Refusal to divorce and anchorage
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to “Married to the Future” a specially curated exhibition designed by Mavoi Satum to share the issue of agunot with the public in a new way.
These works of art are not just something to be viewed, but an invitation to a conversation. They are a record of an individual’s experience, her suffering, her courage and her voice. They are also an artistic comment on a national injustice and an act of faith in our ability to create a better world.
We invite you to observe, feel and reflect. We hope that what you will see here will stay with you, and move you. We hope it will become a starting point for a renewed commitment on all our parts to help these women, to correct this terrible inequity and to create a world without agunot.
Thank you for joining us.
Kylie Eisman Lifschitz, Chair, Mavoi Satum
The exhibition opened at the Jerusalem Theater in March 2023 to mark Agunah Day on the Fast of Esther, and International Women's Day that occur this year within 2 days of each other. The exhibition will subsequently move during the year to other venues around the country. The choice to launch this wandering exhibition in the theatre building – not a classic museum space – stems from the desire to raise awareness of this issue in a space that is open to the public and an approach whereby art can play a tangible role in creating a public agenda around social and moral issues. The call, that emanates specifically from Jerusalem – the city of the prophets and the capital of the State of Israel – to look at the women in our society who are chained to their spouse without any means of obtaining their freedom, is for a change that is essential, not just as a sum of private cases but also in the larger systems of the Beit Din and the parliament.
According to the halakha (Jewish law), an "agunah" is a woman living in a state of uncertainty regarding her personal status: her husband has disappeared, is in a vegetative state, or refuses to give her a Get, and she is powerless to obtain her personal freedom. This tragic situation is magnified in the State of Israel because of the connection between state and religion and the civil ramifications that stem from the religious law. Nevertheless, the issue of Get refusal is relevant not only in the religious world but also for broader issues of gender inequality and of the balance of power within relationships. The artists' works reveal a small part of the sense of wrongdoing perpetrated in the name of the halakha and the law and stimulates the observer to contemplate the ways in which it is possible to strive for the creation of a more equal and just society, and to stress our obligation not to avert our gaze.
The women's eyes are looking ahead to a better future of a just and compassionate society. During the project, each of the artists met with a woman imprisoned in a relationship – an agunah or a 'Mesurevet Get' – and created her work with the individual personal resonance of the case it portrays and with her overall statement on the issue at large. The artistic interpretation provides a unique perspective created via mixed media in sculpture, painting, and installations. The works, that were especially created or renewed for the exhibition, and which are displayed here for the first time, bring the women's stories and articulate their usually silenced voice. In this way, the artists who participated in this exhibition create a community that calls on us as a society to strive for the eradication of injustice and for tikkun olam – to improve the world.
Female Artists Meet Women Imprisoned in their Marriage – Empowering Female Solidarity
Get refusal is a serious and severe social phenomenon that denies women the freedom to rehabilitate their lives, to have children, to live in security and serenity. As a social worker who accompanies agunot and Mesuravot Get, I have witnessed the mental and emotional influences of this situation on women who are forced to engage in a struggle for their freedom. The effects of this restricted freedom are so drastic and far-reaching that sometimes, even after receiving the long awaited-for Get, there are still lingering effects on the woman and her children.
In this exhibition, we sought to connect the women's private experience and an artistic language that, by nature, tends to be universal and relates toa broad common denominator. As part of the preparations for the exhibition, each artist met with a woman who is a Mesurevet Get or an agunah in order to acquire in-depth and personal familiarity with this painful issue. In addition to understanding the difficulty, these meetings provided the artists an opportunity to gain intimate insight into the feelings, emotions, and perspective of a woman whose freedom has been taken from her.
Every story is different, and each woman is unique, but all the stories share a common thread of anger, frustration, and helplessness in which a woman remains imprisoned in a marriage, and where she is compelled to conduct a tenacious struggle against her husband and the Beit Din to gain her freedom. Even those stories with a "happy end" where a Get is eventually received cannot restore the years a woman has lost, the loneliness and helplessness, and the emotional and financial price she incurs.
The meetings between the artists and the Mesuravot Get were emotional and powerful. They gave each woman a platform ,a voice, and even validity for her story. Each artist connected with the story via episodes in which something resonated in her own life: injustice, wrongdoing, and inequality. This connection led to each meeting finishing with a sense of friendship, identification, and women's solidarity. The meetings between the women participating in the process – both the mesuravot get and artists, created a picture that is larger than the sum of all its parts, a tapestry of strength that challenges the current situation and creates a joint call for change.
Tami Gross Exhibition Producer Social Worker
Credits and acknowledgments
Exhibition Curator: Nurit Jacobs Yinon
The exhibition was initiated by: Kylie Eisman Lifschitz – Chairwoman of Mavoi Satum,
Adv. Orit Lahav – Executive Director of Mavoi Satum.
Exhibition Producer: Tami Gross, Director of Development and Strategy, Mavoi Satum
Photography and Image Processing: Yair Medina, Jerusalem Fine Art Prints
Graphic Design: Irit Harel
Editing and Translation: Hadas Ahituv and Jeremy Kuttner – 'In Other Words'
Catalogue Production: Jerusalem Fine Art Prints
We wish to thank all those who assisted in producing this exhibition:
Mavoi Satum: Chairwoman of the Board, Kylie Eisman Lifschitz; Board Members, Liora Berry and Michal Waller; Digital Director, Yahav Albeck; Office Manager, Yakira Avrech; Director of Community Relations, Dana Ganish
Activists and 'Mesuravot Get' (women whose husbands are withholding a Get): Yafit Gabbai, Daniela Houminer Gamliel, Yifat Haim, Ayelet Boker, Leora Henschel, Meital Avital, Rena Lorkis, Y. P., K. B., M.R., Chava Akiva.
Chairwoman, Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, MK Pnina Tamano-Shata; Theatre Curator, Dr. Batsheva Goldman-Ida; Knesset Curator, Sharon Sofer
Special Thanks To: Zipi Mizrachi, Director of Studio of Her Own; Sharon Brick Deshen & Einat Barzilai, Kolech