“Today in Basel, I created the Jewish State.”

Thus spoke Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism, at the first Basel Congress in 1894. In 1948 his prophecy came true: the Jewish state of Israel was born out of the fires of the Holocaust. But well before 1948, NCJW women decided to do something about the social problems besetting the soon-to-be new state.

NCJW concerns, then as now, are echoed in the words of Melanne Verveer, President Obama’s Ambassador at-Large on Global Women’s Issues, at her 2009 confirmation hearing: “It remains a simple fact … that no country can get ahead if half of its citizens are left behind. That economic prosperity cannot take root if women are being treated as second class citizens.” Naturally the weaker minorities — women, Arabs, immigrants — bore the brunt of the business of creating a state. Today, they are still at the bottom of the ladder — but they are climbing up quickly.

And so today, on the 62nd anniversary of the realization of Herzl’s dream, let’s take a quick look at some of what this fledgling state has managed to do for its women, children, and minorities.

• Israeli women now have 14 weeks of paid maternity leave and it is illegal for employers to dismiss a woman who is pregnant or on maternity leave, staying in a shelter for battered women, or undergoing fertility treatment.
• The Israeli government recently resolved to provide government-subsidized day care center services for all children up to three years old and school lunches for all children less than six years old.
• The Division of Property between Spouses Law now provides that either partner can obtain a financial hearing in the family civil court or rabbinical court even before the divorce proceedings.
• In 2006, a landmark decision of the Israeli Supreme Court allows same-sex couples who have been legally married abroad to have their marriages registered.
• Gays and lesbians serve openly in the Israeli Army.
• Legislation addressing the trafficking of women passed in 2008.
• Abortion is legal and free in most instances in Israel.
• A new law on the implications of gender stipulates that all bills or national budgets that are deliberated in the Knesset must be analyzed in terms of gender before they are passed.

Amazing … and in the words of Herzl:
“I truly believe that even after we possess our land, Zionism will not cease to be an ideal. For Zionism includes not only the yearning for a plot of Promised Land for our weary people, but also the yearning for ethical and spiritual fulfillment.”

Happy Birthday, Israel!