Senior rabbis have warned that they will refuse to grant a religious divorce to any woman who initiates a criminal prosecution against her husband for “coercive and controlling behaviour” under the new Domestic Abuse Act 2021. 

The legislation allows a spouse to apply to the civil courts to force a get under “secular law”. 

A letter from the Federation Beit Din says that because a get has to be given “entirely of their own free will” by a husband, if a prosecution is initiated by an aguna (chained wife) then it will be halachically “almost impossible” for the wife to receive a get. 

The Federation of Synagogues Dayans say that “a get given under duress, whether due to physical threats, financial threats or the threat of imprisonment, is absolutely invalid as a matter of halachah (Jewish law), and the couple would remain married to one another, notwithstanding the granting of a get”.

If a woman uses the provisions of the Domestic Abuse Act, the Federation said, “she will have tied the Beit Din’s hands…clearly the husband in such a situation will be acting under duress”.

Those considering an application to the civil courts, the Federation advises, must first obtain written authorisation from a Beit Din. The four signatories to the Federation letter — Rabbi Zimmerman, the head of the Beit Din, Dayan Elzas, Dayan Hool and Dayan Posen — pledged to do everything they could to assist “those who find themselves in the tragic situation of having a recalcitrant spouse refusing to co-operate with the granting of a get.”