So it began…
In 1995, I began to feel that continuing to operate within the religious community in the same manner was no longer feasible. Outside the religious community, women experienced equality, appreciation, mutual respect, and recognition, whereas within the religious community, it was forbidden to express the word "feminism," as it was considered offensive and repugnant. The accepted narrative was that in religious society, a woman's traditional, good, and proper role was as a "woman of valor," and any discourse that challenged this foundation was at risk of breaking taboo.
On January 1st, 1996, a small number of women convened for the first time at the home of Leah Kadari, the mother of my initiative's partner, psychologist Miriam Shapira, who later served for many years on Kolech's board. Also present at the meeting were Prof. Ruth Kadari, psychologist Michal Peretz, Rabbi Hannah Henkin (head of the Nishmat Seminary), Mrs. Yehudit Shilat (head of the Forum for Religious Law), and Mrs. Liora Minka (chairperson of Emunah today).
We opened Pandora's box and realized that we were unanimous in the critical need for action towards change.
The next time we met and conversed was in early 1998 during the JOFA conference in New York, where, to our surprise, about 20 religious women from Israel had come to find the religious feminist voice.
After returning from the conference, an intense process of meetings began. We turned to Knesset member Prof. Alex Lubotzky, who assisted us in organizing meetings in the Knesset, and from one meeting to the next, the number of participants grew. Many women contacted us and asked to join, and by the end of the process, the group had grown from 20 women to about 100.
A considerable amount of time was devoted to thinking about the organization's name, and eventually, the name "Forum for Religious Women" was chosen. The suggestion to also use a name containing the word "voice" in response to the empowerment of women in the expression "a voice in a veiled woman" arose several times. However, the name "Kolech" was chosen a few weeks later by Vivi Shalev, the first editor of the newsletter we began to distribute, just before the release of the first issue.
On the first day of Av, 5758 (July 1998), we gathered in the morning at the Matan Women's Institute for a festive event, at which Rabbi Lichtenstein and Dr. Naomi Cohen lectured. Afterwards, we held a founding conference in the Knesset, where Knesset members Hanan Porat (may he rest in peace), who also suggested distributing a newsletter, Alex Lubotzky, Anat Maor, Yael Dayan, Rabbi Druckman, and our colleague Yael Levin, spoke.
And we founded the organization.
Several days later, at the beginning of August 1998, I registered the organization as a non-profit association. Without a budget, without a source of support. The office started in my home, and secretarial assistance was provided by my children until January 2000, when we hired our first secretary. During this period, Beit Hillel contributed a small room for our use.
In the initial years of 'Kolech's emergence, we focused on publishing the newsletter and intensive public relations in the religious press (primarily in HaTzofeh newspaper). Most of the discourse centered around the status of women in religious life and society.
As awareness of 'Kolech' grew, requests poured in for us to address issues related to the distress of religious women. Rabbis approached and demanded that 'Kolech' engage deeply in matters such as the plight of agunot and agunot prevention. This led us to join the coalition of organizations for agunot, headed by Prof. Alice Shalvi, and to establish the legal-rabbinic team to formulate agreements to prevent agunot. Social workers contacted us to address the denied phenomenon of abused women within the religious community. There was a demand to deal with cases of sexual harassment in the religious society, especially when the perpetrator was a rabbi or authority figure.
Subsequently, we also received a request from the Ministry of Health to assist in raising awareness of the unique health problems faced by Haredi women: high mortality due to breast cancer, extensive illness, and low life expectancy following multiple childbirths.
Over the years, we initiated legislative amendments required during our activities, in the field of agunot treatment (amendments to the sanctions law, property sharing law); amendments in laws to prevent sexual harassment – applying the law also to religious authorities, and more.
Over many years, 'Kolech' has become a movement of thousands of women in Israel (including many men), identifying as religious feminists, advocating for gender justice, and working tirelessly to correct injustices against women in the name of religion. They fight against their exclusion and any form of harm to women under Jewish law. The struggles are conducted on various fronts: legal advocacy through lawsuits, legislation, intensive writing in the media, public campaigns, and communications, and more.
In addition, 'Kolech' leads educational empowerment programs within the religious educational system and operates a leadership center for empowering women in community leadership.
We are still far from achieving the goals we set for ourselves. There is still much work to be done to rectify the situation of women in the courts, in religious communities, and in synagogues. Much educational work is still needed, and we are not yet able to rest. There is still a long way to go to repair the world.
