The problem of iggun arises in Jewish law where a husband disappears or refuses to give a 'get' or Jewish divorce to his wife, so that she becomes a 'chained wife' (agunah), who is not free to marry again according to rabbinic law. The latter situation is a serious contemporary issue not only for Jewish feminism but throughout the world Jewish community.

The Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester establish ed in 2004 an Agunah Research Unit to examine the halakhic problems involved, under the direction of Professor Bernard Jackson, a specialist in Jewish law, and Co-Director of the Centre.

The purpose of the Unit is to explore ways, within the Orthodox Halakhah, to solve the problem of the mesurevet get (where a husband refuses to give a get to his wife, despite being ordered by a Bet Din to do so). 

A preliminary analysis of the problem was offered by Professor Jackson in a lecture delivered in London in March 2001, and has since been developed by him in a major paper outlining directions for future research. Both are available from our Publications page . He argued that new thinking is required in relation to both the problems of authority which presently impede proposed solutions (such as the demand for a consensus) and possible combinations of approaches which have been used in the past in addressing the problem (particularly, the use of conditions, coercion and annulment). In November 2002, Professor Jackson developed this argument in a lecture to the conference of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance in New York, with particular reference to the argument relating to conditional marriages in a recent book by Rabbi Michael Broyde. Click here for an abstract and the full text.

In 2004, the Unit commenced work with a part-time postdoctoral Research Fellow and its first postgraduate research student, supported by the Harbour Trust, the David Uri Memorial Trust and the Hanadiv Foundation and a number of others.  In 2005 a major grant was awarded by the Leverhulme Trust, which will support a further Research Assistant and postgraduate studentship: see Vacancies.  Further support is being sought to extend the contracts of the Unit staff to the full five years of the project originally envisaged.

Though academic research cannot and does not claim for itself any halakhic authority, it is believed that this research will be welcomed by the halakhic authorities and may contribute to their own thinking and practice. Endorsements of the project have been received from a number of leading rabbinical and communal figures.

Further details of this are available to potential sponsors from Professor Jackson, who may be contacted initially by e-mail (Bernard.Jackson@man.ac.uk ).