Saving women from the 'chain'

Jews all over the world commemorated Ta'anit Esther (the Fast of Esther), the day on which the heroine of the Purim story took her fate and that of her people into her own hands

Esther has also been marked as International Agunah Day - an occasion to remember the plight of those who are "chained" to spouses who refuse to grant them a divorce

According to halakha (traditional Jewish law) and contemporary Israeli law, a Jewish woman must receive a religious bill of divorce (a get) in order to remarry

In the absence of a get, any child of a future relationship will be a mamzer - loosely translated as "bastard" - and will be stigmatized under Jewish law.

sraeli citizens do not have the luxury of considering the issue of agunot a "religious" or "arcane" problem

All Israelis are required to marry and divorce within a religious framework, so that even the most secular Jew is affected

there has not been a marked improvement in the status of agunot