CWJ holds unique expertise in creating and applying innovative legal approaches to resolving rabbinic court challenges. This capability is the result of our extensive public interest litigation work in civil courts on behalf of women whose rights have been compromised by the rabbinic establishment. 

Our bold and effective solutions are achieving nationwide impact in addressing two critical problem areas:  

• Get (Jewish divorce) refusal
• Public religious regulations that clash with the principles of democracy

Get refusal

Susan Weiss, CWJ’s founder and CEO, pioneered the strategy of “torts for get refusal” as a legitimate cause of action in Israel’s civil court in 2001.  Subsequent years of aggressive precedent-setting activity have established CWJ as the leader and authority in this area.

• To date, CWJ has established more than 20 groundbreaking legal precedents in get refusal cases.
• Civil courts have awarded a total of more than NIS 6 million in damage awards to CWJ clients across Israel whose husbands have refused to grant them a get.
• More than 65% of CWJ clients—all long-term victims of get recalcitrance—have received their get within 18 to 24 months of initiating proceedings.

State religious regulations

CWJ files petitions in the Supreme Court that address issues such as conversion revocation, blacklisting of mamzerim, and other unfair policies and practices of the State funded rabbinate and rabbinic courts.