In S.B.B. v. L.B.B., decided yesterday by the N.J. appellate court, in an opinion by Judge Greta Gooden Brown joined by Judges Patrick DeAlmeida and Stephanie Mitterhoff, the plaintiff husband and defendant wife were getting divorced, and the wife claimed that the husband wasn't giving her a Jewish religious divorce. (The husband "denied withholding the get, claimed he had given the get to the Chief Rabbi of Elizabeth in June 2020.") To quote the court,
In the Orthodox Jewish tradition, a married woman cannot obtain a religious divorce until her husband provides her with a contract called a "get" (pluralized as "gittin"), which must, in turn, be signed by an "eid," or witness. A woman who attempts to leave her husband without obtaining a get becomes an "agunah" (pluralized as "agunot"), which subjects her to severe social ostracism within the Orthodox Jewish community. Agunot may seek relief in a "beth din," a rabbinical court presided over by a panel of three rabbis. The beth din may then issue "psak kefiah," or contempt orders authorizing sanctions, which include, but are not limited to, the use of force against a husband to secure a get.
The wife made a video, which ended up getting broadly distributed online, and in which she apparently said:
