What Is a Seruv? Understanding Get Refusal and the Jewish Divorce Process (286)

April 13, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In a 2022 survey of women who contacted Ora about get refusal, those who had experienced three or more other forms of abuse during their marriage were overrepresented. This data point anchors a central claim from Jen Lankin, co-CEO of Ora: get refusal is not merely a legal or halakhic dispute—it is a form of domestic abuse defined by control. The conversation with Lankin and Rabbi Jonathan Hefter, Ora’s Director of Partnerships and Innovation, unpacks what that means in practice, how the batei din system works and breaks down, and what community members can actually do.

What a Seruv Is and Isn't

A seruv is an order of contempt issued by a beit din when someone refuses to cooperate with the divorce process—either by not giving the get or by not appearing before the court. The consequences are communal: depending on the wording of the ruling, the community may be called upon to distance themselves from the refuser, sometimes including not doing business with them, not counting them in a minyan, or not giving them honors in shul. Outside of Israel, batei din function as arbitration forums with no police power, so enforcement depends entirely on community willingness to uphold the order.

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

Never miss an episode of Orthodox Conundrum

Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

What you'll learn

1 (06:10) **What a Seruv Is and How It Works** - Jen Lankin defines a seruv as an order of contempt issued when someone refuses to give a get or appear before a beit din, and explains the communal enforcement mechanisms that follow.
2 (08:54) **Why Communities Sometimes Ignore a Seruv** - Scott asks why people with seruvim are often welcomed in other Orthodox communities, and Jen explains this is a halakhic violation that lacks enforcement.
3 (10:15) **When a Seruv Might Not Be Issued** - Scott asks if a husband can legitimately refuse to appear at a specific beit din, and Jen describes the zabla process that creates a new ad hoc court.
4 (13:24) **Where the Beit Din System Works and Breaks Down** - Rabbi Jonathan Hefter explains that outside Israel, there is no unified system, and breakdowns occur due to procedural failures and bad-faith tactics.
5 (16:44) **Why Batei Din Ask Wives to Drop Protective Orders** - Jonathan explains that batei din sometimes demand this because the husband uses the order as leverage, claiming he won't cooperate until it's gone.
6 (18:06) **The Problem of the Get Being Used as Leverage** - Scott raises the troubling pattern where batei din pressure wives to give in to husbands' demands just to get the get, and Jonathan explains why this approach fails.
7 (20:59) **When a Contentious Divorce Crosses into Get Refusal** - Jen explains that the line is hard to define technically, but the key indicator is when the get is used as leverage.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content!

Today's episode deals with a topic that many people have heard about, but far fewer people actually understand. Terms like get refusal or seruv are often mentioned, sometimes with strong reactions, but often without a clear sense of what they mean in practice.

So in this conversation, we're going to take a step back and try to understand the system itself.

What exactly is a seruv? How does the Beit Din process work when a couple is going through a divorce? At what point does a difficult or contentious situation cross the line into something more serious? And where does the system function as it is meant to, and where does it sometimes break down?

My guests today are Jen Lankin, co-CEO of ORA, the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, and Rabbi Jonathan Hefter, ORA's Director of Partnerships and Innovation. ORA works closely with individuals navigating some of the most complex and painful cases in the Jewish divorce system, and they bring both practical experience and a broader perspective on how these situations unfold.

One of the important ideas you will hear in this episode is that these situations can become complicated very quickly, but that complexity does not change the underlying reality. When a get is being withheld or used as leverage, that is a serious problem. And understanding how and why that happens is essential if we want to address it effectively.

We also talk about concepts that are not always part of the public conversation, like "get delay," the role of community responsibility, and an emerging view that the get may need to be given earlier in the process in order to avoid becoming a point of leverage.

And just as importantly, we discuss the idea of survivor led advocacy. Public pressure, including rallies, protests, and communal action, can sometimes be effective, and ORA does use those tools. But they are not always the right approach, and even when they are, it is essential that the agunah herself is the one guiding that decision. The process matters, not just the outcome, and supporting someone through this kind of situation means ensuring that she retains agency over how her case is handled.

This is a serious and sometimes uncomfortable topic. But it is also an opportunity to better understand how the system works, and to think more caref