Sara Hurwitz, ebrea ortodossa, ha ricevuto il titolo di  morateinu presso l'Hebrew Institute of Riverdale.

Nei blog ebraici si è parlato di lei come di una quasi-rabbina o di una donna che, pur non avendo ufficialmente il titolo è come se fosse un rabbino.

Riverdale Press ha pubblicato un interessante profilo su di lei. Riporto alcuni paragrafi che trovo particolarmente interessanti.

Su Youtube c'è, suddivisa in tre parti, tutta la Conferral Ceremony.

"Sometimes I feel like there is a cement ceiling, let alone a glass ceiling," Ms. Hurwitz said in a recent interview. "And other times I feel like there are opportunities waiting for me and it's just a matter of me taking hold of them."

The one-time congregational intern now holds one of the highest leadership positions possible for a woman in her Orthodox synagogue.

As Ms. Hurwitz explained, the title, which will be given to her by Rabbi Weiss, is in many ways synonymous with that of a rabbi, but it denotes a major difference: its holder is a woman and she will not be on equal footing with the synagogue's rabbis. Even with the new designation, she is not permitted to read from the Torah or perform weddings or bar mitzvahs. She will also not count toward the formation of a minyan - the quorum of 10 men needed for a prayer service.

Ms. Hurwitz finds herself conflicted over the disparity.

"I completely ascribe to the Orthodox movement and accept it, but I still grapple with the restrictions on women," she said.

http://www.riverdalepress.com/atf.php?sid=3437¤t_edition=2008-03-13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Il  Register of Good Practices of Language Preservation dell'Unesco ha inserito il Winnipeg Women's Reading Circle nella sua lista, dando cosi' riconoscimento ufficiale a questa attività curata in prevalenza da donne.

 

 

The Reading Circle was started in the wake of the rediscovery of Yiddish women’s literature at a local library event in Winnipeg. In the circle, female members of the local Yiddish community meet regularly once a month to read and discuss texts by female Yiddish authors. Since the start of this library event, the Reading Circle activities have resulted in the revitalization of Yiddish language competence in its members.

“It’s taken a few years to get listed,” says Jeanette Block, one of the reading circle’s founders. “Ours is one of just eight groups and the only Yiddish group listed on the registry so far. The registry is getting one million hits a month.”

Block notes that Yiddish women’s reading circles have a long tradition in Winnipeg.

 While Block notes that there are other Yiddish reading circles in the United States and Canada, what sets the Winnipeg group apart is that it meets in a permanent location. She also believes that an anthology the group published two years ago was an important factor in its being listed by UNESCO.

The book, Arguing with the Storm, is a compilation of short stories written in Yiddish by female authors and translated into English by several ladies in the group. Block’s daughter, Rhea Tregebov, a creative writing teacher at the University of British Columbia, served as the anthology’s editor.

http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16683&Itemid=86

 

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Un profilo molto interessante. Una donna ebrea che, a Gerusalemme, si prodiga per rendere la città intera più pulita e verde per tutti i suoi abitanti. 

Positivo che una donna sia leader in campo ambientalista in un contesto in cui i vari integralismi religiosi fanno a gara a chi mostra le attitudini più misogine.

She has been working as an activist for 13 years spearheading campaigns to keep Jerusalem of Gold, green, and was recently elected to the new position in politics.

As founder of Sustainable Jerusalem, Tsur has helped organize 75 green groups together under one umbrella. Through it, she's taught other activists how to lobby in the government, and how to hone in on specific issues worth fighting for.

 Some of the projects she'll be organizing include establishing an environmental lobby. "There is nothing more universal than local issues,"

"The Jerusalem forest shouldn't be depleted anymore - it's a quarter of its original size. Hopefully we will create a continuous park along the railway line from Emek Refaim to Malha. Residents wanted it, and we have committed to it. It runs through rich, poor, Jewish, Arab neighborhoods and answers a real need for quality open space," she declared.

"We need to think about not only cleanliness, but what happens to our garbage, about recycling. I'm going to see what's been planned, what's being done. I don't see why we shouldn't be recycling much, much more," Tsur maintained.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404730047&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles^l2517&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Profiles&

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Le aderenti alla sezione di Louisville del National Council of Jewish Women hanno monitorato per due anni il locale sistema giudiziario presentando proposte che utili per una migliore e più rispettosa gestione dei casi giudiziari in cui sono coinvolte le donne vittime di violenza. Il Court Watch Program ha ottenuto i risultati sperati ed ora queste infaticabili donne ebree sono disponibili per far conoscere nei dettagli l'esito della loro opera.

the Jefferson County Judge Executive and The Office for Women approached the NCJW Louisville Section about going into the Jefferson County District Court to monitor how the courts handled domestic violence cases.

