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Jan

15

Pinning the problem on women for a change

Filed Under Gender, Government, Israel, Social Issues, Women | 1 Comment

There’s just no other way to slice or dice this, “Israelis Facing a Seismic Rift Over Role of Women.”

And there’s really no better way to describe it than in the simplest of Hebrew phrases, זה בעיה zeh baaya – it’s a problem.

But let’s not have a misunderstanding here: the women are not the problem. The way in which supposed teachings are interpreted to require women to be treated are what should be considered to be at issue – not the women in and of themselves just for existing.

The best blog I’ve read that covers these issues and many others is A Mother in Israel.  She is a wonderful and generous writer – and also happens to have grown up in the USA (she made aliyah a long time ago).

For those who don’t know from reading this blog, I lived in Beit Shemesh for a year over twenty years ago and I still cannot believe what is going on there now, although my time in Israel in 2008 showed me how different the Old City was compared to when I was there (far less inviting, IMO). I also have very observant relatives in some of the most observant parts of Jerusalem who were fabulous to me while I was there and I spent a great deal of time in some of the communities discussed in the article.  From my experience and knowledge, a number of the portrayals in the article are accurate, but I’m not living there now so I offer that as a caveat.

What’s really kind of sad, for so many societies with portions of their populations acting as though women are “the problem”  – we’ve been half or more than half your populations for centuries. That people now are making such a stink over us making a stink about how stinky we can be treated at times is, frankly, really stinky.

We’ve been 50% since Adam and Eve. How did things get so out of balance in the first place?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:59 pm January 15th, 2012 in Gender, Government, Israel, Social Issues, Women | 1 Comment 

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