Anat Hoffman: Civil and Women's Right in Israel (What a Riot!)

I walked into Stanford’s Hillel on Wednesday at noon to see a group of students eating lunch at a small table. Each one of them had a look of absolute captivation as a charismatic Israeli woman told the story of her political battle with a corrupt phone company. It was Anat Hoffman, one of Israel’s major leaders for social justice. When we were told that it was time to move to the other room for the actual presentation, Hoffman looked up with feigned upset, commenting in her blunt Israeli accent, “So everyone gets to eat but me?” It was immediately clear that she would be an exciting speaker.

Hoffman’s presentation turned out to be better than I could have imagined. She first told of her background, explaining Israel’s black and white way of viewing Judaism. She, along with many other Israelis, used to view Orthodoxy as the only type of Judaism, there to either fully accept or reject. But while attending UCLA (her grades, she commented, were terrible, but she was recruited for swimming), Hoffman suddenly realized that she could connect with Reform Judaism. Taking this back to Israel, she served as a city councilor in the orthodox city of Jerusalem and then made her way to the Supreme Court, a major accomplishment for a liberal Israeli woman (although not incredibly surprising after seeing her speak with such presence, humor, and confidence).

One of Hoffman’s major life work relates to her place as a founding member of Women of the Wall, which aims to achieve the right for women to wear tallitot (prayer shawls), pray aloud, and read from the Torah at the Western Wall. The Orthodox argue that these practices offend them, and therefore they are illegal, with the penalty of up to one year in prison. So while men can pray and read Torah and have bar mitzvahs on their 48-meter section of the Wall, women can only pray silently in their crowded 12-meter section. Finding this absolutely unacceptable, Hoffman organized a demonstration in which she held the Torah with the intent to read. We saw a video of the event, including her arrest. While she was released with international intervention, the case is still pending - as she put it, the government's attempt to keep her in fear.

Hoffman described the way in which the ultra-Orthodox attempt to rule the country. She explained gender-segregation on buses, with women expected to sit in the back to maintain their modesty. Orthodox women themselves cited this as the Jewish way to ride, a safer way to ride, a healthy rejection of Western values. But as the executive director of the Israel Religion Action Center (IRAC), Hoffman helped bring to light the illegality of this state segregation. When segregation continued despite notices being put on each bus, women in the movement began riding on the buses – almost like occupying buses – and inviting Orthodox women to sit next to them. This should remind us of a little something in our history that shook our country in the 60s…

The issue of voice continues to be a problem, as some Orthodox IDF (Israeli Defense Force) soldiers claim to be unable to hear females in uniform singing Hatikvah (the Israeli national anthem) or speaking at army events. However, Hoffman pointed out the exciting news that the generals and chief rabbi of the army disagree with these soldiers, marking an internal struggle for justice within the IDF.

Many of Israel’s social justice issues center around religion, a touchy, personal subject for many people, especially in the Jewish state. How can one person tell another that their way of practicing religion is fundamentally flawed? Where do we draw the line between religious custom and violation of human rights?

Hoffman’s talk certainly lit the fire for many of her audience members, senior citizens and students alike. She encouraged us as Americans (and specifically, as Californians) to stop worrying about outside threats to Israel and to start using our influence to affect what is occurring within the country itself. I am certainly ready to take action with Hoffman’s Women of the Wall; I plan to do whatever I can from this sunny place in California to progress the issue of religious pluralism and social justice in Israel.