Following our research in the courts, our section recommended that a program be initiated to provide support and advocacy to women and families in their time of need that would ensure that all parties are treated justly and respectfully. Our recommendation led to the creation of the separate Enhanced Family Supervision Docket in the Louisville/Jefferson County courts. This docket takes a therapeutic approach to solving the cycle of domestic violence by intensely supervising select domestic violence cases and supporting the individuals involved in the cases.

Both the NCJW Louisville Section and Judge Bisig are proud to be able to share our programs and efforts with the world community. It warms our hearts, knowing that we are not only making a difference in our local community, but also internationally.

Potete leggere l'articolo nella sua interezza qui:

http://www.ncjw.org/content_3442.cfm?navID=216

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Elaina Cohen claims that Labour councillor Mahmood Hussain said he would not support her application for an inner-city ward because 'my Muslim members don't want you because you are Jewish'.

She said: 'I am shocked and upset that a member of the Labour Party in this day and age could even think something like that, let alone say it.

Lorraine Briscoe, who runs a local community association, was sitting next to Mrs Cohen when the conversation took place on speakerphone last Tuesday.

'I was disgusted that a councillor could make comments like that in 2009,' she said.

'He told her, "They will not vote for someone who is white and Jewish. My Muslim members don't want you because you are Jewish".

'Elaina then asked him if he had talked to his Muslim members about it and he said, "I don't want to talk about it with you" and hung up.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1174046/Labour-Party-embroiled-race-row-candidate-told-white-Jewish-selected.html

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The Sisters are a high-energy, all-female sextet that brings to life Yiddish swing, klezmer and roots music; inspired by the Barry Sisters of the 1930s-40s old time radio era. The band's original music and arrangements of both traditional and jazz material combine serious musicianship, complexity and intricate musical thought with a fun approach to performance. 

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I also admire the rabbi who leads the Hebrew Institute, Avi Weiss, who is recognized as a great trailblazer within modern Orthodoxy. Weiss is the founder and president of a rabbinical seminary, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, which is dedicated to intellectual openness, including the expansion of women's role in Judaism. The seminary is an alternative to Yeshiva University, increasingly seen as dogmatic and insular. Hurwitz studied privately for six years with Weiss, and it is he who devised the new title.

Names do matter, and the title "rabbi" -- as with "priest" for Catholics -- brings with it a high level of respect and awe that "Maharat," let's face it, does not replicate. "Rabbi" is the pinnacle of Judaic authority. Many people regard their rabbi as a mediator of sorts between themselves and God. Children and adults alike look up to their rabbi as a role model. Eventually, I suppose, "Maharat" will cease to sound silly and gobbledy-gooky, and we will accept it as a legitimate title. But it will continue to belittle the women who hold it -- and, by extension, all women -- because it will always signify "she who is not fit to be called 'rabbi.'"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leora-tanenbaum/a-rabbi-is-not-a-rabbi-in_b_189767.html

Yesterday, the opening of Yeshivat Mahara"t, a new training program for Orthodox Jewish women to become spiritual leaders was announced. It's a big step, but women may still be barred from becoming rabbis. The school was founded by Rabbi Avi Weiss of New York's Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, who is an advocate for the expansion of women's rights in Orthodox Judaism

http://jezebel.com/5256244/new-school-for-orthodox-jewish-women-opens-but-will-they-be-rabbis

Rabbi Avi Weiss has launched a yeshiva to train Orthodox women to "function as rabbis."

Known as Yeshiva Maharat, the school is expected to be up and running in September and will offer women part-time instruction in all areas of Jewish law, pastoral training and a synagogue internship.

 http://jta.org/news/article/2009/05/21/1005336/avi-weiss-launches-yeshiva-to-train-orthodox-women-to-function-as-rabbis

A number of advocates for the rights of Orthodox women have been steadily pushing for several decades to expand the education and role of women in Orthodoxy. One major trend in recent years has been a greater emphasis on Jewish education for Orthodox women through such programs as the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, which has offered intensive programs in Talmud study for women. Women have also taken on more high-profile instructional roles at Jewish day schools and some have taken official spiritual roles within synagogues. Though there have been only a few reported instances, some women have even been privately ordained as Orthodox rabbis.

Blu Greenberg, a leading Orthodox feminist, praised the yeshiva initiative as a “path-breaking and revolutionary” extension of long-standing efforts to advance the role of women in Orthodox society. She said that the title of “rabbi” might have been preferable, but added, “There’s nothing like facts on ground. The power of one model or 10 models is worth more than a thousand discussions or arguments on the subject.”

 http://www.forward.com/articles/106320/

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1087780.html

 http://www.jofa.org/pdf/JOFA%20Press%20Release.pdf

http://www.jofa.org/pdf/Responsa%20on%20Ordination%20of%20Women.pdf

 

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You know from the wide coverage of this week's American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., that there were several surprises in the statements delivered from the podium.

We expected some surprises. What I, for one, did not expect -- given how the Jewish community has evolved in the past 30 years -- was the astonishing fact that of the 77 speakers listed for this year's plenaries and on-the-record press schedule, only two were women. Two!! You can see for yourself at aipac.org. And one of these was Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.). 

