Sarah Greenberg

The JWI Mother’s Day Flower Project is an important opportunity to restart the conversation about domestic violence and sexual assault. Thinking about the relationship between mothers and daughters, siblings, aunt and niece, raises the question of these issues and what young women face in regards to them. Recently, sexual assault and intimate partner violence have become hot-button issues on many college campuses, and rightly so. The college experience is supposed to be one of intellectual, emotional discovery and development. Sexual violence, especially considering how pervasive it is, disrupts that experience and renders it disempowering.

As we move out of the Passover season, into the Omer and towards Shavuot, it is important not to lose sight of the moving themes and topics that Passover incites for us. For me, thinking about the concept of slavery in a modern light brings the lessons of Passover alive. When I think about all the plagues or contemporary manners of “enslavement” in society today, I continue to be struck by the cause and effect of disempowerment, particularly for women. That is, how violence against women and children deprives them of their agency, self-determination, and often, sense of self. For these reasons and many others, we ought to stand in defiance of these acts and show our support: for the victims, for the professionals and advocates who defend them, and for the many caring individuals who take on this issue and work to ensure such violence ends.

On March 30, 2014, the Jewish community lost a giant: Rivka Haut. In her advocacy for women’s advancement Jewish life, on behalf of agunot, and Jewish scholarship, Rivka leaves us with a legacy that is not only a guide for what we can achieve, but a call to action to continue her work.

Haut might be best known to WRJ for helping to found Women of the Wall. In fact, it was her idea, for women to gather at the Western Wall with a Torah for a prayer service. Since that day, December 1, 1988, Women of the Wall has symbolized the struggle of women to have their voices heard in ritual and in worship.

This blog is part of a WRJ blog series commemorating Women's History Month. 

In less than a week, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga v. Sebelius. These cases have been getting a fair amount of coverage in the press and attention in the advocacy community over the past few weeks. If you are new to these cases, or if you’re excited (like me) to see what will happen before the nine justices on March 25^th, here’s a rundown of the basic arguments, the stakes, the position of the Reform Movement, and some suggestions for further reading in anticipation of oral argument.

Let’s go all the way back to the beginning of the story to understand the questions before the Court.