Matir Agunot (Unchained)

Produced by Herzliya Studios, Matir Agunot premiered on Israeli television on October 30, 2019, with episodes running approximately 45 minutes.[1] The 12-episode series aired on Kan 11 and was described by a Ynet reviewer as a drama that gradually develops into a suspense story.[2]

The central character is Rabbi Yosef Murad, played by Aviv Alush, a rabbi-detective whose job is to locate husbands who refuse to grant their wives a get and persuade them to cooperate.[1] His wife Hannah, played by Abigail Kovari, is equally central: while Yosef investigates other people's marriages, mounting signs lead him to investigate the secrets within his own home.[1]

Yosef and Hannah have tried unsuccessfully to have a child for four years, despite no stated medical cause. Their marriage is portrayed as an unusual match within Haredi society: Yosef is of Sephardi background, while Hannah is Ashkenazi and the daughter of rabbinical-court presiding judge Rabbi Aharon Shapira, played by Natan Datner. Shapira arranges Yosef's position in the Rabbinate.[1]

The series was created by Yossi Madmoni, David Ofek, and Tamar Kay. Its cast includes Aviv Alush as Rabbi Yosef Murad, Abigail Kovari as Hannah, Natan Datner as Rabbi Aharon Shapira, and Tiki Dayan and Alma Dishi in supporting roles.[2][4]

Madmoni said the original idea arose in 2000 from a story told by his insurance agent. The agent's future wife was an agunah whose violent husband had disappeared; the agent located him working at a remote gas station in the United States, traveled there, persuaded him to cooperate, and returned to Israel with the get. The anecdote inspired Madmoni's initial idea for a character who was both a rabbi and a detective.[3]

Press coverage reported that Rabbi Murad was inspired by Rabbi Eliyahu Maimon, then head of the real Agunot Department, a unit operating within the Chief Rabbinate since 2011.[5][6] Madmoni publicly rejected the claimed connection, noting that he had devised the rabbi-detective character years before the department was established.[3]

An agunah (plural: agunot) is a Jewish woman unable to dissolve her marriage because she cannot receive a get. This status may arise when a husband disappears without proof of his death, lacks the legal capacity to deliver a get, or refuses to grant one.[7]

Under Jewish law, a valid divorce requires the husband's consensual delivery of the get and the wife's consensual receipt of it. Israeli law places marriage and divorce matters involving Jewish citizens and residents within the exclusive jurisdiction of rabbinical courts. Although a court may rule that a couple should divorce, the ruling does not itself dissolve the marriage.[7]

Israeli law authorizes several measures against people who refuse to comply with rabbinical-court divorce rulings, including travel restrictions, property seizure, passport limitations, restrictions on certain licenses and activities, imprisonment, and solitary confinement. Imprisonment may extend for five years, with periodic extensions bringing the total to as much as ten years.[7]

These measures may still prove insufficient when a noncompliant spouse leaves Israel or persists despite the sanctions.[7] In a separate case involving a get arranged for a comatose husband, the Israeli Supreme Court blocked proceedings that might have returned the woman to what the Library of Congress described as an "endless marriage" as an agunah.[7]

Creator Tamar Kay emphasized that the problem is not confined to religious women: women refused a get must deal with the rabbinical system regardless of their own level of religious observance.[6]

Madmoni said Matir Agunot became Kan 11's most-watched series of the preceding year, with more than half a million viewers per episode. He described its genre as difficult to classify: its plot operates as a thriller, but it lacks many of the conventional elements associated with familiar thriller series.[3]

In January 2021, Australia's SBS acquired exclusive Australian broadcast rights for the series, extending its distribution beyond Israel.[4]

During the series' broadcast, the production faced legal pressure concerning claims about its possible real-life inspiration. Madmoni said the production received a warning letter from the Rabbinical Court stating that legal action could follow if interviewees described Rabbi Yosef Murad as based on Rabbi Eliyahu Maimon. Madmoni rejected that association, and the production added a disclaimer to each episode stating that the series was not connected to real events or people.[3]

Although one press report described Maimon as the character's reported inspiration, that connection remained an attributed claim rather than an independently established fact, and it was expressly disputed by Madmoni.[5][3]