When I began to observe and report on the American Jewish scene more than 30 years ago, I was alert to how few women were asked to speak at national meetings and to express their opinions in the Jewish press (except on obvious gender-related issues).

I was struck in those days by the absence of women leading major American Jewish organizations -- those big, co-ed "legacy" institutions. But this is 2009, for heaven's sake.

For any conference organizer or program planner to claim that he or she doesn't know of enough qualified speakers or presenters is absurd. Years ago, I would hear, "Just give me a list."

Well, the lists have existed for a while now. The organization Advancing Women Professionals in the Jewish Community, the Talent Bank that Lilith magazine has maintained for many years and the faculty roster of every university are logical places to start. 

http://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=10692&SectionID=31&SubSectionID=&S=1

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 There are no hard figures, but very few kosher supervisors are women, despite no prohibitions in Jewish law.

Unlike with rabbis or cantors, Jewish law holds that an observant woman has the authority to supervise kosher standards in a kitchen. Kashrut is one of the few areas of Orthodox Jewish life where women have the same legal status as men.

As the kosher food industry continues to swell, so does the number of female kosher supervisors. And now they are receiving professional recognition.

"I've been jealous of the guys for years," she says. "I wanted to go to their course, but it wouldn't be appropriate for me to sit in a roomful of men."

When Kaner started doing kosher supervision 30 years ago, she was not paid nearly the same as her male counterparts. Today at Pearlstone, she makes a good salary and has full benefits and a 401K plan.

Most female supervisors work in the food services industry and tend to be found in cities outside New York and Los Angeles, where plenty of Orthodox men are available to fill the jobs.

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/06/28/1006182/women-kosher-supervisors-on-the-rise-earning-respect

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The Religious Women's Forum Kolech decided at their conference last week to choose a Hebrew title for a woman ordained as a rabbi by an Orthodox institution, although no woman in Israel yet holds this position.

 

The title chosen by a majority of conference participants is "rabba.

"The women's learning revolution has existed for quite some time," said Rachel Keren, chairwoman of Kolech's Board of Directors, to Ynet. "Women are advancing in Torah study, but there is a glass ceiling hindering their advancement. The glass ceiling was already shattered in the course for female halachic advisors and on the issue of female legal counselors, but still hasn't been shattered in the field of rabbis and religious judges. This issue is of prime importance.

 

"There is a threefold interest that this ceiling is shattered – the interest of the woman who wants to advance and gain recognition, a societal interest, and the interest of the Torah world that there be as many Torah studiers as possible. By choosing a title, we wanted to raise public awareness to this need. We believed that the public discourse (on the subject) would encourage women to continue learning."  

 

"Cooperation with the Hebrew Language Academy is very important," explained Keren. "There is a need for this word, and the roll of the Academy is to fill this need. We just now approached them, and they are very pleased by the initiative."

 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3748903,00.html

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L'intervista alla Messinger riguarda il lavoro svolto dall'American Jewish World Service di cui una buona parte è incentrato sulle tematiche ambientali e sui diritti delle donne.

In tempi carichi di pregiudizi ritengo sia opportuno ricordare la generosità e l'impegno di tanti ebrei, in particolare delle donne ebree.

Shortly after a failed mayoral bid in New York City ended her political career in 1997, Ruth Messinger became president of the American Jewish World Service, an international human rights organization that works to alleviate poverty, hunger and disease in the developing world. Since then, the organization has seen its annual budget jump from $2 million to $29 million. It distributes about $13 million in grants each year to more than 400 grassroots projects around the world and has sent 3,000 Jewish volunteers overseas.

We wouldn't have built a list of 70,000 activists or 3,000 alumni and face a demand for more service programs if people weren't attracted to our mission. Part of being Jewish is to put Jewish values into practice where the poorest people are. This is not some new piece of Judaism: The rabbis and Jewish leaders have discussed the balance between helping Jews and non-Jews, the balance of working with different communities, the balance of showing who we are and building a better world not only ourselves but for others. It doesn't say, “Build justice for Jews.”

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/08/24/1007423/qa-with-ruth-messinger

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President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals today:

Chai R. Feldblum, Nominee for Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Chai Feldblum is a Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center where she has taught since 1991. She also founded the Law Center’s Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic, a program designed to train students to become legislative lawyers. Feldblum previously served as Legislative Counsel to the AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. In this role, she developed legislation, analyzed policy on various AIDS-related issues, and played a leading role in the drafting of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and, later as a law professor, in the passage of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. She has also worked on advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and has been a leading expert on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. As Co-Director of Workplace Flexibility 2010, Feldblum has worked to advance flexible workplaces in a manner that works for employees and employers. Feldblum clerked for Judge Frank Coffin and for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Barnard College.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Announces-More-Key-Administration-Posts-9/14/09/

http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/facinfo/tab_faculty.cfm?Status=Faculty&ID=251

