Aliza Gellis, head of the Yad L’isha centre that provides legal aid to women stuck in hopeless marriages, said her organization gets 6,000 requests for assistance each year.

There are also a few rare cases of men who are “chained” because their wives refuse to accept a “get,” though for a man the Jewish legal implications are not as severe.

“In the cases where rabbinic courts give an order demanding a get, we can now consider opening an investigation against the divorce-refuser and bringing him to trial for ignoring a legal order, under section 287 of the penal code,” Nitzan wrote in his new order.