The 5 Towns Jewish Times
December 21, 2020
Dear Editor,
As a former agunah, I take great umbrage at Elliot Pasik’s article “Did We Just Divorce President Trump?” The story that Pasik recounts at the beginning of the article is deeply offensive to agunot and all those who care about equality in Jewish divorces, or gets.
In the story, the man requests a get, and as the tale continues, the rabbi didn’t even ask the obvious question “Why?” but simply said “Yes, I will draft the bill of divorce and arrange for the beis din.” Wow, how simple it is for this man to arrange a divorce! If only women shared this ease of moving on with their lives. I must confess that when the rabbi in the story demanded a precious Kiddush cup as a fee, I thought, “Yes! Finally a man can overpay for a get!” I was hopeful and felt that perhaps this parable would teach us that not only women could be held hostage for a get through means of financial extortion. Unfortunately, th