Agunah Protest At Las Vegas Wedding

Los Angeles-born Meir Kin, despite his refusal to grant his wife, Lonna (Presser) Kin, a get, married another woman in Las Vegas last month. The wedding was met with a protest organized by the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA), a nonprofit group that helps women obtain a get.

Meir Kin claims to have a heter mei’ah rabbanim (dispensation from 100 rabbis) to remarry even though Lonna Kin, still married to him al pi halacha, does not have similar recourse. (A woman is not eligible to gain a heter mei’ah rabbanim.) While the heter can be employed in extreme cases, ORA and many rabbis insist that Kin is not in that situation.

Protesters included Rabbis Kalman Topp of Beth Jacob Beverly Hills; Yosef Kanefsky of Congregation B’nai David Judea; Shalhevet Head of School Ari Segal (and some of the school’s students); Nachum Meth of the Las Vegas Kollel; and many other Jewish activists from Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Meir Kin’s name appears regularly on The Jewish Press’s Seruv Listing. Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rabbi Nachum Sauer, and Rabbi Avrohom Union issued the seruv in June 2010.