Elana Sztokman

Singing the Pirates of Penzance with my five-year old daughter, Meital, reminds me that children are joy. Sure. But that doesn't mean we should be encouraging young couples to have lots and lots of kids fast, as did a recent Ynet columnist. I much prefer to hear the wisdom of Kolech's Malka Petrekovsky, a brave trailblazer in promoting family planning for religious couples. Read the rest of this entry →

Here's a video about the Kolech conference from Jpost, "What to call a woman rabbi?" The answer to me is obvious: call her rabbi! JPost Video: What to call a woman rabbi? Thanks Joel Katz for another great hattip Read the rest of this entry →

The rabbinic ordination of women – smicha – is one of the simplest items on the religious agenda today, according to Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun of Herzog College. Speaking at the Sixth Annual conference of the Kolech Orthodox Feminist institution in Jerusalem this week, Bin Nun argued that there is no problem whatsoever with women getting smicha, and that in fact, quite a few women have served as rabbis in Jewish history. Bin Nun brought examples from Talmudic times through Hassidic life of women who were rabbis in terms of both scholarship and communal leaders, and maintained that there has never been a problem with women's ordination in halakha or in practice. Read the rest of this entry →

At tomorrow's Kolech conference, I will have the privilege of speaking on a panel with Rabbi Benny Lau and Sara Evron, moderated by Zeev Kitsis. This particular panel takes a whole new direction in Orthodox feminism by looking not at women and girls but at men. We will be looking, for perhaps the first time at an Ortho-feminist conference, at the adverse impact that entrenched patriarchy has on men. It's not about how male expectations hurt women, but how male expectations hurt men. We will be asking difficult questions about how Orthodox men are educated, and about how men and boys can become trapped in expectations of masculinity. My talk is based on research I did for three years with Orthodox men. I interviewed 54 men who participate in "partnership minyanim" -- that is, the Ortho-egal synagogues in which women are given roles of aliyot, torah reading, and leading non-minyan elements of the service. I chose these men because they are men on the borders between worlds, living in Orthodoxy but looking at feminism. I wanted to know how they navigate gender, identity and religion, and find out from them what life is like on the "other" side of the partition. It was as if, after all these years talking about women's experiences, I was taking the camera lens and switching angles. It's been a fascinating journey. I am now working on revisions to the book I've written about all this, "Stand up and be Counted: Being a Man in an Orthodox World". I don't know when it will be complete, but we're working on it. Meanwhile, in advance of tomorrow's conference, I thought to share here some of the writing, a section of chapter 1, where I explain the rationale behind the research. It's only a small segment and it's not fully tweaked -- and of course, as an advocate of non-spoilers, I don't give away the "ending." Nonetheless, as far as teasers go, it's alright :-) I look forward to feedback, and hopefully to an engaging discussion at tomorrow's session. B'vracha, Elana Read the rest of this entry →

Although Kolech is busy gearing up for next week's conference, there is quite a lot of work to be done in the ongoing struggle to protect the dignity and basic human rights of women in Israel. Several rabbis this week have issued damning statements undermining women's dignity, including the IDF chief rabbi who said that women should not serve in the army and that his job includes "protecting men" from the influences of women's presence, as well as Rabbi Modechai Eliyahu who encourages his followers not to "try and appease women" (his followers, read, men), and to go to jail rather than listen to women sing. Kolech has formally responded to this week's attack by Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira claiming that Kolech is leading the "neo-Reform" movement with an invitation for courageous and open dialogue. Kolech invites all interested to an evening of learning in the park outside the yeshiva in Ramat Gan (next to Bar Ilan University) on Wednesday, 15 July at 7:30 PM. Details at Elad Kalpan, 0542003113. Kolech would also like to call attention to a few more important issues of the day: Read the rest of this entry →

Next week's Kolech Conference is offering a cutting edge array of sessions on issues of gender and Jewish life, including fighting the rabbinic courts through the civil courts, educating religious boys, single motherhood, religious dress, women in the economy, racism within religious feminism, and more. Speakers include noted author Dr. Aviva Zornberg, Mizrahi feminist poet Esther Shekalim, Dr. Gilli Zivan of the Yaakov Herzog Center, and more. English speakers will have the pleasure of listening to some leading figures discuss their important work -- in English. (I'll be speaking at 2:30 -- in Hebrew -- about my research on Orthodox men and masculinities.) Meanwhile, here's a sampling of some of the items on the English-language menu: Read the rest of this entry →

Kolech, the leading Orthodox feminist organization in Israel, will be holding its bi-annual conference on Women and Judaism on Monday, July 13, 2009, at the Keshet School in Jerusalem. This is a vital and vibrant arena for engaging discussions and exchanges about gender and Judaism in Israeli society. The Kolech conferences are a critical forum for placing on the public agenda dilemmas, issues, and critical debates about topics surrounding the lives of Orthodox women in Israel. It is not too late to submit a proposal for a session. It is not too late to submit a proposal for a session. Read the rest of this entry →

Thank you Nomi Saraga for changing the world! The Kolech blog has been credited with influencing the rabbi of Elyachin to change his discriminatory and harmful policies regarding women and mourning. According to YNET, which originally picked up the story about women being prohibited from attending their own relatives' burials from Kolech, the Elyachin rabbi "reread the sources" after receiving all the bad publicity. The blog led to pressure, which led to real change! It doesn't happen every day, but for now, Score 1 for women changing the world through blogging! Read the rest of this entry →