CWJ’s “new” tort was featured at Tahel’s 2^nd annual International Conference on Shedding Light on the Darkness of Abuse in December 2015.

As a panelist in a session called: "Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress: Agunot," Center for Women’s Justice director, Dr. Susan Weiss, gave a talk entitled “The Israeli Tort of Get-Refusal: Naming, Shaming, Blaming.” Approximately 50 men and women were in attendance.  

Weiss drew on both CWJ and Din v’Dayan cases to illustrate the manner in which CWJ's pioneering strategy of filing damage suits (torts) for get refusal provides financial relief to women whose husband’s refuse to give them a religious bill of divorce (a "get"). She also showed how these damage claims have forced  Israel’s civil (secular) courts to intervene in matters previously reserved for Israel's rabbinic (religious) courts, effectively reframing what was once a religious "right" of a man (to withhold a get) into a civil "wrong" that entitles a woman to monetary recourse.  

Not only do these tort claims awaken the civil courts to action. They also underscore the human rights violations being supported by Israel's rabbinic courts. Thus, these cases not only help individual women, but they also transform Israel’s legal system conceptually from one that had ignored get-refusal as the unassailable common sense into one that sees get-refusal as a violations of women's civil rights.

All of Weiss’s public talks elicit strong reactions from audience members who are stunned by her real-life descriptions of rabbinic court actions. During this session, we also saw how speaking in public forums enables CWJ to compound the effect of our litigation work through educational outreach.  Two of Weiss’s co-panelists represented ORA, the U.S.-based Organization for Resolution of Agunot. Following the session, the co-panelists from the United States expressed interest in possible collaborative work on behalf of chained women. An Israeli divorce lawyer who was in the audience also approached Susan, telling her that he had clients who could benefit from CWJ’s approach and asking for further information. 

In short, thanks totheDavid Berg Foundation, Greater Miami Jewish Federation Women’s Amutot Initiative, Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta, Jewish Women’s Foundation of South Palm Beach County, the Miriam Fund and the Tikkun Olam Women’s Foundation of Greater Washington, CWJ is inspiring action across an ever-broadening spectrum of professionals and lay people who are determined to change the status quo and stop discrimination against women in the name of religion.