Center for Women's Justice is the Righteous Crowd Org of the Week!

Center for Women's Justice

Protecting Women's Rights in Israel

In this week’s Torah Portion, Pinchas, the five daughters of Zelophechad speak out against injustice. The law of the time stated that only sons could inherit their fathers’ land. The daughters succeed in changing the law, ultimately securing their inheritance. Inspired by daughters Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah, we are featuring an organization, Center for Women's Justice, that fights for women’s equality in Israel.

CWJ's mission is to champion Jewish women’s rights to equality, dignity and justice whenever they are compromised by state-backed religious institutions in Israel. CWJ helps women whose husbands won't give them a divorce, women whose conversions are not accepted by rabbinic courts, and children born out of wedlock that are not recognized fully by the State of Israel.

Righteous Crowd supported the Center for Women's Justice in July of 2019.

During the pandemic, CWJ has been hard at work in the areas of Litigation, Responding to Violence Against Women and Online Educational Programming. Since March 2020, CWJ has adapted their activities to the social distancing measures and is maximizing the online tools available to expand their outreach.

CWJ told Righteous Crowd "that they have joined several other women’s organizations in raising awareness of the surge in domestic violence against women during the pandemic, sharing information on hotlines and other resources available to women who now find themselves quarantined with their abusers."

One of the online educational programs CWJ is expanding is "Exploring Mamzerut." CWJ explains that "One of the most painful consequences of the state authorized Rabbinate monopoly on personal status is the issue of mamzerut. A "mamzer" is a child born to a woman as a result of a biblically forbidden union... Most typically, a mamzer is a child born to a woman as a result of an extra-marital affair. The state prohibits these “mamzerim” and their progeny forever from marrying other Jews except for other mamzerim (and converts). Suspected mamzerim are tracked on Israel’s secret state blacklist, a listing of Israelis with marriage restrictions. Over the past three months CWJ has maximized the opportunities created by video conferencing tools to re-ignite debate on this topic and bring together leading thinkers to explore solutions."

Read our July, 2019 interview with Dr. Susan Weiss, Founder & Executive Director of CWJ.

To learn more about CWJ, click here.