Matir Asurot is an organization trying to help women whose husbands will not give them a get, a divorce certificate required under Jewish law. To call attention to their plight, Magnolia Jewelry--which has stores in New York, London, Poland and Australia--is selling a bracelet whose proceeds will benefit the cause. Here's more from the Jerusalem Post, which also has news of a related wedding dress display:
SOCIO-RELIGIOUS issues require good marketing no less than economic services or consumer products. More and more women's organizations are being formed and are joining forces with existing organizations to raise public awareness of the plight of agunot - women who are anchored or chained in marriages from which they wish to be released, but are unable to be liberated because their husbands refuse to give them a get , or Jewish bill of divorce. Without it, these women cannot remarry or have children. To support the efforts of Asurot (Forbidden), a coalition of women's organizations working towards freeing women from marital bondage, the Magnolia Jewelry chain has produced a special silver bracelet with a Swarovski crystal as a form of identification with the struggle of the agunot. All proceeds from sales of this bracelet will go to Asurot. It is hoped that the bracelet which, though such a feminine piece of jewelry also symbolizes pain and slavery, will also become a symbol of hope. It sells at the affordable price of NIS 49. Asurot was initiated by the not-for-profit community art project headed by Adi Yekutieli. Asurot is currently engaged in completing what it believes to be the biggest wedding gown in the world, and hopes that the finished product will be included in the Guinness Book of Records, which in itself will make more people aware of the suffering of agunot. Meanwhile, the gown that incorporates embroidered images created in agunot workshops, will be displayed in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv from June 28 within the framework of the city's White Night festivities celebrating the fourth anniversary of UNESCO's conferring of World Heritage Site status on Tel Aviv's White City.
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