A night for women – and men

Out-of-the-ordinary women come together to discuss social, family, ethical and artistic issues – and create ‘a world in common.’

By BARRY DAVIS
Jazz pianist Maya Dunietz will perform with drummer Ram Gabay in one of three musical slots (photo credit: GONI RISKIN)
Jazz pianist Maya Dunietz will perform with drummer Ram Gabay in one of three musical slots
(photo credit: GONI RISKIN)
Around two-and-a-half millennia ago, Greek savant Plato suggested that thinking is “the talking of the soul with itself.” There will be plenty of cerebrally-driven dialogue on offer at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art on Thursday evening, when the French Institute of Israel presents the “Night of Ideas – A World in Common: Out-of-Ordinary Women” event. There may even be some soul-baring, too.
The free program, in French and Hebrew, kicks off at 6:30 p.m., running until midnight, and will feature panel discussions, talks and musical entertainment that look at life from a female perspective, although not exclusively so. The proceedings will open with words from the host venue’s director and chief curator Suzanne Landau, followed by greetings from Barbara Wolffer, cultural counselor and director of the French Institute of Israel.
There is an impressive roll call of A-listers on the bill, including MKs Stav Shaffir and Merav Michaeli; founder of Yesh Din human rights organization Ruth Kedar; former French MEP Adeline Hazan; and French philosopher and psychoanalyst Clotilde Leguil. The bill also features celebrated women of letters, including French novelist Marie Darrieussecq and award-winning Israeli writer Alon Kimchi, as well as senior members of the French media Florence Aubenas and Laure Adler.
The latter is no stranger to these shores. Adler hails from a Hungarian Jewish family and unabashedly proclaims her fondness for this country.
“I love Israel and I go there every year,” she says. She also considered becoming a bona fide Israeli. “When I was young I worked on a kibbutz in the Galilee,” she recalls. “I wanted to live in Israel, but I came back to France.”
Adler will fill a moderator role in a panel discussion that will look at how women, here and there, are faring overall.
“We are going to talk to Israeli women and French women about the situation of women in Israel and France,” explains Adler, adding that there will be similar symposia taking place elsewhere.
“The Night of Ideas is the brainchild of the [French] Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There are many Nights of Ideas around the world on this night – in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles and all over the world.”
Adler is eminently qualified to contribute to the Tel Aviv event. She has been reporting on cultural matters for over 40 years and has published a string of well-received biographies, with her subjects including German- born Jewish American political theorist Hannah Arendt; writer and politician Françoise Giroud and now former French minister of health; and President of the European Parliament Simone Veil. Adler has also published a number of works about feminism.
So, what is Adler hoping the Night of Ideas will achieve? How does she envisage the night’s culmination? “The freedom of women,” she says tongue in cheek, “and more hope for the condition of the woman,” she adds in a more serious vein.
With the immortal words liberté, égalité, fraternité – liberty, equality, fraternity – as France’s national motto and, one would have thought, etched into the psyche of every French citizen, surely French women enjoy equal status with their male counterparts. Adler says that is sadly not the case.
“I don’t really know what the situation of the woman in Israel, but in France it is not very good.” That, apparently, is very much down to economics.
“There is a lot of unemployment in France now,” she continues. “When the society cannot provide work for all the people, it is always the woman who pays. The man is supposed to get the job and the woman is supposed to stay at home and be the mother.”
Apparently, affairs of state do not offer too much in the way of hope either.
“In politics in France it is not a good period for us women,” says Adler.
“There is no [woman] candidate for the new elections in France. There is no top [woman] minister with [French President] François Hollande. There is no ministry, or secretary, for the condition of the woman. The Ministry for the Condition of the Woman was created by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing [French president 1974-81], and now there is only a secretary for the family. We are not only mothers, we are people,” declares Adler.
The discussions over the course of the evening will spread into various fields of interest, with Shaffir and Aubenas sharing the “Social Fragilities: How to Trigger Awareness” spot, while Kedar, Hazan and activist social worker Samah Salaime Egbariya will talk about human dignity. As a leader of the social protest movement in 2011, Shaffir is eminently qualified to talk on the subject of how to get people to sit up and take notice of pressing social issues.
Adler feels that France and other countries can take a leaf out of the American book, referencing the mass women’s march scheduled to take place in Washington on January 21, the day after the inauguration of the new president of the United States.
“Women are always the first to get out on the street, to fight for human rights, for civil rights,” she says.
“The women there are going to protest against [Donald] Trump [and his perceived belittling of women].”
It is not just a Stateside issue.
“You know there are many men all over the world who believe that women have too many rights,” Adler observes, noting that things are not too wonderful in her own country.
“I think there is a very big movement of misogynists in France today. The man doesn’t accept the woman as intelligent. They don’t look at women as equal.”
While this is the inaugural Night of Ideas event here, the French Institute has been running an annual philosophy- based night program for a number of years, following a similar format.
“The idea was to have a five-hour marathon of debates, but also with live music,” Wolffer explains. “In Tel Aviv, we decide to give the floor to women. To talk about the way they act and think, and contribute to a world in common.”
The purview was designed to take in a broad sweep of themes.
“We’ll have a panel of social issues, a panel on ethical issues – that is, of course, an important component of a common world,” continues Wolffer.
“We will have a panel on the common or, I should say, the uncommon world of men and women, that will be a kind of panel dedicated to the family, that will look at things the legal and also the political perspective.”
That also takes in couples, including same-sex couples and parents.
“Of course we won’t be able to talk about every single issue in a single night, but we will have a lot of important issues in the program.”
A World in Common is not exclusively devoted to serious chin-wagging, and there will be some quality musical entertainment provided by the likes of singer-songwriter Liron Meshoulam, a.k.a. Flora, who will proffer a tribute to late great American jazz pianist and vocalist Nina Simone, who spent the last decade of her life residing in France. Simone’s work will also be saluted by French-based American Jewish cellist Sonia Wieder Atherton, who will join forces with Israeli pianist Yuval Zorn.
French ambassador Helen Le Gal will pop in toward the end of the evening, and internationally acclaimed multidisciplinary artist Michal Rovner will screen and talk about some of her video art.
Entrance is free, although advance registration is required, at: nightofideas@ambfr-il.org