“We commend President Obama for his nomination of Chai Feldblum to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Professor Feldblum’s commitment to protecting the civil rights of all Americans makes her eminently qualified for Commissioner of the EEOC.”

http://www.hrc.org/13536.htm

On Monday, President Obama announced his nomination for Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and I couldn't be happier about his pick: Chai Feldblum, Professor of Law at Georgetown, who also happens to be an out Jewish lesbian. 

http://jwablog.jwa.org/chai_feldblum

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Ovviamente non intendo dimenticare tutte le altre vincitrici del Premio Nobel e il fatto che quest'anno il numero di donne che hanno ricevuto il premio sia aumentato.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/women-set-nobel-prize-record/article1315834/

Yonath, who is 70, was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry for her groundbreaking work in understanding how cells build proteins. She is only the fourth woman to win the Nobel chemistry prize, and the first since 1964, when British woman Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin received the prize.

The professor, who is head researcher in the field of structural biology and biochemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, shares her prize with UK scientist Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and American Thomas A. Steitz. The decision was announced today by the Nobel committee in Stockholm.

Yonath is widely considered the pioneer of ribosome crystallography. Her research, carried out over a 25-year period, has revealed the modes of action of over 20 different antibiotics that target bacterial ribosomes.

Through this work she has been able to identify how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, a problem of great concern worldwide as the growth of antibiotic resistant super bugs like MRSA, continues unabated.

"Women make up half the population," she told ISRAEL21c. "I think the population is losing half of the human brain power by not encouraging woman to go into the sciences. Woman can do great things if they are encouraged to do so."

http://www.israel21c.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7259:israeli-scientist-ada-yonath-wins-the-nobel-prize&catid=60:people&Itemid=110

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Lau is the coordinator of an accreditation course for these consultants at Nishmat, an Orthodox seminary for women. It is the only one of its kind in the Orthodox world, and most of its graduates live in Israel.

Lau and the 60 other certified yoatzot, as the consultants are known in Hebrew, have been become accustomed to women stopping them without notice, often with a whispered, urgent question about Jewish law. Whether on their doorstep, in the synagogue or at the supermarket, women have questions for which they ache for answers but are hesitant to ask a male rabbi, especially when it comes to family purity laws -- the laws relating to sex.

The emergence of women scholars serving as authorities in Jewish law marks something of a quiet revolution in an Orthodox world dominated by male authorities, where change has come slowly and incrementally. The emergence of the yoatzot -- 10 years have passed since Nishmat’s program was inaugurated -- also is a reflection of the advancement of women's religious education in the modern Orthodox world.

For the women who turn to them, the yoatzot appear to be fulfilling a deep need.

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/10/29/1008835/female-orthodox-scholars-helping-women-talk-about-sex

http://www.nishmat.net/

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Despite notable gains for women in the past year, a Forward survey of 75 major American Jewish communal organizations found that fewer than one in six are run by women, and those women are paid 61 cents to every dollar earned by male leaders.

The numbers are especially striking when compared with the overall composition of the Jewish communal work force. Women comprise about 75% of those employed by federations, advocacy and social service organizations, and religious and educational institutions, but occupy only 14.3% of the top positions. Of the 11 female leaders identified in this survey, three are in interim roles.

When asked to put these numbers into historical context, Shulamit Bahat, who for decades was in the executive leadership of the American Jewish Committee, said she was “rather stunned” by the statistics. “I thought greater gains had been made,” said Bahat, currently CEO of Beit Hatfutsot of America.

Gorovitz, the first woman to break the glass ceiling in the federation system, concurred, crediting the women who mentored her during her own career. “It is incumbent on us to ensure that we have diversity in our professional ranks, that we are mentoring all our staff equally, so that we have positive role models,” she said in an interview just a few weeks into her new job. “Unfortunately, sometimes the Jewish community is not great at doing this.”

http://forward.com/articles/118323/

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Jewish Women International's 12th annual Women to Watch gala Monday afternoon at the Hilton Washington. She joined fellow honorees Rabbi Sharon Brous, Yanina Fleysher, Laurie Ann Goldman, Ruth Marcus, Julie Morgenstern, Estee Portnoy, JJ Ramberg, Melissa Arbus Sherry, Ellen Stovall and Jillian Copeland for a girl-power celebration, equal parts light-hearted chatter and insightful rumination.

“Success is not luck,” she said. “It’s believing you are lucky.”

Most astonishingly (at least for this reporter) was the assertion by Marcus, the Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize-nominated columnist, that she did not initially believe she had opinions worth sharing in print every week.

“It is not possible to get an A every week,” she acknowledged.  “Some of [my columns] are a B-plus, but it’s very important for us as women to get over the notion that we have to deliver perfection in everything we do. We need to learn to swagger, or at least get comfortable pretending to swagger.”

