The following conversation took place one evening last Sukkot in Jerusalem:
“You can’t cross. Here there is separation of women from men.”
“Why?”
“You are in Mea Shearim.”
“And it is a part of the State of Israel.”
“This is a Taliban state. Welcome to Afghanistan. OK? Is that what you want to hear?”
“I want to cross.”
“No, you may not cross.”
“This is a part of the State of Israel. I want to understand what is happening.”
“No, I won’t give you an answer. Please leave the area.”
“Who gave you permission to do this? In the State of Israel it is forbidden to do things like this.”
“So we have heard. It is also forbidden to make [gay] pride parades here. It is forbidden to dig up graves and take out the dead from their resting places. And that’s what you do every day. You can’t pass here.”
“Did the police give you permission?”
“Don’t mention that name here.”
The State of Israel, from the time of its founding, has been defined as a Jewish and a democratic country in which there is no separation of religion and state. Thus, the State of Israel endeavors to establish the values of equality and justice as the basis for its actions, laws, and way of life. However, given the wide spectrum of peoples and faiths within Israel, these values are difficult to balance with sensitivity to all. This article focuses on the Orthodox Jewish sector of Israeli society and on the place of women within it.
One of the challenges to democratic values has been the exclusion of women from public spaces, which is not a matter for the religious alone. Although segregation of women does not occur only in Jerusalem, and although it developed gradually, within the last year there has been an increasing awareness of this problem, which began in Jerusalem and continues throughout Israel.
Elections for the Jerusalem Municipality
Elections were last held for the Jerusalem municipality more than three years ago. As a young Jerusalem resident, I remember those elections as fateful for me personally, for the pluralistic community in the city, and for the Hareidim. For us in the pluralistic public, it seemed that Jerusalem’s better days were past well before the eve of the elections. Due to the hareidization of the city, the shortage of labor, and the high cost of living, many couples and many young families chose to leave the city, leaving it old and poor. For precisely these reasons, we saw the campaign of Nir Barkat, who is currently serving as mayor of Jerusalem, as a reason for hope.
In those elections, two parties were formed to bring about the desired change: Yerushalmim, headed by Rachel Azaria, and Hit’orerut [Awakening], led by Ofer Berkovich and currently headed by Meirav Cohen. These three leaders, young residents of the city, are now members of the Jerusalem Municipal Council. Yerushalmim emphasizes young families with young children, both religious and non-religious. Hit’orerut seeks to keep young people in the city, through the creation of entertainment venues and places of employment.
Their very entrance onto the council was no trivial matter. To succeed, the two factions needed to join forces and work together diligently to awaken and mobilize whatever part of the Jerusalem public had not given up hope. The two factions sought to revitalize the city that many had already eulogized, and, with hard work, they managed to cross the electoral threshold and win seats on the city council.
The Exclusion of Women from Public Spaces
The struggle against the exclusion of women from public spaces began in Jerusalem with Rachel Azaria’s campaign for the city council. Like all candidates, Rachel sought to put up her picture on public buses, but her request was rejected by the Canaan advertising company, which claimed that it does not display pictures of women on buses. Despite Azaria’s argument that she is Orthodox, married, and a mother, they insisted that women’s images should not be posted on the buses—not even a child of three or an eighty-year-old woman. Azaria then turned to the High Court. Although her struggle made waves, the subject of exclusion of women was not yet news, and she found herself alone. It appeared that the issue was forgotten, and that the pro-pluralism public had gotten used to—and tacitly consented to—religious extremism and, in the name of pluralism, had agreed to forfeit its values.
In many cases exclusion was accepted as a necessary sacrifice to religious claims, in order to facilitate coexistence. But the phenomenon appeared to be growing more extreme, reflected in a number of public spheres, including the boycott by religious soldiers of a military ceremony at which women sang, presenting awards and honors to women only through men while the women sat in the stands on the grounds of modesty, and so forth.
