Grapevine: Role models for women

Despite traditional societal challenges in Israel and Austria, women are making progress in having their voices heard and their skills and talents recognized and rewarded.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
THEN-DEFENSE MINISTER Yitzhak Mordechai and then-Public Security Minister Avigdor Kahalani visit Israeli troops in combat gear near the northern border with Lebanon in 1999. (photo credit: REUTERS)
THEN-DEFENSE MINISTER Yitzhak Mordechai and then-Public Security Minister Avigdor Kahalani visit Israeli troops in combat gear near the northern border with Lebanon in 1999.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
■ THE AUSTRIAN Cultural Forum in Tel Aviv this week hosted a panel discussion at the French Institute with the focus on advancing women’s rights in Israel and Austria through the promotion of successful role models. Despite traditional societal challenges in both countries, which tend to place limits on women in politics and academia, the ongoing violence against women and the frequent discrimination against women in cases of divorce and even greater discrimination by mainstream society against women belonging to demographic minorities, women are making progress in having their voices heard and their skills and talents recognized and rewarded.
Role models who were invited to join the panel were Lilian Hofmeister, member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women; Daniela Segenreich, journalist and author of Between Camel Wool and High Tech; and Rivka Ben-Shahar, who lectures at Sderot College on gender issues and communication within religious communities.
■ THE INTERDISCIPLINARY Center Herzliya (IDC) was forced to postpone a conference on Israeli societal attitudes towards suicide and avoidable mishaps within the IDF that may affect perceptions of security and national strength. It was postponed because one of the speakers refused to participate in the same program as the final speaker. The controversial personality was former defense minister Yitzhak Mordechai, and the person who refused to appear on the same program was sociologist and historian Prof. Oz Almog.
The reason for the refusal: Mordechai was convicted for sexually assaulting two women during his service in the IDF and was given a suspended sentence.
The complaint by a third woman who alleged that he had assaulted her while serving as transportation minister was dismissed due to inconsistencies in her testimony. However, it was her complaint that led police to investigate Mordechai.
Once the complaint became public, the two women who had been molested by Mordechai came forward, and their evidence resulted in his conviction.
Almog was motivated by a Facebook protest posted by Haifa-based theater director and drama teacher Ari Remez, who wrote that it was inappropriate for IDC to give a platform to a sex offender. Other people agreed, and a spontaneous protest movement was launched. Endeavoring to spare Mordechai’s feelings, IDC simply postponed the event.
■ BLOCK PARTIES, a neighborhood norm in the United States, are not particularly common in Israel, although streets are occasionally closed to traffic for Independence Day concerts that are held on a main street rather than in a public park. But on Independence Night, Tel Avivians and visitors to the city that never stops will be able to enjoy a block party outside Tapas restaurant on Ahad Ha’am Street, where chef Yonatan Roshfeld will keep the food flowing, while DJ Avital Barak will ensure that the music is just right for dancing. Merrymakers who feel the need to loosen up can partake of the well-stocked bar.
Festivities begin at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22.
■ ON TUESDAY night prior to the merrymaking, there will be a mass gathering in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square for Remembrance Day for the Fallen under the title “Songs in the Square.” Stories of soldiers who fell in Operation Protective Edge will be told between songs that will be rendered by Muki, Rita, Miri Mesika, Avraham Tal, Shlomo Gronich, Dikla, Yonatan Razel, Daklon, Sagiv Cohen and Yuval Dayan. The moderator will be Lior Ashkenazi. The event will be broadcast live on Channel 2, enabling families around the country to participate from the comfort of their homes.
A separate memorial event for Victims of Terror will be held on Sunday, April 19, in the Terror Victims Memorial Garden at 2 Rokach Boulevard at 5:45 p.m.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai is scheduled to participate, along with singers Gali Atari and Efrat Enzel.
■ WHILE LEADERS of most political parties went Mimouna hopping on Saturday night, Shas leader Arye Deri, attired in a white gold-trimmed galabiya and white tarboosh, hosted his own Mimouna celebration at his home in Har Nof in Jerusalem, just as he did last year – with one notable exception. Last year, the guests included then president Shimon Peres.
President Reuven Rivlin preferred to go to Ashkelon and thus did not join Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and other notables around Deri’s table, while Deri’s wife, Yaffa, standing in the semiopen kitchen, kept up a steady flow of moufletas from the frying pan to the dining room.