In January 1996, a group of seven women gathered to discuss the bleak situation facing religious women in Israel. They were brought together by a common sense of distress about what they considered the degrading treatment of women and women’s complete exclusion from all leadership positions within the religious community.
The group was made up of prominent women from Israeli academia and political life who were greatly respected and appreciated within general secular Israeli society. Within the religious community, however, not only did they receive very little professional recognition, but they were also often subjected to outright chauvinistic, disparaging, and derisive treatment. One woman, the dean of a religious college for women, recalls being asked by the board of that college (all men) whether her husband had given her permission to come to a board meeting.
The feeling shared by this group of women was that Israeli religious society, of which they were a part, had not yet fully internalized the twentieth-century revolution in the status of women. They realized that it was up to them to educate and influence the religious leadership and the community at large, in order to bring about changes in the attitude toward women. Internal conversations about how to take action continued over the months that followed, culminating in a fruitful brainstorming session at the second JOFA conference in New York in 1998, where the seeds were planted for forming the organization Kolech, meaning “your voice.”
“Let me hear your voice”
Kolech was founded initially around the idea of legitimating religious feminism. As the name suggests, Kolech was committed to serving as a platform for women to express their thoughts and religious beliefs, inspired by the verse in Song of Songs, “Let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet.” In choosing this name, the founders also expressed their protest against the ever more prevalent silencing of women, often justified by the dictum, “kol b’isha erva” (“the voice of a woman is sexually arousing”) (BT Berakhot 24).
Our aim is to be a vehicle for change—within the rabbinical courts, Israeli law, and social conventions among the religious community.
The organization, which started with thirty founding members, was like a magnet, drawing, in its first months of existence, hundreds of women who “came out of the closet” as religious feminists. Kolech’s first conference in the summer of 1999 drew 1,500 attendees who came from all over the country, yearning for a place where they would be heard and understood. The enthusiasm and excitement that filled the air at that first conference was proof of the fervent need for a movement such as Kolech within the religious community.
Much like its American sister JOFA, Kolech focused, in its early years, on issues related to the advancement of the status of women in religious life: in the synagogue, in the observance of mitzvot, around lifecycle events, and in Torah study. Activities revolved mostly around educational efforts: publishing monthly newsletters to be distributed in synagogues across the country, holding seminars and teacher training sessions, and writing curricula and other Jewish feminist publications.
“Hold back your voice from weeping”
Not long after the founding of Kolech, we in the leadership began to hear female voices of a very different kind. We started receiving calls for help from religious woman in various situations of distress: agunot and mesoravot get, victims of domestic violence who had no one to turn to in their communities, and victims of sexual violence, particularly from figures of religious authority.
These difficult topics, which landed on the doorstep of Kolech, were not part of the organization’s original vision. The founding group of women, who largely came from batei midrash and academia, were unaware of the extent and intensity of the problems Orthodox and ultraOrthodox women face, as these issues were often swept under the carpet in a false idealization of religious society. However, once called on for help, Kolech realized that it must expand its mission to include a social action agenda to fight these dark and difficult problems. The words of the Prophet Jeremiah captured this new direction:“Thus said God, hold back your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears: for your work will be rewarded” (31:16).
“Lift up your voice with strength … Raise it, be not afraid” (Isaiah 40:9)
Kolech has now entered a new stage. Our actions are characterized by thinking within the widest categories of tikkun olam, making the world better. We recognize that we cannot be satisfied only with personal support and aid to victims of violence or to women denied a divorce (e.g., Kolech’s hotline for women in distress), but we must also strive to make a difference on a larger social scale. Our aim is to be a vehicle for change—within the rabbinical courts, Israeli law, and social conventions among the religious community. We seek change that will ultimately prevent these situations from happening in the first place and will promote a more egalitarian and just society. We pursue this goal fervently through extensive lobbying, promoting legislation, and making efforts to change policies. For example, in an effort to reduce the incidence of iggun, Kolech successfully promoted passage of a law for the division of property regardless of the status of the divorce, and of a “sanctions law” that authorizes the courts to impose extensive sanctions on husbands who refuse to grant a divorce. Today we are promoting the Kiddushin expropriation law, which requires that eighteen months after a beit din has decided that a husband must give a get, if he has not done so, the Knesset would retroactively strip him of the property of the marriage, such as the wedding ring.
Along with these legislative endeavors, Kolech engages in educational work on multiple levels to raise public awareness and strives to maintain a constant voice in the Israeli media. For example, most recently we have been engaged in the fight against the attempts by the ultra-Orthodox community to exclude women from the Israeli public arena and to segregate public spaces, such as buses and cemeteries. (See article by Riki Shapira, p. 30.)
Working to Change the System from Within
The two aspects of Kolech’s vision—advancing the status of woman within Orthodoxy and fighting against the oppression of women within the religious community— demonstrate the commitment that Kolech members have to Orthodox society and their religious way of life. Rather than opting out in face of inequality and injustice, Kolech strives to bring about change from within and to create a society that is true to its religious and humane convictions and abides by high ethical and moral standards.
Despite Kolech’s dedicated base of avid supporters, its bold actions and statements often bring on waves of criticism and disparagement from the religious community, particularly from those factions uncomfortable with the idea of religious feminism. Ironically, Jeremiah’s words, “Hold back your voice from weeping,” have been (mis) quoted by this opposition, in its efforts to silence Kolech and what it represents. In face of these challenges, we find ourselves responding on two levels: by building and strengthening relationships within the religious community and by building bridges to those who do not necessarily agree with our positions. At the same time, like the prophets of old, we raise our voices unabashedly for what we believe is right.
Kolech and JOFA
Throughout its existence, Kolech has drawn strength from its peers and colleagues in America in dealing and thinking about the relationship between feminism and Orthodoxy. As we have become a voice for religious woman on so many fronts, we gain much from connecting with women from other places who are facing similar challenges. Although some issues remain uniquely Israeli (for example, debates as to whether to allow women soldiers to sing at official army events), many of the issues with which Kolech is involved have general implications throughout the Orthodox world. The many parallels between the agendas of JOFA and Kolech—reshaping leadership roles for women in the religious realm, thinking about female ritual celebrations and feminist Torah study, and pursuing social justice on the difficult issues of agunot and sexual misconduct—show the importance of our maintaining close contact and paving paths of collaboration.
JOFA served as the initial inspiration for the formation of Kolech in Israel, and we hope to see the relationship between these two sister organizations continue to flourish over the coming years. As evident from the decision to dedicate this issue of the JOFA Journal to Israel-related issues, the two organizations are committed to increasing awareness among their constituencies of the issues and actions transpiring in the other country. We plan to hold sessions at the upcoming Kolech and JOFA conferences (in the summer and fall of 2013, respectively) dedicated to the common agendas of the two organizations. Most importantly, we are hoping to develop joint projects and collaboration around certain causes that are close to our hearts. Our combined voices, raised from both sides of the ocean but stemming from similar places, will truly bring about the fulfillment of the second half of Jeremiah’s prophecy, “… for your work will be rewarded” (31:16).