After listening to the 10 accomplished honorees get personal and introspective, show emotion and humility, I left the JWI luncheon reflecting on the “pearls of wisdom” that I also wear -- each one given to me by an experience or an encounter that shaped my life.

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/12/08/1009604/girl-talk-pearls-of-wisdom-at-women-to-watch-gala

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 Sofer Irma Penn is one of five women who has been invited by the Kadima Reconstructionist Jewish Community in Seattle, Wash., to complete a Torah scroll.

According to the Kadima community, this is the first time a Torah scroll will be written and embellished by an international community of women.

She will be writing the Torah with Shoshana Gugenheim of Israel, Rachel Reichhardt of Brazil, and Americans Linda Coppleson and Julie Seltzer (who completed her portion earlier this year).

“By being part of this project, I can contribute something positive, while working with many other caring, dedicated, artistic, women,” Penn said. “I can do something with meaning, and it’s a way of connecting with God.”

http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18294&Itemid=86

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Navigating the Media: A Think Tank for Parents of Teen Girls began with a multimedia presentation of the images that our teens are bombarded with daily. The presentation showed that not only are teens trying to live up to an unattainable ideal of beauty – sometimes at the expense of their health – but that they’re also processing print media’s frequently sexual and vulnerable depictions of women.

Following the panel, participants discussed possible settings and strategies for building the media literacy program out to a wider audience. Attendees walked away with powerful tools to help their daughters – and themselves – boost their media savvy.

http://www.jwi.org/site/c.okLWJ3MPKtH/b.5698235/k.AA5F/Helping_Teens_Navigate_the_Media8217s_Tricky_Terrain.htm

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Twenty-nine mostly Reform and Conservative rabbis in the greater Toronto area have signed an open letter to senior Israeli diplomats in Canada expressing deep concern about recent events involving two women who were wearing tallitot at the Kotel.

The letter to Miriam Ziv, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, and Amir Gissin, Israel’s consul general for Toronto and Western Canada, appears as an advertisement in this week’s CJN. It refers to the Nov. 18 arrest of Nofrat Frenkel for wearing a tallit and carrying a Torah, and to the Jan. 5 police questioning and fingerprinting of Anat Hoffman, chair of Women of the Wall, which has organized women’s prayer services at the Kotel for the past two decades.

Frenkel and Hoffman were informed that they had violated an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that, citing concerns about public safety, denied women the right to read from the Torah in the regular women’s section of the wall. The ruling resulted in the designation of a nearby site, Robinson’s Arch, as the place for women to pray as a group with a Torah scroll.

“If this kind of police action had taken place in any other country, the world Jewish community would have accused the state of anti-Semitism and violation of basic human rights,” the rabbis wrote.

They ask what steps the Israeli government will take so that “all Jews will be welcome to worship according to their own tradition” at the Kotel.

 

“We thought this was such an important issue that we needed to put an ad out there,” said Rabbi Wise. “People need to be aware of it, and become involved.

“A woman was arrested,” he stressed. “For wearing a tallit. For us, in the context of pluralism and women’s rights… that was like a punch in the stomach.”

 http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18479&Itemid=86

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Brinker, the founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, received the award Thursday from ADL National Director Abraham Foxman at the organization's annual dinner at The Breakers, in Palm Beach, Fla.

"Nancy is a woman to be admired and emulated," Foxman said, according to his prepared remarks. "When she sets her sights on an issue her determination, creativity, expertise and leadership come into play. Problems get solved. Success is achieved."

A former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, Brinker established Komen following the death of her sister from breast cancer in 1980

http://jta.org/news/article/2010/02/05/1010490/adl-honors-breast-cancer-activist

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It's time to admit that Israel faces an emboldened movement against women’s equality, not a just a series of isolated incidents.

For more than three years, Israeli feminists have been campaigning to end gender segregation on publicly funded bus lines that serve the ultra-Orthodox as well as the general community. Bus segregation has arisen only in the last 10 years. Women sitting where they wished on such buses have been subject to verbal and physical harassment by male passengers, with bus drivers doing nothing.

At Jerusalem's Western Wall, the organization Women of the Wall has been fighting for equal rights to pray for 20 years. Women who chose to wear a kipah and/or tallit, and pray out loud and read from a Torah scroll, have been given a designated, and many would say, inferior place to worship near but not at the Western Wall itself.

The Israel Religious Action Center says it will soon be releasing a study that has found instances of medical clinics seeing male and female patients on separate days, post offices with separate lines, stores that have separate entrances, and funeral homes that forbid men and women to sit together.

Otherwise, friends of Israel will watch in horror along with a majority of Israelis as aspects of Israeli life become eerily reminiscent of its most backward neighbors. We can’t let that happen.

http://www.ncjw.org/content_4150.cfm?navID=218

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The news that the leading Orthodox advocate for female spiritual leadership reversed his decision to embrace the title “rabba” seemed at first a major setback for Orthodox feminists.

