Well-behaved women seldom make history

Published: MARCH 5, 2020 20:19

WOMEN OF THE Wall dance with a Torah scroll at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST) — WOMEN OF THE Wall dance with a Torah scroll at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

Our presence as women in the public sphere is something that was not always taken for granted. It is the result of the determination of “provocative” women.

A few years ago, I was interviewed for a leadership course. I was asked if there is a historical figure or event with which I wish I could interact. I replied that my dream would be to meet Susan B. Anthony or Lady Rhondda, significant figures in the history of women’s suffrage, and to have them watch as a young woman casts her vote. Seeing them smile and understand that their struggles and efforts paid off would be an amazing experience.

If you were to ask me the most exciting moment I’ve experienced with Women of the Wall – the moment that made me feel it was all worth it – I would say it was when a group of religious seminary girls took up two-thirds of the women’s section at the Western Wall to sing the Slihot penitential prayers. It was the first time I had witnessed a large gathering like this, young girls praying out loud at the Kotel.

When the seminary girls finished their service, I approached them and expressed my excitement regarding their enthusiastic singing. I then introduced myself and shared that I am from Women of the Wall, the same organization that has been struggling for just this moment for 31 years, to see girls raising their voices in prayer and singing at the holy site.

“Yes, but you do it for the sake of provocation,” one of the girls snapped at me. The rest tried to silence her and to thank me for the warm words, but she continued, “Why do you have to be so confrontational? Why not act like we do, in a pleasant way?”

I would love to witness a conversation between a late 19th-century suffragette and a 19-year-old girl in the State of Israel who is learning for the first time that her right to vote today did not come from anyone’s good gesture, but was the result of the stubborn struggle of women of the last century.

Change takes courage. Any woman running a marathon today should know that this was made possible only by one cheeky woman, Katherine Switzer, who signed up for the 1967 Boston Marathon on behalf of a man – because women were not allowed to sign up for such an event. Relatedly, every woman who enrolls today for academic studies does so thanks to women who relentlessly demanded women’s right to higher education.

Our presence as women in the public sphere is something that was not always taken for granted. It is the result of the determination of “provocative” women. In other words, these bold women of years ago had courage, heroism, boldness and something else: caring. They struggled then because they cared about the future generations of girls and women.

The word provocation has been used to portray the dark side of feminism; it turns people away from hearing what we are trying to express. Like the young woman implied at Slihot, our presence is seen as a demonstration.

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The answer is that we have no choice. Provocation is in the eyes of the beholder and it depends on context and time. Just as women’s suffrage achieved its goals, Women of the Wall will fight to attain women’s freedom of religious expression and women’s access to Torah at the Western Wall.

In 1976, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich coined the phrase, “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” With those truthful words in mind, we have started acting and stopped apologizing. The future will be better because of strong and resolute women.

The writer is executive director of the Women of the Wall.