NCJW Israel Program Report, July 2009
In this edition:
- Message from Shari Eshet
- NCJW's Israeli Feminist Award
- Religious Conversion in Israel
- Ending Gender Segregation on Israeli Buses
Message from Shari Eshet
At this year's Israel Benefit Luncheon, NCJW honored Geraldine Soba, our longtime representative to the United Nations. Fittingly, the luncheon was held at the UN itself -- Jerrie's home away from home for the past 27 years. In her remarks, Jerrie noted that the UN offers NCJW and the International Council of Jewish Women (ICJW) the opportunity to play a strong advocacy role: "Together we have worked so closely ...to champion the needs of women, children, and families while striving to reach a progressive stance on issues such as human trafficking, climate change, the spread of disease and deadly weapons, and the scourge of terrorism."
I know 27 years sounds like a long time, but NCJW has been represented in Israel for 62 years -- almost as long as the existence of the UN. As NCJW's Israel representative, I am particularly proud of one of our most successful advocacy campaigns -- supporting women in Israel as they advocated for UN Resolution 1325.
That resolution urged UN member states to increase the representation of women at all decision-making levels involving conflict resolution and prevention. In 2005, the Israeli Knesset amended the 1951 Equal Representation of Women Law to increase women's involvement pursuant to 1325. Passage of this amendment represented a huge victory for those who understood the importance of women's unique and necessary role in peace negotiations. Now all we need is for the amendment to be implemented!
NCJW is monitoring 1325 as well as other issues concerning the rights of women, such as marriage and divorce, trafficking, and economic empowerment. Through our Israel Granting Program and our advocacy work, we are still on the ground making a difference, 62 years later -- thanks to people like Jerrie and other NCJW volunteers and members who make this all happen.
Shari Eshet
Director, NCJW Israel Office
NCJW's Israeli Feminist Award
This month NCJW presented the 6th annual Jewel Bellush Feminist Award to Sharon Shenhav, honored for her contribution to advancing social change by improving the religious divorce process in Israel. The $1,000 award is presented to an Israeli feminist in honor of the contributions of Jewel Bellush to US/Israel Women to Women (which merged with NCJW in 2005) and to the women’s movement in Israel.
Since 1980, recipient Shenhav has been a pioneer in advocacy on behalf of agunot (women denied a divorce or get by their husbands). In 1992, representing ICJW, she became a founding member of ICAR, the International Coalition for Agunah Rights made up of NCJW and 24 other women's organizations. In 1995, after years of lobbying by Shenhav and other colleagues, the Knesset passed legislation allowing the imposition of civil sanctions against recalcitrant husbands.
In 2002, Shenhav was elected by the Israel Bar Association as its representative to the National Commission on Appointment of Dayanim (religious court judges) -- the only woman serving on the 10-member commission. She is currently the deputy chair of the Israel Bar Association Committee on Rabbinical Courts.
Jewel Bellush had this to say about Sharon: "Shenhav has given creative leadership to the struggle for bringing justice and equal treatment to agunot before the rabbinical courts. For over two decades her intellectual insights have challenged the negative features of the religious forces which have impacted so unfairly on women."
Religious Conversion in Israel
Israel's High Court of Justice ruled recently that the state must fund private conversion classes operated by the Reform and Conservative movements as well as traditional Orthodox conversion classes. Lea Shemtov, chair of the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, commented that "It cannot be that the Israeli taxpayer is funding only one type of conversion," she said. "Religious pluralism is a foundation stone of any democratic state. The state must therefore view all of the streams of Judaism as equals." She added that "A real change in attitude toward those seeking to be accepted into the Jewish people can only happen when we begin treating them as individuals with aspirations of their own."
Israel High Court on the Annulment of Conversions
Israel's High Court of Justice has also recently called on the Rabbinic Court to justify its annulment of several Jewish conversions made by the government-appointed National Conversion Authority. "This is a very positive and important step to stop the ongoing inquisition by the Beth Din of converts to Judaism," said attorney Susan Weiss, founder and executive director of the Center for Women's Justice. The center organized 15 organizations and individuals to join a petition to the High Court questioning the authority of the Rabbinic Courts to cancel conversions. Weiss added that “converts are never quite sure if their status as a Jew is final." Conversion plays a part in the divorce and marital status of women in Israel as well.
The Center for Women's Justice is an NCJW Israel Granting Program grantee for 2008 and 2009. Striving to create a legal legacy for generations of women, the CWJ has become a significant force in the court systems of Israel both civil and religious.
Ending Gender Segregation on Israeli Buses
In 2007, the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) filed a challenge to the segregated, publicly-funded bus lines that operate in Israel. On these buses, women are forced to enter from and sit at the rear of the bus, as well as to wear "modest" clothing. Failure to comply has led to verbal intimidation and harassment by men on the bus, and even to physical violence. Originally intended for strictly Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, the buses now serve routes across and between several cities, without any alternatives provided. Bus companies running these lines receive government dollars to support a service that discriminates against women.
The center's lawsuit urged the Israel High Court of Justice to compel the Transportation Ministry to investigate the need for any segregated service, and if deemed necessary, to require a desegregated alternative. The High Court ordered Israel's Ministry of Transportation to address the situation, and the minster appointed an advisory committee to investigate. NCJW members and supporters sent committee over 800 emails urging an end to gender segregation on public bus lines.
Very often NCJW fights the fight that no one else wants to take on. In this case, only IRAC and Naomi Ragen (as a co-defendant) decided to act. Now retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner has agreed that the bus situation is intolerable and urged young secular students in Jerusalem to start riding haredi bus lines as a political statement in protest against the gender segregation advocated by the ultra-Orthodox. "These arrangements should not be forced on the general population," she explained. Dorner told students, "If you, the young people, don't fight for equality, there will be no equality, because the haredi sector is very dominant and is fighting for its rights."
The Advisory Committee is due to present its results to the High Court in a few weeks. Let's hope Dorner's call to activism is heard.