But supporters of the expansion of women’s roles in the Orthodox community have found cause for celebration in what they see as an unprecedented nod to women’s leadership by the Modern Orthodox establishment in the course of a debate over the term. In a statement, the Rabbinical Council of America, the organization of centrist Orthodox rabbis, referred to its commitment to “the assumption of appropriate leadership roles within the Jewish community” by women.

“I think it bodes very well,” said Blu Greenberg, founding president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance and a leading figure in the movement. “The fact that it was a recognition by the RCA of women’s leadership roles and talents in synagogues means a step forward, and in a certain sense a breakthrough.”

At this point in time, the quality and quantity of Jewish education available to Jewish women far exceeds anything that has been available to Jewish women in the whole of Jewish history,” Berman said.

With that expansion comes heightened expectations. “On the one hand, I do feel the disappointment [of] women who have worked for a title and a certain certification,” Greenberg said. “But I also feel, in the context of this entire enterprise, it’s going to work in their favor…. Ultimately we have to keep our eye down the road, as well as on today.”

 http://forward.com/articles/126558/

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Rescapée des camps de la mort, ministre de la Santé qui fit voter la loi de 1975 autorisant l'IVG, Mme Veil est devenue la sixième "immortelle"sous la Coupole. Elle y siégera dans le fauteuil de Racine.

Mon père, "disparu dans l'enfer de Bergen-Belsen, quelques jours avant la libération des camps (...) révérait la langue française", a relevé Mme Veil avec émotion dans son discours de réception. "Plus encore que je ne le suis, il serait ébloui que sa fille vienne occuper ici le fauteuil de Racine", a assuré la nouvelle académicienne, déportée avec sa famille à Auschwitz-Birkenau en 1944, à 16 ans.

http://culture.france2.fr/livres/actu/simone-veil-a-l-academie-francaise-61885166.html

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The undersigned, as well as many others in our Orthodox communities, strongly desire to see efforts and support from the RCA to enable women in positions of religious communal leadership. Doing so not only empowers Orthodox women to contribute to their communities in integral ways, but also offers them a goal in their pursuit of higher levels of Torah study. The RCAs position on women's leadership creates ceilings and limits for women's religious and spiritual growth, and truly inhibits the enormous contributions that women can make to our communities. It also creates a significant schism and enormous frustration for women who see that they are so empowered in the secular sphere but see this empowerment is absent in the sphere that is most important to them.

I applaud those brave, learned women leaders who have stood with dignity, committed to their religious learning, halachic observance, and steadfast dedication to their communities, despite the unfortunate lack of support from the RCA. The RCA should encourage its members and affiliates to create communal leadership positions for women in their respective communities. It is my hope that the RCA will realize the enormous meaning their support would have to these women, and the immense benefit this would have in our communities by increasing the quality of Orthodox leadership, the faith of Orthodox women in our religious system, and strengthening observance and commitment to a Torah life of klal yisrael.

http://www.petitiononline.com/rca613/petition.html

http://www.jofa.org/pdf/Letters%20to%20RCA%20Leadership%20for%20Website.pdf

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Netzanet Fredeh is constantly required by her surroundings to bear the title "an Israeli of Ethiopian origin." But she bears this title with pride. As commander of the Immigration and Integration Branch of the Israel Defense Forces' Education Corps, she works to advance the lot of Ethiopian soldiers - an advancement that she herself epitomizes.

At the age of nine, her mother sent her to Israel with an uncle. There, she enrolled in the Segula girls' religious high school in Kiryat Motzkin. She considers this "one of the best things that ever happened to me. It was there that I was given the confidence to stand on my own." 

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1163994.html

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The leading Modern Orthodox rabbinic association has adopted an official position against the ordination of women while also encouraging the creation of “halakhically and communally appropriate professional opportunities” for female scholars.

The resolution cites “commitment to sacred continuity” in stating that the organization “cannot accept either the ordination of women or the recognition of women as members of the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title.” But it stops short of sanctioning or expelling members who violate the policy – a move being urged by some rabbis who were upset over the recent actions of RCA member Rabbi Avi Weiss.

The RCA resolution notes that “young Orthodox women are now being reared, educated, and inspired by mothers, teachers and mentors who are themselves beneficiaries of advanced women’s Torah education,” and it embraces the idea of such scholars assuming communal roles.

“As members of the new generation rise to positions of influence and stature,” the resolution states, “we pray that they will contribute to an ever-broadening and ever-deepening wellspring” of Torah study, religious commitment and observance of mitzvot.

http://www.forward.com/articles/127573/

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Obama chose a nominee who has never been a judge, a factor the White House said had worked in Kagan's favor, giving her a different perspective from the other justices. Poised to put his imprint on the court for a second time, the president embraced Kagan's profile: a left-leaning lawyer who has won praise from the right, earned political experience at the White House and on the college campus, cleared one Senate confirmation already and served as the nation's top lawyer.

