Old Wars, New Battles

by Diane Friedgut

Israel is a modern country. It has achieved phenomenal success in medicine and computer science and is home to Nobel laureates in chemistry and economics. Yet women’s rights in Israel have not kept up with its many other achievements.

True, women have filled the functions necessary for building a new nation, even that of prime minister. Like the better-known Golda Meir and Henrietta Szold, Ada Maimon laid the foundation for women’s rights. Though she probably would not have described herself as a feminist, Ada Maimon was the spiritual mother of feminism in Israel. Religiously observant and a teacher, she became an outspoken advocate for women’s rights. She began as a member of Poel HaTzair and in1921, 27 years before the establishment of the state, she founded Moetzet Hapoalot, the Council of Women Workers. Ada joined Mapai (Labor), though it was a secular party, and was a member of the first two governments in the Knesset. She angered both her own party and her religious peers when she influenced the Knesset to pass the first legislation granting equal rights to women and outlawing violence against them.

Unfortunately, almost a century later, this battle continues to be fought. Vicki Knafo, a desperate, single, working mother, became a national symbol of the fight against the discrimination against women. Her name may not stand the test of time, but her message reached every household in Israel when she began walking from her home in Yerucham, deep in the Negev, to the Knesset in Jerusalem. As she walked, women and men, Arabs and Jews, joined her, creating a sense of unity almost overnight. Her personal protest about the plight of impoverished women, especially single mothers, raised the consciousness of the country.

A small group of women in Tel Aviv organized the first Rape Crisis Center, based on North American models, in 1978. Hotlines, run by a trained, volunteer staff, serve as a lifeline to rape victims. Beyond the horror of the crime itself, most victims suffer again when they have to prove their innocence to the police and sometimes to their own families. In 1998, the centers, which now exist all over Israel, instituted a nationwide hotline number. Thirty-four thousand women call each year. The centers provide counseling, support groups, legal advice, and shelters. The Linda Feldman Jerusalem Rape Crisis Center, opened in 1981, trained Arab women to run hotlines in East Jerusalem.

Masorti rabbis Monique Susskind Goldberg and Diana Villa of the Center for Jewish Women and the Law at the Schechter Institute work with ICAR (International Coalition for the Rights of Agunot, women refused a Jewish divorce by their husbands). They suggest halakhic alternatives to the intolerable situation created by the inaction of Israel’s rabbinical courts. Despite all these efforts, Professor Alice Shalvi, who founded the Israel Women’s Network in 1984 and ICAR in 1989, is pessimistic: “Little can be done while the stranglehold of the haredim continues. We only have been able to raise consciousness about these issues,” she said.

Perhaps this heightened consciousness is having an effect. More than 25 women’s organizations have banded together to push for the fair treatment of women in every aspect of Israeli life. Concerns about equal job opportunities and sexual harassment have led to the establishment of the Knesset Committee on Women’s Affairs. For the first time, not even Israel’s leaders can escape the spotlight of attention on these issues.

A new law, passed by the Knesset in 2008, will nullify the statute of limitations on such crimes as molestation and physical and sexual abuse committed against children even after they reach adulthood. The new ruling gives the victim 20 years after they turn 18 to press charges against the perpetrator.

Israeli women continue in the footsteps of Henrietta Szold, Golda Meir, and Ada Maimon. May their collective works make a difference in the status and treatment of all women.