On Monday June 4th, we made history—in the course of the life of one woman, in the course of CWJ’s achievements and in the course of the State of Israel.

After trying to obtain a get (bill of religious divorce) from her husband for 23 years—for 18 of which, he has sat in prison—Tzviya Gorodetsky is a free woman. You may recall Tzviya from the hunger strike she staged last year in front of the Knesset. The state's rabbinic courts had given up on her case and told her, "Not everything can be solved." Thankfully, to CWJ, this is not an acceptable answer.

CWJ convened a private rabbinic court, headed by Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Sperber, which spent long months crafting a detailed psak din (ruling of Jewish law – Read it by clicking here). Their ruling annulling her marriage was officially delivered to Tzviya this Monday in a moving ceremony.

“I really feel at peace,” Gorodetsky told The Times of Israel on Tuesday. “Beforehand I felt that I was in a situation that is unreasonable, that justice has not been done, that I am in distress, and now it’s a comfort that there are rabbis who think differently and who agreed to free me. I got my freedom back.”

Read about our groundbreaking story in the Jerusalem Post and in the Times of Israel.

CWJ is grateful to the courageous dayanim (rabbinic court judges) and our supporters like you, for whom restoring Tzviya's dignity was an expression of Jewish law, not a challenge to it.