He wanted not just a justice who would thrive, but one who would lead.

At 50 years old and with lifetime tenure, Kagan could extend Obama's court legacy by decades. Her vote could be the difference on cases that shape American liberties and the scope of the government's power.

Mentioning Kagan's late mother, Obama said: "I think she would relish, as do I, the prospect of three women taking their seat on the nation's highest court for the first time in history — a court that would be more inclusive, more representative, more reflective of us as a people than ever before."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100510/ap_on_go_su_co/us_obama_supreme_court

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Ma guarda! Ma come sono cattive le donne ebree! Tutte malvage e guerrafondaie vero? Caspia, verissimo. Come è vero che la terra ruota attorno alla luna!

2008 recipient of The Charles Bronfman Prize, is dedicated to improving the safety and security of survivors of Darfur’s genocide. As Director of Jewish World Watch’s landmark Solar Cooker Project (SCP), Andres has reduced the risk of sexual violence against refugee women by providing an alternative cooking option, enabling them to limit searching for firewood outside the relative safety of refugee camps.

My parents and grandparents taught me that it is an obligation to repair the world, and to "not stand idly by when others are dying." SCP allows me to incorporate these values into my work and life every day.

http://www.jewishworldwatch.org/refugeerelief/pdfs/JWW_FactSheet_Jan10_v5_lr.pdf

http://jta.org/news/article/2010/05/24/2739287/humanitarian-snapshot-rachel-andres

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The new resolution, passed in late June at a convention of the International Rabbinic Fellowship, lays out specific roles for women leaders as teachers, preachers and clergy, but is silent on the fraught questions of their titles and their ordination. It contrasts sharply with a resolution passed in April by the Rabbinical Council of America, which barred women from the rabbinate without describing which roles are allowed.

“I think it’s an affirmation of what’s already happening,” said Rachel Kohl Finegold, education and ritual director at Chicago’s Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel, and one of a small group of prominent female Orthodox congregational leaders. “It was nice to see.”

“I think it’s very explicit in terms of what roles the IRF believes women can fill, and we’re hopeful that this resolution becomes another part of this ongoing discussion,” said Rabbi Barry Gelman, IRF president and rabbi of the United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston. “We see ourselves very much as part of the Modern Orthodox community, and we believe that this resolution expresses the opinion and the feeling and the hopes of large segments of the Modern Orthodox community.”

The IRF was founded in 2008 as an alternative to the RCA by Weiss and Rabbi Marc Angel of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City. Unlike the RCA, it is open to graduates of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, the left-wing Modern Orthodox seminary opened by Weiss in 2000.

http://www.forward.com/articles/129234/

 

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Compiled by Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton and his friend Gary Ginsberg, this year’s Newsweek list had only six women on it — and most of them were on the bottom half of the rankings.

The results got us thinking about all the female rabbis whose influence cannot necessarily be measured by their national/international profile, their media presence or the size of their constituencies — some of the criteria on which Newsweek bases its rankings — but who, nonetheless, are playing important roles in shaping the Jewish story.

So we decided to select 50 of the most influential women rabbis in America, plus five in Israel, for this inaugural Sisterhood 50 list. These women span generations and the denominational spectrum; they are pulpit rabbis, teachers, academics, pastoral caregivers and organizational leaders. All of them have made it their life’s work to put Jewish values into action — and, as a result, are changing lives in and beyond their communities. This alphabetical list contains a lot of "firsts," which is evidence of just how much ground there’s been to break in recent years.

While The Sisterhood 50 has on it only three Orthodox women, many more hold key religious leadership roles in their communities — even if they lack a path to the Orthodox rabbinate because of their gender.

http://forward.com/articles/129451/

 

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Since the late 1990s, the 44-year-old mother of four (who also has the greatest number of children of all committee members) has been working with the UN in the realm of women's rights. She started out reporting on the status of women's rights in Israel for the UN, on behalf of the government. In 2007, she tells ISRAEL21c, her 10-year dream came true, when she was elected a member of the elite, predominantly female UN committee that analyzes reports submitted by the 192 UN member countries.

Recently, at UN headquarters in New York, Halperin-Kaddari was elected for a second term. She didn't expect to win this time around, she explains, because most of the UN's Moslem and Arab states tend to automatically vote against Israeli candidates, regardless of their credentials, and in addition the vote took place shortly after the Turkish flotilla incident which resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish citizens and several injured Israeli soldiers, which she anticipated would have an adverse effect on her chances.

But despite the politics and negative press for Israel, Halperin-Kaddari received 103 votes and was elected, beating out contenders from countries such as Chile, Bahrain and the Republic of Cameroon. "Happily, the success in this campaign was a lot of hard work coming together with respect for professionalism," she declares.

