BY RYAN TOROK – Jewish Journal
On the morning of Aug. 23, Meir Kin and his siblings were sitting shivah for their recently deceased mother. But outside their home in the Fairfax district, close to 30 people gathered, determined to disrupt the quiet surrounding the house of mourning.
The protesters, shouting “Meir Kin, Stop the Abuse!” included Rabbis Yosef Kanefsky of B’nai David-Judea and Kalman Topp of Beth Jacob Congregation, and Shalhevet High School students, among others. They were there to denounce Kin’s refusal to give his ex-wife, Lonna Kin, a get (Jewish divorce decree.)
The conflict between Kin, a physician’s assistant who now lives in Las Vegas, and Lonna, a real estate broker in Monsey, N.Y., has been going on for 15 years. The couple received a civil divorce in 2007, but to date Kin has refused to issue Lonna a get, which under rabbinic law can only be given by the male spouse.
Even though Kin remarried in 2014, Lonna remains an agunah (chained woman), making it impossible for her to remarry under Jewish law.
At Kin’s second wedding, members of the local Modern Orthodox community traveled to Las Vegas to protest. At the time, Kin claimed he had entered into the new marriage through heter meah rabbanim (the permission of 100 rabbis).
The issue of agunot, and the Kins’ case in particular, returned to the spotlight after Kin’s 81-year-old mother died on Aug. 18. The Kin family sent her body to Israel to be buried but Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau refused to move forward with the burial until Kin provided Lonna with a get.
Kin allegedly agreed to Lau’s terms and his mother was buried in Israel. However, shortly thereafter, Kin said in a video posted on Aug. 22 on YouTube that he never made any agreement with Lau.
“The rabbinate … publicized that they withheld burial of my mother for reasons relating to a get and because of that I changed my mind and agreed to give a get immediately,” Kin said in the video. “This is all fake news. No one from the rabbinate … contacted me and nobody agreed to any conditions.”
Kin concluded the video by stating, “You should know that a get has been waiting for my wife for over 10 years at the Beit Din of Shaarey Mishpat [in Monsey].”
Kin made the same claim over a decade ago. The Journal covered the story in 2009, and then assistant director of the New York-based Organization for the Resolution for Agunot (ORA), Rabbi Jeremy Stern, told the Journal that particular beit din (Jewish court of law), run by Rabbi Tzvi Dov Abraham, is “universally reviled as extortionist.”
And so, protesters in Los Angeles showed up early at the shivah house on Aug. 23 — around 7:30 a.m. — with Los Angeles Police Department officers arriving on the scene to ensure the protests remained peaceful.
Protesters pleaded with the mourners as they came and went from the shivah house. “What if it was your daughter?” one man asked. Later, the sprinklers on the front lawn came on, pushing the demonstrators farther back from the property.
Outside the home, Kanefsky told the Journal, “This is a case in which Jewish law is being mocked, ridiculed, dragged through the mud. If you care about the integrity of Jewish law, it’s an outrageous abuse of everything we hold sacred.”
Speaking to the Journal by phone from Monsey, Lonna Kin said she was heartened that people in L.A. were taking up her cause.
“I am a symbol of other women, other women like me who are also waiting and suffering,” she said. “My reaction [to the demonstration] is mixed emotions, basically. I appreciate someone would go to those lengths to do that for someone else.”
Sad😯
Get refusal is abuse.
…you can’t say anything until you really know the whole story
it is abuse. it is always abuse. there is no “two sides” when it comes to this. only a pathetic, worthless excuse for a Jew forces a woman to be married to him against her will and the will of a Bais Din. He is not a man. he is a worm. I cannot imagine the misery his poor mother’s neshama felt because of his aveirah.
See Shulchan Aruch, Even Haezer 77:2.
In MOST CASES the wife is not entitled to a get, and the husband has absolutely no obligation to give one. If she wants it she has to do whatever it takes to persuade him, which means giving him whatever he wants in return for his consent. The same applies the other way around: a husband can’t just give a get because he wants to; in MOST CASES he must persuade the wife to consent, which means giving her whatever she wants. Kefiyas get can only be ordered in those cases that the gemoro lists. In any other case if… Read more »
Disgusting. There is a time and a place. Protesting while he sits shiva is being more selfish than he is.
Sorry, Brian, his own children are sitting shiva for him for the past 15 years, his children as well are having a very difficult getting married due to his utter disregard, every opportunity one has to get this guy to give a get is the right time and will only benefit him, his family and his parents.
Something he obviously never learned growing up. We get what we put forth in this life. Every action will garner a positive or a negative reaction. Ultimately he is putting his direct family through this shame and is choosing himself over honoring his mother and sitting shiva in a dignified manner.
they should have swarmed the whole street and disallowed him to sit shiva or attend the funeral until he gave a get. he deserves nothing but misery. I hope he suffers every bit as much as she suffers. Hashem will punish that Rasha immensely. Get refusal is abuse. someone who abuses his wife in that way puts his entire yiddishkeit into question. Is someone who won’t follow what a Bais Din says truly a practicing Jew? Many say no.
Which Rabbi married him? Can we get a list of all the rabbis who have been complicit in this spousal abuse. Yes it may be the time an place to protest, but when has there ever been a time and place for abuse. His mother obviously supported his actions. They have caused upheaval in another woman’s life, a protest is nothing in comparison to what she is going through.
If he is a PA people should start leaving negative reviews about his bigamy. Contact the local news where he lives.
The sign about the deceased Mother being in Gehenom is truly disgusting.
They lose all credibility with this sign. They can’t ask her for mechila either
Yes the sign shocked me too, but after further thought, if his family supported his actions in anyway they are equally to blame for this major and now international chillul Hashem! Everyone who helped and continues to support this man by friendship, support or silence are equally responsible.
Who said his family supports him in his refusal??!!!!
The rabbonim could make the issue of agunos go away if they wanted to. There are so many ways the rabbonim could do this. It is a travesty what these woman have to go through. This is not the Torah way!
This guy should be jailed until he agrees to give her the get
This is Chilul Hashem
How on earth he remarried while still married according to Halacha
France understood this kind of situation and cannot have a civil divorce and remarry without a proof of a get
This should be applied in the US too
Not the right time and and place, but still good.
If nothing helped for the past fifteen years maybe this is the best time and place
you’ve clearly never experienced being an agunah. you don’t get “breaks” from it. You don’t get peace from it. You are imprisoned every moment of your life. I think the protest should have been longer and bigger. He doesn’t deserve a moment of peace. not one
Go to every store he shops and tell them to refuse doing business with him or else nobody else will shop there
An agunah I know (BH she has a Get) let many local businesses know and many chose to refuse that scum service. They are a private establishment and can BH refuse service 🙂