Rabbi Marla J. Feldman

WRJ is part of a growing network of North American Jewish organizations raising concerns about the declining role of women in the public arena in Israel. Under the umbrella of this new American Task Force on Women’s Issues in Israel, I recently participated in a meeting with Israel’s NY Consul General Ido Aharoni. He was very gracious in hosting us at the Israeli Consulate, and expressed his commitment to working with us to advance the role of women in Israeli society. He assured us that the numbers of women getting advanced degrees are growing and is currently at more than 50%, even as he acknowledged that this advancement is not yet reflected in the ranks of professional fields or salaries.

Much has been written in recent days about the arrest of Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center, at the Kotel while wearing a tallit and saying Sh’ma with Women of the Wall and Hadassah. There have been articles, websites, and petitions offered by many groups and individuals, each responding in their own way.

My summer travels this year took me to Paris, where I had a wonderful time visiting museums, touring, and spending time with family. Emblematic of our increasingly international community, my French cousins are involved in the Reform/Progressive community in Paris. During my visit, they introduced me to Rabbis Pauline Bebe and Tom Cohen. Rabbi Bebe, the first female rabbi in Europe, was a former WRJ scholarship recipient during her student days at Leo Baeck in London. She and her husband, Rabbi Tom Cohen, spend summers at URJ camps, introducing French Reform Jewish youth to the American camping system. Through rabbis Cohen and Bebe, I learned a lot about the Jewish community in Paris. I was not aware that France has the third largest Jewish population, next to Israel and the U.S. On a personal walking tour of Jewish Paris, Rabbi Cohen shared many insights about the long, proud history of this Jewish community, stemming back to the Roman era.

There has been a great deal of ‘piling on ‘ in recent days following Missouri Rep. Todd Akin’s statement about “legitimate rape” and his assertion that in such cases women don't get pregnant because "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Of course, partisan advocacy groups and women’s rights organizations are making hay out of his political blunder. I’m willing to give him a pass on his unfortunate word choice – he didn’t really mean ‘legitimate’ in the sense that rape could ever be considered acceptable. He meant ‘legitimate’ in the sense of ‘real’ rape, presumably as opposed to false claims of rape. So, let’s not play the ‘gotcha’ game and critique the one wrong word he used.