will prevent the woman from being held hostage in divorce negotiations through withholding custody of her children, denying her prospects of future marriage and childbearing, or hobbling her financially. Striving to create a world where the price of one's freedom or one's womb will no longer be a factor in divorce negotiations.

Who are we?

The Legal Aid Center is staffed by women advocates. All of them orthodox women qualified as rabbinical advocates. Working within the boundaries of the Halacha (-Jewish law) to help solve these tragic cases of Agunot (-women whose husbands cannot be located or whose recalcitrant husbands are refusing to give them a get).

Our achievements:

The Legal Aid Center and Hotline has successfully acquired religious divorces for women who were previously unable to break free of abusive marriages and lacked the resources to afford legal representation. In the four years of our existence we have successfully ended about 80 of the hardest cases of agunot in Israel.

As an additional result of the Legal Aid Center's pioneering effort and unrelenting pressure on the rabbinical courts, a special court has been established in Jerusalem to deal exclusively with women whose husbands refuse to divorce them. The Israeli Knesset has also acknowledged the need to place legal pressure upon recalcitrant husbands, passing a law revoking their professional and driver's licenses, passports and even their personal freedom, by placing them in correctional facilities until a get is produced.

The Legal Aid Center is dedicated to its clients and devoted to change. In addition to attaining its primary goal of providing legal representation for these chained women, the Center has also proven to be a source of inspiration and empowerment for women who previously had nowhere to turn.

One of our great precedents is the acknowledgment of the courts of the Agunah's right to be compensated by her recalcitrant husband.

How can we help you?

Hotline in Israel: 1-800-200-380
Jerusalem Regional Office: (02) 671-0876
Tel Aviv Regional Office: (03) 695-1899

Around the world:

A list of orthodox Rabbinical Courts around the world authorized by the Rabbinical Court in Israel A list of Agunot organizations around the world: http://www.agunot.org/Other.html

How can you help us help others?

Friends of Yad L'Isha:

Your Tax -Deductible contribution should be earmarked for Yad L'isha Legal Aid Center and Hotline
and sent to sent to:
Department of Development
OHR TORAH STONE,
POB1037,
90435 Efrat.

More on the basic issues of divorce in accordance with Jewish law and Women Organizations:

Amazingly, until a decade ago, only male advocates were allowed to represent clients in the Rabbinical Law Courts. Ohr Torah Stone opened the first school to train women advocates for the Rabbinical Courts, the Monica Dennis Goldberg School for Women Advocates, in 1991.

Return to Ohr Torah Stone