Adeena Kohn is not an Agunah, nor is Raphi Stein a Get abuser, a domestic abuser, or anything remotely close to that.
Tragically, he fell into a trap set by his mother-in-law to permanently move the family out of Montreal and into Monsey.
He fell for it because his wife was experiencing a postpartum medical emergency of the kind that many women suffer.
Fast forward: the wife stole the children’s passports and gave them to her mother.
Raphi was torn between trying to help his wife get well, wanting to fix the marriage, ensuring the children had their mother, and trying to get the family to a place where both the father and mother had a say in their location and custody.
In September 2021, Raphi Stein and Adeena Kohn were actually working together on a Canadian divorce application that granted her majority custody.
Then, she abruptly filed for divorce and full custody on her own, and when he moved out, she changed the locks.
When he went to visit the children, his mother-in-law denied him access. (Fortunately, he does see them now.)
This absolute nightmare only got worse. Halachically, you are supposed to go to a Beis Din for a Get. She had no Heter Arkaos (permission from a rabbinical court to use civil courts), yet she went straight to a New York civil court.
There is a statute there known as the “Get Removal Law,” but it applies to whichever party files the suit. To proceed, Adeena had to affirm to the court that she had removed, or would remove, all barriers to remarriage.
However, this was not true because she had no agreement from Raphi regarding the Get.
What was standing in the way?
First, proper halachic process was not followed.
Second, the venue was incorrect; the case should have been handled in Montreal.
Third, you cannot compel a man to give a Get, or it invalidates the Get entirely (Get Me’usah). Here, the civil court system is being weaponized to do just that.
Fourth, Raphi was at risk of losing custody altogether. If he did what Adeena wanted and gave the Get without first litigating fair terms, he would have lost all access to his children.
Fifth, the Beis Din of America and the New York civil courts have a close relationship—though the exact extent of it is not yet clear. As such, the seruv (order of contempt) they issued, which allowed her to proceed in civil court, was potentially tainted.
Now, you would not know any of this based on the way Adina Sash tells it. “FlatbushGirl” has thoroughly and viciously misrepresented the case, smearing Raphi Stein’s name in the Jewish community without any merit.
She doesn’t tell you that Stein invited Kohn, through a Beis Din, to a neutral Beis Din in Israel to settle the entire case.
She doesn’t tell you that she set up a GoFundMe without actually representing Adeena—who, according to a reliable source, is totally embarrassed by her actions.
And she doesn’t tell you that despite her babbling on about Halacha, she is not Orthodox herself.
You can readily see this in her Instagram bio, where she states that she offers assistance with “open marriages” (i.e., adultery).
Someone once called her a modern Shabsai Tzvi, and that is a very accurate description.
Writing by Dr. Dannielle Blumenthal 