Elana Sztokman

Israel Prize Laureate Professor Alice Shalvi, and her spouse Mr. Moshe Shalvi, who have been married for nearly 60 years, collaborated to create a beautiful digital encyclopedia of Jewish women, the first of its kind. Now, the Jewish Women's Archive has adopted this encyclopedia and is making it available online to the general public. I had the privilege of interviewing the Shalvis last year when the volume was launched, and I am attaching the interview, published in The Forward, here. In the meantime, here is the announcement from the Jewish Women's Archive: Read the rest of this entry →

Debbie Gross, Founding Director of the Crisis Center for Religious Women, has been helping women heal from pain and abuse for two decades. The Center handles thousands of calls from women around the country -- not just in the religious public -- in issues including domestic violence, sexual abuse, pedophilia, rape, incest, and more. The specially trained staff at the Center specializes in helping women and children from the religious community, and accompanies women through police investigations, hospital visits, and even the court system. The staff at the center are no less than heroines of the Jewish world. To contact the hotline, click here. Here she brings us an announcement about one of her special retreats for women: Read the rest of this entry →

Kolech founder Dr. Hana Kehat will discuss her first book "Feminism and Judaism" at the annual film festival at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, on March 4-5, 2009. The Festival, entitled, "Women Forge Justice", includes guest speakers lecturer and writer Dr. Orit Kamir, writer Mira Magen, "Harei At" filmmaker sisters Ramit Alon and Leah Dor, as well as Prof. Yedidya Stern, poet Hava Pinkas Cohen, Dr. Ronit Ir-Shai, and more. Tickets can be purchased on-line by contacting Mavoi Satum http://www.mavoisatum.org/index.php/en/news. Read the rest of this entry →

Congratulations to Sara Hurwitz on being conferred the title "Spiritual Leader" of Hebrew Institute of Riverdale -- a well-deserved honor, though "rabbi" would be better. Kudos to Rabbi Avi Weiss on being a courageous leader in advocating for women, and I hope eventually HIR gives women the full and equal title that they deserve. In the meantime, change is undoubtedly in the air, and Orthodox communities everywhere should take note (hat tip: Matthew Maryles). Read the rest of this entry →

The incoming Knesset, if all remains as it stands today, will have 21 women, the highest ever in Israeli history, or 17.5% total. This puts Israel at 68th in the world, along with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, slightly behind the Sudan and Lithuania, but remarkably just slightly ahead of the Unites States, which stands in 69th place with 75 Congresswomen and 17 Senators, or 17.4% and 17.2% female representation, respectfully. This is an improvement over 82nd place in the world, which is where we stood just yesterday. Read the rest of this entry →

I don’t think I have ever felt this depressed the morning after an election. I simply cannot believe that Green Movement-Meimad did not get one seat. Not one seat! I cannot believe Rabbi Michael Melchior, the only man who has started to build a real vision for the future of Israel, one that is not just about security but about who we are as a people, a man who stands in his rabbinical attire and has the courage and foresight to say that a country that does not feed the poor and look after the environment is not a Jewish state – that he’s now out of the Knesset. I’m trying to wrap my head around this, and it’s giving me a migraine. Read the rest of this entry →

Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi who was recommended for indictment by Attorney General Meni Mazuz, is cleared to be appointed as Av Beit Din, the highest post in the rabbinical court system in Israel. The Committee on the Appointment of Judges had made this proclamation and was all set to move forward, but an organization called Ometz, represented by attorney Boaz Arad, protested to the Supreme court to undo the appointment. Unfortunately, yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Committee for the Appointment of Judges. "Metzger's questionable morality makes him unfit for such a position as head judge," Arad told Ynet. Read the rest of this entry →

The fact that there is actually a woman running for Prime Minister has apparently gone unnoticed by those in charge of planning the future of the Prime Minister's Office. Today's Yediyot Aharonot reports that in the "White House of Israel" structure being planned in Jerusalem over the coming years, a massive edifice that combines the Prime Minister's residence and office, there will be "an elaborate kitchen for the First Lady" [mitbah lagveret harishona]. Read the rest of this entry →

Printed in the Jerusalem Post, 13 March, 2009

"Women, stop crying! Calm down! No shouting. Control yourselves. We can't hear the eulogies with you going on like this." This is what the rabbis of Yavne have to say to women at funerals. "Oranit" was at a family funeral recently where women were not only forbidden from approaching the grave, but were forbidden from crying.

"Some religious women of my family repeated what the cemetery woman had said," Oranit recalled. "Some said, 'If it's forbidden, it's forbidden. Let us calm down.' Others said, "We must not harm the sanctity of the dead. Women should not come near the graves. It will damage our wombs."

The religious world is very creative at finding new and unthinkable ways to be cruel to women. This one, like so many others, is entrenched in religious powers that be, justified with a pseudo-religious language that asks women to sacrifice their entire selves for the sake of "the community", or in this case, "the city." According to Oranit, in Yavne, the rabbis have declared that due to a "high rate of deaths of young people in Yavne, we have vowed that women will not approach the grave during the burial - and that would be the Tikkun (healing) of Yavne," and that women are impure "because we menstruate and according to Jewish religion we are prohibited from walking amongst the graves."

When will this horrible absurdity end? How can we fight this?

Read Oranit's article on the Kolech website, in Hebrew or in English

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