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Break The Chain
Detroiters join Ohio rally to support wife denied a religious divorce.
Michelle Tedford
Dayton Jewish Observer
Dayton, Ohio
M
ore than 80 demonstrators
stood along Far Hills Avenue
in Kettering, Ohio, a suburb
of Dayton, as passing cars slowed to read
their signs: "Eli Shur. Free Adina Now."
The Nov. 8 rally drew supporters from
Ohio and Michigan, including 19 from
Metro Detroit. The demonstration was orga-
nized by the New York-based Organization
for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA). Agunot
is a halachic term for women whose hus-
bands refuse to provide them with a get,
a religious bill of divorce. Agunot means
"chained" or "anchored" in Hebrew.
Rabbi Jeremy Stern, ORA executive
director, said the rally is part of ORAs
increasing attempts to
pressure Kettering resi-
dent Eli Shur, also known
as Dovid Porat, to grant
a get to his wife. Adina
Porat lives with their five
children in Israel.
The couple were mar-
Eli Shur
ried in Israel in 1990.
According to ORA, in
2007, Shur left his wife
and their five children; he moved to the
United States a year later. He has refused
to provide his wife with a get.
According to Halachah (Jewish law),
which is central to Orthodox observance,
a divorce isn't final until
a husband provides his
wife with a get. Without
one, the agunah is unable
to remarry. In Israel, only
. religious marriages are
performed.
"In my life, I'm stuck
in
a prison:' Adina Porat
Adina Porat
says in video made by
ORA and shown on its
www.freeadina.com web-
site. "I can't move on. I can't continue. The
kids never had a chance to have a stepfa-
ther, a new family and to continue on with
their lives:'
Through ORA, she declined to be inter-
viewed.
"My dad left, he abandoned us when I
was 16 years old:' says 24-year-old daugh-
ter Rachel in the video. "But ever since I
was 10 or 11, all he could speak about was
the fact that he hated being a father, he
10 November 19 • 2015
Left: Demonstrators, including Debbie Wrotslaysky and Mikey Skoczylas, both of Southfield, join the procession past the home of Eli
Shur, a Kettering, Ohio, man who has refused since 2007 to grant his wife a get.
Right: Dovid and Ezra Morris, along with Joe Prawer, all of Southfield, join the Kettering demonstration.
hated being tied down by family, he hated
the fact that the money he earned went to
feeding his kids ... "
In agunot cases, it's not unusual for
husbands to attempt to extort wives and
their families for money or property in
exchange for a get. In Adina's video, she
says Shur hasn't asked for anything.
"He told the children before he left the
country, and he told various people [that]
among all the years he has not given a get,
the only reason he is not giving the get is
for revenge Adina says in the video.
"He has never asked for anything in
eight years:'
According to ORA, in 2009, the Israeli
rabbinate ruled that Shur must give his
wife a get.
"In Israel, they would have put him in
jail; and that's one of the reasons he fled:'
Stern says in an Oct. 28 Dayton Jewish
Observer story. "But America, thank God,
has a separation of church and state, and
that's a very good thing, but the downside
in this situation is that they're unable to
enforce Jewish law:'
In 2010, Shur arrived in Dayton to
serve as ritual director of Beth Jacob
Congregation. He had presented himself as
a single man with no children, according
to the Observer story.
Nearly six months later, the story said,
volunteers with ORA showed up at one
of Shur's evening classes at the synagogue
and urged him to sign a get for his wife. He
refused. Soon afterward, Shur and the con-
gregation parted ways.
Shur is the owner of Shur Wellbeing and
works as a life, leadership, health and fit-
ness coach.
Repeated attempts by the Observer
newspaper to reach Shur have been unsuc-
cessful.
Yonatan Klayman, ORAs assistant direc-
tor of advocacy and legal strategy, says
ORAs decision to hold a rally and promote
it widely is a rare tactic in its agunot cases.
"This is the last resort for us:' he told
the Observer. "Adina felt it was really about
time to try to up the pressure:'
The demonstration was fervent but
respectful. It included a march past the
white brick home where Shur lives.
"We have very few options for what we
can do:' says Stern, whose organization
annually works on about 60 agunah cases
and conducts about two dozen demon-
strations. "This is what we can do: assert
our First Amendment rights of freedom
of speech, freedom of assembly and state
factual information that he's refusing to
give his wife a get. It's a form of domestic
abuse. It's shameful:'
Stern says one goal of the demonstra-
tion is shaming Shur and informing his
neighbors in hope they will participate in
pressuring Shur to grant the get.
Stern, Rabbi Howard Zack of
Congregation Torat Emet in Columbus,
Ohio (about 70 miles east), and Rabbi
Yechiel Morris of Young Israel of
Southfield approached the house during
the demonstration.
"Our goal was to have him sign a docu-
ment authorizing a beit din [rabbinical
court] to draft a get on his behalf to deliv-
er it to his wife Morris said in an email to
his congregants after the demonstration in
Dayton. "He did not answer the door:'
It is not clear to the demonstrators if
Shur was, in fact, at home at the time.
DETROIT PARTICIPATION
Attendees had various motivations for par-
ticipating. Morris organized a group of 19,
mostly from YIS and Akiva Hebrew Day
School in Southfield. Morris said Shur and
his wife taught at Akiva
in the late 1990s.
"Students who once
looked up to him as a
role model now see him
acting this way:' Morris
said. "We believe with-
holding this get is a
form of domestic abuse:'
Rabbi Yechiel
Menachem Roetter
Morris
of Oak Park joined the
trip to help all agunot
— including his mother, he says, who has
been waiting 13 years for her get.
"The agunot need to know we support
them, otherwise they won't have the cour-
age to come out for help. As long as there
are people like this:' he said of the demon-
strators, "there's hope:'
Education was an objective of the week-
end, which began with teaching sessions
at Torat Emet, a Modern Orthodox shul in
Columbus. ORA conducted holy matrimo-
ny classes and endorsed the use of halachic
prenuptial agreements to ensure the grant-
ing of a get if the marriage ends.
Aviad Tabory from the Israeli town Alon