This MK is not the first to step in to save an agunah, and he won’t be the last, but he may be doing more harm than good
By Nitzan Caspi Shilony
Published in the Times of Israel Blogs
APR 27, 2021, 3:51 PM
On Wednesday, the internet was abuzz with (Hebrew) reports that MK Betzalel Smotrich had spent eight hours at the Jerusalem Rabbinic Court, where he participated in a hearing concerning an agunah — a woman held in marital captivity by her husband, who refused to issue her a religious bill of divorce. According to both Jewish and Israeli law, a Jewish couple is not divorced until the husband releases his wife by granting her a get, or writ of manumission, of his own free will. The ordeal came to an end when Smotrich signed as a guarantor for the woman’s financial commitment to her husband, to the tune of NIS 650,000, in order to grant the get. Thus, as reported, Smotrich “freed the agunah.”
I will leave aside, for the moment, the reports that strongly imply that yet another woman has bought her freedom. Nor will I elaborate on the fact that this woman discovered that her husband was a convicted pedophile after they married.
I want to draw attention to what I call the “Superman effect,” a dynamic exemplified by the above story. Fundamentally, someone, in this case Smotrich, arrives on the scene to “save the day.” The factors that allow the Superman effect to play out, and why it isn’t simply a wonderful thing are complicated, however. As follows:
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