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Fresh Ways of Thinking About Jews and Gender Worldwide

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute develops fresh ways of thinking about Jews and gender worldwide by producing and promoting scholarly research, artistic projects and public engagement.

The world's only academic center of its kind, the HBI provides research resources and programs for scholars, students and the public. The Institute publishes books and a journal, convenes international conferences and local programming, and offers competitive grant and internship programs.

We invite you to explore our website and experience the impact of the HBI.

What Can We Do to Help Women Chained to Dead Marriages? 

Learn More on Dec. 12

It seems like the issue of agunot, Jewish women chained to dead marriages by husbands who refuse to give them religious divorces, has never been more in the news.

In October, we learned of an FBI sting, arresting 10 men including Orthodox rabbis and religious scribes. Their crime was kidnapping and torturing men who refused to give their wives a “get,” a writ of divorce. They were charging the women sums as large as $60,000 for their “unorthodox” services.

Even more recently, the story of Gitel Dodelson, a religious woman in Lakewood, N.J., went viral after Dodelson, 25, shared her story with the New York Post.  An agunah, Dodelson has been trying to get a get from her husband for three years.  

These issues are surfacing in the mainstream media because they are the human face of a problem that occurs when religious and civil laws conflict, often giving women a harsher deal than men. In this case, men are using ancient religious divorce laws to extort money, property or favorable custody agreements from their wives.

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute has put these issues at the center of research, scholarship for many years, including the recent publishing of Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State: Israel’s Civil War, published by University Press of New England in the HBI Series on Jewish Women and the Brandeis Series on Gender, Culture, Religion and Law.

On December 12, HBI is pleased to host Susan M. Weiss, co-author with Netty C. Gross-Horowitz of Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State. Ms. Weiss, also founder of the Center for Women’s Justice in Israel, is one of the world’s leading activists around the issue of agunot. She will frame the issue, discuss creative solutions and outline the activism needed.

Ms. Weiss’s talk will be paired with Ronit Irshai, author of Fertility and Jewish Law: Feminist Perspectives on Orthodox Responsa Literature, also in the GCRL series. The evening, titled, Feminist Re-readings of Jewish Law: A Celebration of New Works on Marriage, Divorce, Fertility and Contraception, promises stimulating discussion on  these important topics for women.

Join us on Thursday, December 12 for one or both free lectures.

6 - 7 p.m.
Ronit Irshai, author of Fertility and Jewish Law, introduced by Rabbi Jane Kanarek, Assistant Professor of Rabbinics, Hebrew College

7 - 7:30 p.m.
Complimentary wine, hors d'oeuvres

7:30 - 9 p.m.
Susan M. Weiss, co-author of Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State: Israel's Civil War, introduced by Dr. Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, director of the HBI Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and Law

Rapaporte Treasure Hall, Goldfarb Library
Brandeis University
Waltham

Parking is available in the Tower Lot

Space is limited. Please RSVP here.
Join us for all or part of the evening.
Questions: hbi@brandeis.edu or 781-736-2064

HBI in the News

Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State: Israel's Civil War by Susan M. Weiss and Netty C. Gross-Horowitz was featured in "A Divorce Made in Heaven: Don’t Reform Israel’s State Rabbinate. Shut It Down.," published on The Daily Beast.

HBI Research Associate Layah Lipsker's article about the agunot issue, A New Form of Domestic Abuse in the Jewish Community, was printed in the Jewish Journal.

A "taste" of HBI's newest book, Educating in the Divine Image: Gender Issues in Orthodox Jewish Day Schools (Hadassah Brandeis Institute, UPNE, 2013), by Dr. Elana Maryles Sztokman and Dr. Chaya Rosenfeld Gorsetman.

HBI Co-Director Sylvia Barack Fishman weighs in on the recent Pew survey on American Jews with Are Young Jews Actually More Connected Than Believed? in The Jewish Week.

Susan M. Weiss, co-author of Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State: Israel's Civil War, was interviewed in Tablet Magazine's article Israel Has a Marriage Problem. One American-Born Lawyer Is Trying To Solve It.

Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State: Israel's Civil War by Susan M. Weiss and Netty C. Gross-Horowitz was reviewed in the Jewish Daily Forward.

Former HBI Scholar-in-Residence Orly Castel-Bloom's latest book, Textile, was reviewed in the Jewish Daily Forward. The book was published by HBI as part of the Reuben/Rifkin Jewish Women Writers Series with the Feminist Press.