(JTA) – The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) will mandate its member rabbis to require couples to sign a prenuptial agreement ensuring that husbands will not withhold a “get,” or Jewish writ of divorce, from their wives. The agreement, commonly referred to as a “halachic prenup,” generally penalizes the husband financially for refusing to give the get. According to halachah a husband must give his wife the get in order for the couple to divorce. Women whose husbands refuse to divorce them – preventing them from remarrying under Jewish law – are referred to as “agunot,” Hebrew for “chained women.” Rabbi Mark Dratch, executive vice president of the RCA, a centrist Orthodox rabbis’ organization, said the organization is mandating the longstanding fix to an intractable problem now because the Orthodox community is largely aware of and comfortable with its use.

The RCA has advocated the use of the prenup since 1993. But the document’s use is not universal, and husbands still occasionally refuse to divorce their wives. This is the first time the RCA is requiring its rabbis to have couples sign the prenup before their weddings. Among some 200 mostly American Orthodox rabbis surveyed earlier this year by the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Association, approximately 75 percent already require couples to sign the prenup before getting married. Nearly 50 of the rabbis, however, either don’t require the prenup or actively discourage couples they are marrying from signing one.