Tag Archive: women

Recording: Briefing Call with Naomi Chazan and Shira Herzog

On Tuesday, December 10th, Naomi Chazan and Shira Herzog briefed NIF supporters about the current state of play of our issues in Israel.

Major Conference on Gynecology Excludes Women

NIF is at the forefront of a campaign against a conference on innovations in gynecology, which will exclude women speakers. The Puah Institute, which helps couples with fertility, medicine, and Jewish law, held its 13th national conference in Jerusalem this week, with the theme “Innovations in Gynecology and Halachah: Judgments, Dilemmas and Challenges.” In previous years, female experts were barred from speaking at the annual conference, leading many doctors to cancel their participation in protest. This year, the Puah Institute refused to reveal the list of speakers, presumably in an attempt to stave off criticism regarding its exclusion of women.

Immersion and Empowerment

A new training program for mikva (ritual bath) attendants in Israel is an important step forward for women’s rights. The new training program, which will be run by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, was agreed upon following a campaign by Advot (Ripples), a group of women’s rights activists.

Promoting Equal Pay for Women in the Workplace

As part of its efforts to equalize wage gaps between women and men in Israel, SHATIL has declared 2014, which marks the 50th anniversary of Israel’s underused Equal Pay Law, as “Equal Pay Year”.

The Israeli State Budget from a Gender Perspective

Following a five-year campaign by long-time NIF grantee the Adva Center, which is the leading Israeli research institute analyzing issues of economic equity, Finance Minister Yair Lapid has appointed a special committee charged with examining the state budget from a gender perspective.

Profile: Roni Hazon Weiss

Roni Hazon Weiss has had a fascinating journey to become one Jerusalem’s leading religious feminist activists. Born and raised in a modern Orthodox family in Maaleh Adumim, and active in Bnei Akiva, her first turning point came when she studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum, one of the pioneers of Talmud study for women.

Knesset Raises Minimum Age of Marriage

In a victory for the rights of Arab and ultra-Orthodox women, the Knesset has raised the minimum age of marriage from 17 to 18. The amendment to the 1950 Age of Marriage Law passed its final vote with 55 in favor and 11 against. The vote follows a ten-year campaign by NIF grantee the Working Group for Equality in Personal Status Issues. Previously, religious parties had managed to prevent this legislation from being implemented.

Success for Arab Women in the Municipal Elections

The number of women representatives of Arab municipalities nearly doubled in last week’s municipal elections. This follows a major NIF grant to five organizations (led by grantees Mossawa and Women against Violence) for the purpose of increasing female representation from all parties on local councils.

Bigger than Feminism, Better with Feminism

By Susan Silverman, October 2013 When I became a Woman of the Wall, I became more fully Jewish. I had been a rabbi for almost 20 years the day I was rounded up, with nine other women – including my seventeen-year-old daughter – by police for wearing a tallis and praying out loud at the…

“He’s not a rabbi. He’s a boy!”

By Allison Sherwat Cooper, October 2013 I was given a gift by the Jewish female pioneers (and their equally important male supporters) before me. As a child raised in the 1980s in an egalitarian, progressive, reform temple in Washington, DC, it was a given that I would become a bat mitzvah, stand on the bimah…