Elana Sztokman

A man goes to a prostitute, and then blames her for making him sin. No, this is not the beginning of a joke. Rather, it’s the argument currently being made by Knesset members from the (all male) Shas party in a current round of deliberations about the legality of prostitution.

At issue is a bill recently introduced by Kadima Knesset member Orit Zuaretz, seen at right, outlawing the solicitation of a prostitute. Actually, the Zuaretz bill makes solicitation punishable with six months in prison only after the second arrest. First time offenders will be sent to a form of rehab that includes mandatory attendance at seminars on public health and human dignity, as well as lectures given from former prostitutes about the harrowing conditions of their lives. The bill is based on the Sweden model, where a 1999 law punished those soliciting and not those being solicited — and resulted in the number of women working as prostitutes shrinking by two-thirds....

Unfortunately, not everyone is in favor. According to Shas legislators, the main opponents of this groundbreaking bill, men are the victims and women are the criminals. “The women are the guilty ones in the prostitution industry, and men are just the victims, because women tempt them,” according to Knesset member Nissim Zeev, speaking at the hearing of the Committee on the Trafficking of Women last week.

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In Japan, it seems, there are some women-only buses. They were established, according to journalist Chani Luz, to protect women from “groping men.” Luz, who writes for the Orthodox publications Makor Rishon and Hatzofe, supports women-only buses in Israel because, as she recalled in a recent Ynet column, she was once molested on a bus when she was in 12th grade. “An older man sat next to me on the bus from Rehovot to Ramle and did not stop putting his hand on me and making indecent proposals,” she wrote. “I wanted to get up but I froze in my seat until the end of the ride.” Luz thus concludes that feminists should be in favor of separate buses. Gender-segregated buses, with men in the front and women in the back, are currently a burning issue in Israel, as Transport Minister Israel Katz has until December 27 to rule on whether or not gender-segregated buses in Israel are, in his opinion, legal. READ THE REST AT THE FORWARD SISTERHOOD BLOG -- AND DON'T FORGET TO CLICK ON THE LINK TO SIGN THE PETITION Read the rest of this entry →

The latest on "Modesty Patrol" violence against women: Yoel Kraus was arrested on suspicion of attacking a haredi women and spraying her with tear gas becuase she refused to walk on the opposite side of the street. According to Ynet:

The Jerusalem Police on Sunday arrested Yoel Kreus, the "operations officer" of the Eda Haredit, a staunchly anti-Zionist haredi communal organization, for allegedly assaulting a woman in the Meah Shearim neighborhood after she refused to cross the street at his command.... According to initial investigation, Kreus spotted the woman walking on one of the neighborhood's streets and instructed her to cross over to another street. When she refused, he allegedly assaulted her, spraying her with mace.

This is just the latest in the growing fanaticism of haredi anti-women sectors of society. The fanatics are spreading out and getting more violent. Read the rest of this entry →

“Rachel” an ultra-Orthodox mother of 12 living in Jerusalem, got divorced this week. It’s cause for celebration for two reasons. First, this grants her much-needed freedom from her severely violent and erratic now-ex-husband, a man who viciously controlled, manipulated and abused her and her children during the marriage and separation. But the real jubilation is because the divorce process – receiving her get – took nine years. Nine years! That’s a marathon that deserves acknowledgment. Unfortunately, Rachel is not alone. Thousands of agunot and mesoravot get (women denied divorce) are stuck in limbo – sometimes for years or even decades – neither married nor divorced, waiting for the rabbinical court to come to their aid. READ THE REST ON THE FORWARD SISTERHOOD BLOG Read the rest of this entry →

In today's YnetThe Bill for Civil Marriage in Israel, which went to second and third readings yesterday in the Knesset Law committee, sounds like much more than it is. To be clear, it's not really a bill to introduce civil marriage in Israel in general, but rather to provide a way for people "without religion" to register their unions. No wonder the haredi parties are not opposed -- it doesn't even affect Jews at all! Nevertheless, this may still be an important, if somewhat weak, first step. Read the rest of this entry →

Here's the latest news in the radical extremist, violent culture of sex-segregation in certain areas in Israel: According to today's Yediot Aharonot, a woman had her baby snatched from her arms by a haredi man in Meah Shearim. Apparently, this was done to her because she inadvertently entered the "men's" sidewalk. Yes, sidewalk! Read the rest of this entry →

Stanley Chais doesn’t know me, but I know him. His name appears in the title of countless files on my computer – titles such as, “Chais Proposal for Educational Program….” Over the past five years, I’ve written a whole bunch of not-quite-Pulitzer-prize winners in this fascinating genre called “The Grant Proposal”. See, I’m one of those idealists turned pragmatists, the kind who graduated university thinking I wanted to change the world and ended up spending most of my days grant-writing. There are throngs of us out there – teachers, social workers, youth counselors. We have ideas, we have drive, we have creativity and we have motivation. What we don’t have is a clever way to pay our own bills. What can I say, there is much more market demand for good English writing than for expertise in, oh, say, “gender issues in Jewish education.” (What’s that? Yeah….) So now, in addition to the many charming (or perhaps outrageous) ideas for improving society that are floating around my brain like the balls in a pinball machine, I now have a trade. I’m a fundraiser. Read the rest of this entry →

Kolech is offering a series of educational and empowerment programs to address the changing needs and interests women of all ages -- and sometimes even men. Take a look – you may be surprised to find out that other people are interested in exploring the same issues that you are! Read the rest of this entry →