Arts & Entertainment

U.S. Congressman Embroiled in Tamar Epstein Divorce Controversy

A grassroots campaign continues against Aharon Friedman, who has refused to give Tamar Epstein a Jewish writ of divorce.

More than 100 protesters in 2010, demanding that he give his former wife, Tamar Epstein, a Jewish writ of divorce, known as a get.

Two years later, Friedman still has not given the get. On Thursday night Epstein participated in a panel at Yeshiva University in New York, called “Fighting the Agunah Crisis." The discussion was streamed live online starting at 7 p.m.

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Without the get, Epstein’s religious status as an agunah prohibits her from remarrying or even dating within the Orthodox Jewish faith, even though her civil divorce from Friedman was finalized in 2010.

In the past few months Friedman’s employer, U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, has come under increasing pressure from the Jewish community, led by the New York-based Organization for the Resolution of Agunot. More than 5,000 people have signed a Change.Org petition calling for the Michigan congressman, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, to “stand firmly against this abuse of women's rights by issuing a public statement condemning all forms of domestic abuse, including the refusal to issue a Get.”

Epstein’s supporters bombarded Camp’s official Facebook page in February, and his office subsequently disabled the public posting feature without giving a reason, Politico reported.

The Huffington Post reported in October that Camp had dismissed the matter as “gossip." Camp declined to comment for the Politico story.

What do you think? Should Rep. Dave Camp take any action? Tell us in the comments.

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