agunah

Alternative Spellings

aguna, agune

Definitions

• A woman whose husband has refused her a Jewish divorce.
• A woman who is unable to remarry, due to the fact that her husband is missing and it is not known whether her husband is alive or dead.

Example Sentences

• "The plight of agunahs has become a great concern to the Jewish community in recent years."
• "After the Holocaust, this posek was able to be matir many agunos."

Languages of Origin

Textual Hebrew

Etymology

עגונה

Who Uses This

Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education

Regions

North America

Dictionaries

The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).

Notes

plural agunot, agunos (עגונות)