Description

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A statistical database of nineteenth-century Eastern European Agunah, women not allowed to remarry under Jewish law.

This statistical database is a companion volume to The Plight of Jewish Deserted Wives, 1851–1900. It comprises approximately five thousand entries, providing the names, dates, and circumstances of Agunah, women who were not allowed to remarry under Jewish law in nineteenth-century Eastern Europe. Seven variations of Agunah are considered: deserted wives, women who refused to receive or were not granted a divorce writ, known as a Get; widowed women whose brothers-in-law refused to grant them permission to remarry; women whose husbands’ remains were not found; women who received improperly or incorrectly written Gets; women whose husbands became mentally ill and were not competent to grant a Get; and women refused a Get by husbands who had converted to Christianity or Islam. The volume includes extensive cross-references to aid future researchers.

About the Author

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Haim Sperber is head of the Multi-Disciplinary Studies Department at Western Galilee College.