Preoccupation with religious restrictions occurs among not only the Hareidim, but also the National Religious public. In the Bnei Akiva youth movement (in which I grew up), the movement’s band, Tzevet Hava’i, was disbanded, with the explanation that there was insufficient demand for it. Today I can say publicly the real reason is clear: not to allow boys and girls to sing together. A youth movement whose goal was to bring students together to educate them to love mankind and to love the land, along with a commitment to halakha, turned into a movement of rabbis. The preoccupation with modesty became obsessive (and, thus, immodest in itself), as, for example, with the prohibition against fathers attending parties and other events of their daughters within the framework of the mamlakhti dati (state religious) education system.
The Battle for the Billboards
In Jerusalem, the beginning of the public struggle was against the censorship of women’s images from billboards in public spaces. Last summer, Conservative Rabbi Uri Ayalon initiated a major campaign against this type of exclusion. This struggle was with Jerusalem City Hall, the advertising companies, and public opinion. To change public awareness, most of the activity had to be directed not at the Hareidi public, but rather at the pluralistic public. In light of the power of the media, Rabbi Ayalon started a Facebook group called “Not Censored—Fighting against the Exclusion of Women from Public Spaces.” In a short time, more than 3,500 individuals joined the group from across the country, with activity taking place partly online and partly in the real world.
In Jerusalem, the beginning of the public struggle was against the censorship of women’s images from billboards in public spaces.
In light of the difference between ads in Jerusalem and in the rest of Israel (the same campaign would feature images of women elsewhere in Israel, but not in Jerusalem), I joined with Rabbi Ayalon and the Yerushalmim as we rolled out our first campaign, in which we sought to hand out posters with images of women on billboards across the city. The advertising company tried to dissuade us from doing so on the grounds that some people would tear down the billboards, but they did not prevent the publication of the posters. Of 140 ads, a total of four were mutilated. The advertising agency was surprised, but it now understood that advertisements with images of women were indeed possible. In the cases where the ads were severely damaged, we demanded that the city and the police enforce the law.
There have been many partners in the effort to prevent a radicalized approach to public spaces: individual men and women, Orthodox organizations such as Kolech and Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah, the Israel Religious Action Center (affiliated with the Reform movement), and organizations not identified with any religious stream. Cooperation among these groups and the establishment of a joint coalition generated great impact in the eyes of the pluralistic public. Among the positive results were parliamentary activity, recruiting members of Knesset to take action and change legislation, and filing joint petitions before the High Court against companies that exclude women—and winning those cases.
This determined, long-term effort delivered results. As I write today, a court has ruled for the first time that a bus company must provide financial compensation to a young woman who was asked to sit at the back of the bus by the driver. Just today, the state informed the Egged bus company and the Canaan advertising company that they are not allowed to refuse to display an ad in which an image of a woman is shown. Similarly, there have been court orders against an attempt by a hevrah kadisha (burial society) to segregate women at funerals and to prevent women from offering eulogies. (See the article by Rabbi Seth Farber on page 12.)
The efforts to raise awareness among both the adult population and the youth in the framework of various educational programs are bearing results. No longer are isolated individuals fighting personal battles, but rather an entire public is refusing to surrender its values when confronted with religious extremism. The result: The public sphere is returning to the public, and we have been transformed from a silent majority to a winning majority.
A struggle that began with restoring the presence of images of women on billboards in Jerusalem continues across the country by seeking equal representation for women and men in ceremonies, in positions of leadership, and more. From time to time, efforts are made to undermine the progress that has been made. Nevertheless, it is our role as a public to show the advertising companies and to remind legislators, elected officials, local authorities, and law enforcement agencies of their responsibilities with respect to illegal activity.
I see my role as an activist, and as a religious woman living and working in Jerusalem, to be part of the Zionist enterprise. These days, as the success of our activities in strengthening pluralist society is evident, I have no doubt of the early realization of the prophecy For” (“כי מציון תצא תורה ודבר ה’ מירושלים” :Isaiah of out of Zion shall go forth the Torah and the word of God from Jerusalem”) (Isaiah 2:3). I am proud to be a part of it.