Writing by Dr. Dannielle Blumenthal

If plaintiff falsely says they’ve removed barriers to defendant’s remarriage, NY court will typically withhold final Judgment of Divorce until they comply. Was this the genesis of the “Gett refuser” smear against @RaphiStein? See @elievans_untold exchange with “FlatbushGirl.”

NYS law requires the plaintiff (Kohn) to attest to the court that they will not stand in the way of the other partner remarrying once the civil divorce is finalized.

While the law is unbiased in gender terms, in the real Jewish world the idea was to prevent a husband from suing a wife for divorce in civil court, obtaining favorable terms for himself, then leaving her hanging religiously by refusing to give her a Gett out of spite.

In the above scenario, we don’t have the halachic problem of a Get Me’useh because the filing of the civil divorce is evidence of the husband’s desire to separate from his wife.

The Kohn vs Stein case however reverses the scenario.

Here, Stein actually came to the wife first (September 2021) via written communication which conveyed a shared plan to divorce. He said “I worked on our application.” The venue was Canada. They had agreed the kids would stay with her. He only wanted minimal shared custody (4-14 days, which I believe means “per month.”)

Kohn (after already stealing the children’s passports in September 2020, and giving them to mother Rivky for hiding in a safe deposit box, causing Stein to call the police) responded by unilaterally actually filing for divorce in NY State. To file, she had to attest that she was in compliance with the law. She wouldn’t get in the way of Stein remarrying. She had done everything she could do.

The problem was that Kohn sought to remove custody from Stein altogether, after already having taken the children permanently to Monsey, on the “kind and generous” invitation of mother Rivky who said “wouldn’t it be good to get Adeena away for a month” or similar – after Adeena suffered a genuine postpartum medical emergency.

Over and over again, Stein communicated to Kohn – I want you to be okay. I will give you space if you need space. I am there for you. I will even move somewhere besides Montreal, I know it stresses you out – just not Monsey.

Kohn, who seems to be emotionally fragile, communicated to Stein that either he gave her what she wanted or the marriage was over. It is my belief that her mother exerts psychological control there. The mother also got involved in the counseling and early Get discussions.

All of this is in the court papers.

So now fast forward to October 4. Kohn files for divorce. She has to say that there is no impediment to Stein remarrying. But there is. Kohn in the civil has sought to completely take the children away from Stein — and keep in mind that they changed the locks on him after he moved out but while he was still actively visiting the children. In fact on one occasion Rivky refused access altogether.

So Kohn deceives and harms Stein over and over especially with respect to the children.

Now she needs that Gett to proceed with the civil case and win. Keep in mind she has an “expensive” divorce lawyer and Stein does not.

Enter the Agunah campaign and “Free Adeena.” If he gives the Gett, she is free alright…to take the kids.

Stein said on his now-archived website that he was threatened over cooperating with the Beis Din of America. This despite the fact that they had no jurisdiction.

Separately I learned that R’Willig never even spoke to Stein before the seruv was issued which sanctioned the civil case. In fact Stein spoke to Willig by telephone about this to no avail.