NCJW Advocates for Israeli Women's Rights at the Knesset

May 23, 2006, Jerusalem, Israel -- A delegation of leaders of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) delivered a petition including nearly 2,500 signatures supporting the creation of legislation that would protect the civil rights of thousands of Israeli women. The petition urges Israel's leaders to safeguard agunot, women chained to dead marriages, by facilitating their ability to gain divorces.

After presenting the petition (text below) to Knesset Member Zahava Gal-On (Meretz), NCJW President Phyllis Snyder said: "I am proud to be representing NCJW and speaking out on behalf of agunot. The inability of Jewish wives to free themselves from intolerable marriages denies legal equality to women and is a grave violation of their basic human rights. NCJW is committed both to ending this injustice and to ensuring the broader empowerment and well-being of all women, their children and families."

Knesset Member Gal-On lauded NCJW, saying: "As a woman, an Israeli, and a member of Knesset, I am grateful to NCJW for its work in Israel, particularly on behalf of women. NCJW takes action every day through ground-breaking grassroots efforts and academic programs, as well as advocacy efforts like this petition. Only the combined efforts of policy-makers and grassroots advocacy organizations like NCJW can help end discrimination and human rights violations. Your support sets an important example and makes a critical difference. Thank you."

The Knesset visit was one of the many stops during NCJW's 2006 Mission to Israel, which brought organization members from around the US to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Among the week's highlights was the presentation of two awards at Tel Aviv University: the 2006 Jewel Bellush Israeli Feminist Award to Professor Ariella Friedman and the DeRoy Medal of Excellence in Education to Dr. Roni Halpern.

Mission participants also met with coalition partners to discuss ongoing advocacy work in Israel. And they saw the fruits of their financial support at the NCJW Women and Gender Studies Program at Tel Aviv University, the NCJW Women Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University, the NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education (RIFIE) at Hebrew University, and various grassroots programs underwritten by Yad B' Yad: NCJW's Initiative to Nurture Knowledge.

NCJW is a volunteer organization, inspired by Jewish values, that works to improve the quality of life for women, children, and families and to ensure individual rights and freedoms for all through its network of 90,000 members, supporters, and volunteers nationwide.

Full Petition Text:
There are currently thousands of Israeli women who are victims of a system that is inherently unequal. Under Jewish law, only husbands can initiate divorce. Recalcitrant husbands often use the threat of withholding financial settlements from their wives and children as tools of coercion.

I ask that you support an amendment to the Property Division Bill that would a) separate divorce proceedings from the division of a couple's financial holdings, and b) provide individuals of both genders pursuing divorce the right to petition for a division of funds in the civil judicial system or the rabbinical courts under certain circumstances. This is the first step in granting agunot -- women chained to dead marriages -- economic freedom. I urge you to support this legislation on behalf of Israeli women and children.

Contact:
Vanessa Schnaidt
212 645 4048 x179; vschnaidt@ncjw.org