Allocations Awareness

B8: Mavoi Satum
This week's email is about Mavoi Satum. Mavoi Satum was formed to help thousands of agunot ("chained women") living throughout Israel. These women have husbands who have either disappeared or are unable to give them a divorce for some other reason, or more frequently, refuse to grant them a divorce (a "get"). Thus, these women are bound by both the Israeli and Jewish law, which conditions divorce on the volition of the man. Because the Jewish law governs marriage and divorce of all Jews in Israel, regardless of affiliation, countless numbers of Jewish women are left in a state of limbo - neither married nor divorced. To pay for their freedom, many women give up child support, property, and even child custody in order to be granted a divorce.

Mavoi Satum provides legal, financial, and emotional aid to women from all religious, cultural, and social backgrounds throughout Israel. There are ongoing legal subsidies, a Melava ("Ally") program with constant volunteer to client support, home management workshops, support groups, educational grants for clients' children, and direct aid for agunot in need.

If you've ever witnessed a complicated divorce, especially one pertaining to Judaism, and you wish you could have made it easier for the family involved, perhaps Mavoi Satum is an organization that you and/or your chapter should look into when allocating its money.