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ORA RESOLVES ITS 140TH CASE

A review of recent resolved cases

July 30, 2010

This week, ORA resolved its 140th case since its founding over eight years ago.  Here are some highlights from the last ten resolved cases:

Demographics of the women:

  • Six Modern Orthodox; one Yeshivish; two Lubavitch and one Traditional;

  • From such communities as Los Angeles, Montreal, Teaneck, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Five Towns;

  • Ages range from 25-50; and

  • Number of children range from zero to four.

Each husband withheld a get for a combination of the following "reasons":

  • To secure a desirable custody/visitation agreement;

  • To be absolved from paying a large sum of money owed to the ex-wife;

  • Intention to inflict pain on the ex-wife and control her life; and

  • A complete breakdown of communication causing extensive misunderstanding and disagreement.

ORA played a variety of roles in helping to resolve these cases, including acting as a(n):

  • Third-party mediator to facilitate productive and accurate communication;

  • Resource of knowledge on the beit din and get processes;

  • Advocate in beit din, and

  • Coordinator in arranging gittin from locations ranging from a New York civil courthouse to Taiwan.

Here are three of their stories:

  • The husband has been living in the Far East for the past dozen or so years with his new wife and child.  ORA reached out to the husband (who had not been contacted for many years) and facilitated a dialogue with him, arranged for funding for the get process and coordinated with a beit din for the get process to take place in Taiwan.

  • Due to miscommunication between the two parties and an unwillingness to work together, beit din proceedings had been stalled for months.  Despite having children together, the two sides would not speak.  Within a few days of ORA getting involved and communicating directly with both parties, a get was executed.

  • ORA assisted in pushing forward the beit din process for a couple who had been separated for over three years and were in the midst of lengthy civil proceedings.  ORA advocated for the woman at the beit din hearing and after many hours of negotiation between the two parties, a final marriage settlement that was agreeable to both parties was drawn up and executed, and the wife received a get.

ORA is grateful to the many supporters, lay leaders, mediators, rabbis and batei din who assist us daily in resolving cases. Specifically, we are grateful to Rabbi Michael Whitman (Montreal), Rabbi Mordechai Avtzon (Hong Kong), and Rabbi Howard Jachter (Teaneck), for their extensive assistance with arranging some of these gittin.

**Names and identifying details may have been changed to protect the involved parties.