Agunot in Eastern Europe & North America 1900-1914

• In Event: Legal Constructions of Gender and Marriage

Abstract

The paper will review the Agunah phenomenon in the early 1900's (until WW1). More than 1000 Agunot were identifies using various databases (Baron Hirsch fund, JCA, National Desertion bureau, Jewish newspapers, etc.)and research is still continuing. The paper will demonstrate the difference between early 20th century and late 19th century Agunot, focusing on the territorial and cultural aspects. Most known cases of 19th century Agunot occurred in Eastern Europe while most early 20th century cases were in North America.(I gave a paper on East European Agunot at the 2009 AJS conference).The paper will show that indeed "America was different" in this case

author

• Haim Sperber, Western Galilee College