Involved in women's rights issues in Israel as well as international women's rights, in the late 1990s, Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, the chancellor of Bar-Ilan who was 90 years old at the time, asked Halperin-Kaddari to help establish a center for women's rights at the university. The result is the Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women's Status. While she feels that, "It came at a stage a bit too early in my academic career... it was an opportunity that couldn't be missed," according to the professor. And it was the center that helped to enhance her status at the UN and it is still the base from where she champions women's rights in Israel.

Particular challenges that women in Israel face, she says, are the problems associated with marriage laws, and the fact that they're governed by religion and not the state. This is an ominous situation for both the Muslim and Jewish populations in Israel, she warns, with each religion having its own interests in preserving control over laws pertaining to marriage.

http://www.israel21c.org/201007268159/people/balancing-the-scales-for-women-worldwide

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The Senate confirmed U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan on Thursday as the 112th justice to the Supreme Court, making her the fourth woman ever to sit on the high court.

On a 63 to 37 vote, Kagan became President Obama's second lifetime appointment to the court in the past year -- the vote was held a year after Sonia Sotomayor won 68 votes for her confirmation as the court's first Latina justice.

Five Republicans supported Kagan, 50, to succeed retired justice John Paul Stevens. One Democrat, Ben Nelson (Neb.), was opposed. Kagan, a self-described progressive, is not likely to tilt the balance of the court, given Stevens's role as a leading liberal jurist the past three decades.

After the vote, President Obama said he was confident Kagan will be an outstanding member of the court.

"After 17 hours of testimony during which she answered more than 540 questions, I'd say they got a pretty good look at Elena Kagan," he said. "Today's vote wasn't just an affirmation of Elena's intellect and accomplishments. It was also an affirmation of her character and temperament."

Obama said that he was proud of making history -- for the first time in history, three women sit on the nation's highest court -- and that he relished it as a father who wants limitless possibilities for his two daughters.

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/05/AR2010080505247.html?hpid=topnews

 NCJW welcomes the confirmation of US Solicitor General Elena Kagan to sit on the US Supreme Court. The bipartisan vote by the Senate is a testament to her high qualifications for this most important post. Kagan has practical legal experience in government as an advisor and as the lawyer charged to represent the people of the United States before the nation’s highest court. She has demonstrated both her legal brilliance and, as dean of the Harvard Law School, her ability to bring contending parties together within a venerable institution not unlike the court itself. During hearings on her nomination before the judiciary committee, she demonstrated a broad command of the law and the constitutional parameters of our three branches of government. NCJW is confident she will be a strong voice on the court for core constitutional values.

http://www.ncjw.org/content_4589.cfm?navID=218

 

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Agunot such as this woman are the focus of an unprecedented information-gathering campaign spearheaded by Silver Spring resident Barbara Zakheim, the founder of the Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse of Greater Washington.

The effort -- believed to be the first U.S. national survey of agunot -- aims to illustrate the nature of the problem, its prevalence, and what communal organizations and other institutions can do to better assist these women, said Zakheim.

The survey, she adds, presupposes that the Orthodox rabbinic community will not make it easier for women to procure a get.

The survey, which is scheduled to go out this month, seeks to paint a fuller picture of agunot by inquiring about such matters as their overall numbers, finances, number of children, existing support network, relationship with rabbis on the rabbinic court, unmet needs and how long they've been chained.

Questionnaires will not be sent directly to agunot but rather to about 60 non-rabbinic organizations throughout North America that likely have dealt with these women and/or other victims of domestic abuse in the past five years.

Organizations collaborating on the project include Jewish Women International, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot and the Orthodox Union.

Deborah Rosenbloom, Jewish Women International's director of programs, says she hopes the survey results will help spur rabbinic courts to action.

"This has been dragging on and on, and it seems that the rabbis will not respond in any effective manner until they see the extent of the problem," she said. "Their actions have been totally irresponsible."

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/08/10/2740416/survey-seeks-to-paint-fuller-portrait-of-chained-wives

 

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Katrina’s Jewish Voices is an online collection project to collect, preserve, and present the American Jewish community’s experiences of Hurricane Katrina and their recollections of the Jewish communities of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The Jewish Women’s Archive organized the project, in collaboration with the Center for History and New Media, with generous funding from foundations and individual donors.

Katrina’s Jewish Voices welcomes members of the Jewish community—women and men alike—to tell their own stories of how the storm affected them, and to share their memories of these historic Jewish communities. The project is collecting digital artifacts in a variety of forms, including photos, blog postings, podcasts, emails, essays and other first-hand accounts, from American Jews nationwide.

These collections serve as a vital resource for future historians of the American Jewish experience, as well as for those interested in exploring how individuals and different faith communities responded to this vast humanitarian crisis.

Sharing our stories is also a way to create powerful connections in the present. We hope that those who contribute to this online collection and those who immerse themselves in the stories and images they find here come away moved and inspired by these varied Jewish voices of Katrina.

http://katrina.jwa.org/about/#supporters

http://katrina.jwa.org/browse/

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