Women in Israel Appear to Be Playing Major Role in Law, but Feminists Want More Generally

Many feminists in Israel complain that though this country was the first to have a woman premier, the status and personal rights of women have slipped behind those of many other countries — largely because of the influence of the religious parties and establishments.

But figures cited at a recent panel discussion winding up a 10-day study tour of Israel by the Israel Bonds National Women’s Division delegation from the United States appear to belie those fears.

Judge Blanche Kay of the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court told the gathering that 60 percent of all law students in Israel were women, 50 percent of all practicing lawyers were women, 20 percent of all Israeli judges were women, and two Supreme Court justices are women.

Prof. Yaffa Kedar, Dean of the faculty of natural sciences at Tel Aviv University (TAU), who incidentally had been the first woman student at TAU, noted that one third of the professors in her faculty were women. She said that in her experience, an individual’s level of motivation often proved more important than intellectual endowment in the advancement of a woman’s status in her profession.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES URGED

She appealed to the women Bond leaders to help create employment opportunities in Israel for Israeli academics and scientists who had gone abroad to further their careers.

A different view was stressed by Canadian-born Dr. Daphne Izraeli, lecturer in sociology and anthropology at the religious-oriented Bar-Ilan University who declared that the special contribution of American Jewish immigration was to raise women’s consciousness in Israel.

She advised delegates during their travels in Israel to provoke awareness of feminist issues by asking three questions: "How many women are there in senior positions here?"; "How come?"; and "What are you doing about it?" She complained that only four percent of university professors were women.

CHANGES IN JEWISH LAW ASKED

Earlier in the week, the chairman of the National Council on the Advancement of the Status of Women in Israel, Ruth Lapidot, former legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry and currently a professor of international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told the delegates that the most difficult subject her Council deals with is Jewish law in relation to women’s rights.

"These laws can be changed, but courage is needed to do it," she said. She noted that a regression had occurred in the status of Israeli women in that the number of women in the present Knesset was lower than a decade ago, and that not a single woman had been appointed to head a Ministry.

Israeli journalist and radio reporter Freeda Keet attacked the strictures of Jewish law as now applied in Israel. "My Judaism is the Judaism of the school of Rabbi Hillel who always looked for the compassionate, humanistic, kind and generous way to interpret halacha," she said. "What is running Israel today is the school of Shammai, which finds the most rigid, most ultra-Orthodox and the most uncompromising interpretation of halachic law."

The delegation to the study tour was composed of 25 leading Israel Bond purchasers and organizational chairmen from 12 U.S. and Canadian communities.