Elana Sztokman

As I read the headline, I thought I was seeing things. Can the Jerusalem Post really be asking the question of whether it is halakhically permitted for the Prime Minister of Israel to be a woman? My eyes did not deceive me. I was let down only by my apparently naive belief that a public newspaper presumably for all of Israel would not be pandering to the anachronistic, medieval narrow-mindedness of some of its religiously fanatic readership. Apparently, the author writes, "the election of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to head Kadima has reignited interest in this question." Wow. Read the rest of this entry →

In the following essay, my dear friend Rabbi Dr. Haviva Ner-David offers an insightful overview and analysis of the relationship between feminism and halakhah today, comparing the scholarship of Professors Tamar Ross and Rachel Adler and emerging with perceptive understandings about gender in Orthodoxy. The article is excerpted from the recent release, New Jewish Feminism, edited by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein (Jewish Lights). You can also view this article on the Kolech English Website, Jewish Women's Voice: In 1971, an article by Rachel Adler appeared in Susannah Heschel's groundbreaking anthology, On Being a Jewish Feminist. The article, entitled "The Jew Who Wasn't There: Halakhah and the Jewish Woman," initiated the discussion about what the relationship should be between feminism and halakhah, Jewish Law-or, more accurately, the system of Oral Law that has been, until now, the ongoing interpretation of the Torah by Jewish male (and only male!) rabbinic authorities throughout the ages. This discussion continues to this day, as voices coming from a broad spectrum of communities in the Jewish world-from ultra-Orthodox to Jewish Renewal--contribute to and deepen the debate as to what the goal of religious Jewish feminism should be and how to get there. Read the rest of this entry →

The new American First Lady Michelle Obama has declared that she is officially on a "mommy track". What can you do, her husband has the entire free world to think about, so he can't be busy reading bedtime stories to the girls. Of course, way before Barack was elected president, his career was already coming first. Michelle, like so many other women I know, may be a great mother, but she is also a model for women trailing men. Ruth Marcus in today's Washington Post explores how Michelle Obama has become more like Jackie Kennedy than Hillary Clinton, and what this election, in which we could have had a smart, savvy women for president and instead got a smart, savvy woman for "first mommy", has done for the status of women in society. A must read, in my opinion. Read the rest of this entry →

Tuesday November 25 marks the International Day Against Violence Against Women. This is a horrific and growing problem in Israeli society. Know the facts. Recognize the signs. You may be able to save the life of a woman you love. One sunny morning in the pastoral northern town of Tirat Hacarmel, Noga Gadi, a beautiful 30-year old woman was stabbed 32 times with a knife while in her own home, by none other than her husband. When he was questioned in court about his actions, the husband replied, “What’s the big deal? It happens all the time in this country.” This article is scheduled to appear in the November 25 edition of the Jerusalem Post Read the rest of this entry →

This morning, I had the most wonderful opportunity to have a long, leisurely breakfast with two of my favorite women, Annie Eisen and Ariella Zeller. We were marking Annie's 35th birthday over coffee and omelets in the warm Modi'in air -- and I thought to myself, there is no better way to celebrate a woman's life than in the company of women friends. It was a treat, one that we ought to splurge on more often. I think about the turning points in my life, those Oprah-aha moments when I came to truly understand something new about the world and about myself, and there were always friends involved. Our friendships, when true, help us become who we are. Read the rest of this entry →

Men have no trouble paying attention to women’s bodies – at least on the outside. Getting some attention to what’s going on inside a woman’s body, however, is a whole other matter.

Women’s physical health needs are so often overlooked. For decades, discussions of “health” meant “men’s health.” Research was conducted exclusively on men, diagrams in anatomical books were of men, and norms were created based on the male body. Hence, there are departments of “women’s health” in hospitals and medical schools – implying that everything else is by default “men’s health.” To this day, industries ranging from car manufacturers to sports-equipment designers consider a male body the norm. At 5’ 0”, I have trouble seeing over the wheel of most cars without making significant adjustments, and I have yet to use a seatbelt that does not choke me on the neck. Every time I buckle up in the driver’s seat, I am reminded that the men are the norm and women are the aberration.

An open letter to incoming Modi’in Mayor Haim Bibas:

Mr. Bibas: During your campaign, you promised to act for the benefit of women who, as you know, comprise half of your electorate. You promised to open up an Office of Women’s Issues, a paid, budgeted office dedicated to promoting gender equity and improving women’s lives. This would be a welcome step, giving the women who have been volunteering their time for many years the professional support that they need in order to effectively make change in society, as well as offering real, tangible backing to an entire platform of social, economic and educational reform. Yet, it is being reported that you also promised to create a new “Women’s Portfolio,” a sort of cabinet position used for coalition negotiations in order to placate some of your potential partners in government. What’s more, this portfolio, which may either oversee or compete with the soon to be Office of Women’s Issues for backing and funding, is being offered to the religious party, Achdut. If a women’s portfolio is created and given to the religious party, such a move would be a horrific step backwards for women.

Less than half of the eligible voters in my city exercised their electoral rights last week. The overwhelming majority of the adult population chose to stay home from the municipal elections for reasons ranging from indifference to protest, or perhaps mostly just boredom. Alongside some indications that the elections resulted in “more of the same” (such as the appalling number of women elected – only three out of 17 municipal seats in Modi’in, or 17.6%) some of the elections signaled significant shifts in Israeli ideologies. Read the rest of this entry →

Hinda Hoffman, a gentle, warm, thoughtful and extremely intelligent woman who I’m privileged to call friend, neighbor, and mentor, turned 66 today. She retired earlier this year from one of the most important positions at Hebrew University: academic adviser. I can honestly say that without Hinda, a woman whose quiet influence radically altered the way students are treated in her one corner of the university, I would not be where I am today. Read the rest of this entry →

Israel ranks 56th out of 130 countries in terms of its success in promoting gender fairness, according to the annual 2007 Gender Gap Index released this week by the World Economic Forum and Harvard and Berkley Universities. Israel trails way behind most Western countries, even behind the Philippines and Mongolia. In certain areas, Israel ranked particularly low: in salary gap, Israel ranks 119th in the world, in parliamentary representation, Israel ranks 75th, and in governmental representation overall, Israel ranks 81st. To read more, go to the Kolech English Blog, Jewish Women's Voice Read the rest of this entry →