One of the most vexing problems to confront American Orthodox Jewry is where a wife is abandoned by her husband who refuses to give her a Jewish divorce. This work seeks to explain the agunah problem in the United States. It notes that the contemporary agunah problem in America is radically different than that of contemporary Israel and completely different than the talmudic agunah problem. The thesis of this book is that the agunah problem in contemporary America is part of a more general dispute in classical Jewish law as to when marriage should end. Thus, this book surveys how Jewish law seeks to respond to the consent of the other party or without a finding of fault. It concludes by noting that prenuptial agreements can successfully address the agunah problem in the United States since they provide a way for couples to create an image of marriage and divorce by which they can agree to live. Michael J. Broyde is an Associate Professor of Law at Emory University and the Academic Director of Law and Religion Program at Emory University. He is a member (dayan) in the Beth Din of America and was the director of that Beth Din while on sabbatical from Emory. In addition, he is the founding rabbi of the Young Israel synagogue in Atlanta. Professor Broyde is the author of The Pursuit of Justice in Jewish Law and co-author of Human Rights in Judaism.--Amazon.com.

Marriage, Sex and Family in Judaism explores Jewish marriage from historical and contemporary perspectives, focusing on the religious and legal concepts of marriage, and the social impact of family in the Jewish community. The book does not advocate one perspective or another; instead, the essays range from conservative to liberal viewpoints, offering readers a well-balanced mixture of perspectives on Jewish marriage.

Bibliography: p.302-311.

Background -- A word of caution -- Attitudes of compassion and leniency -- Relaxation of the laws of evidence concerning agunot : example of a methodology favoring leniency -- The uniqueness of the problem in our day -- The basic sources for kiddushei ta'ut -- The rishonim and the codes : stringent and lenient approaches -- The responsa literature -- General principles to be derived from the precedents.

Fully acknowledging that Judaism, as described in both the Bible and the Talmud, was patriarchal, Judith Hauptman demonstrates that the rabbis of the Talmud made significant changes in key areas of Jewish law in order to benefit women. Reading the texts with feminist sensibilities, recognizing that they were written by men and for men and that the

In 1807 Napoleon Bonaparte created the Duchy of Warsaw from the Polish lands that had been ceded to France by Prussia. His Civil Code was enforced in the new Duchy too and, unlike the Catholic Church, it allowed the dissolution of marriage by divorce. This book sheds new light on the application of Napoleonic divorce regulations in the Polish lands between 1808-1852. Unlike what has been argued so far, this book demonstrates that divorces were happening frequently in 19th century Poland and even with the same rate as in France. In addition to the analysis of the Napoleonic divorce law, the reader is provided with a fully comprehensive description of parties as well as courts and officials involved in divorce proceedings, their course and the grounds for divorce.

Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism explores the discursive formation of the commandments as a generative matrix of Jewish thought and life in the posttalmudic period, correlating the diverse domains of jurisprudence, philosophy, ethics, pietism, and kabbalah.