by Jill Finkelstein
Link Roundup: International Women's Day and the Fight for Equality
Welcome to this week’s installment of Lilith’s Link Roundup. Each week we post Jewish and feminist highlights from around the web. If there’s anything you want to be sure we know about, email us or leave a message in the comments section below.
Women around the world gathered together on Tuesday, March 8th in honor of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Many women spent the day participating in protests, marches, and other festivities to celebrate the fight for women’s equality. [NPR]
Dr. Rachel Levmore explored how the day is used as a “a platform for what is known in Jewish tradition as cheshbon hanefesh – a combination of account-taking and reflection.” [JPost]
Rabbi Laura Geller also wrote an excellent piece in honor of International Women’s Day about the advancement of Jewish women. [Huffington Post]
Yad L’Achim, a Haredi organization in Israel, recently began rescuing Jewish women from their abusive Muslim husbands in the Palestinian Authority. Feminists have been known to remain silent on issues regarding Islamic women and girls. Caroline Glick writes, “It is not feminism that motivates its members to save these women. It is Jewish law.” [JPost]
The Puah Institute introduced a new course designed to teach rabbis how to offer sex counseling to ultra-religious couples. The course will also offer its students a “sexual counselor” certificate. [Ynet]
On Monday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor discussed the sexist nature of her confirmation hearing, in which she was asked a series of questions about her dating life. [The Atlantic]
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate rejected the U.S. House’s spending bill that would have stripped Planned Parenthood of all federal funding. Despite this victory for pro-choice groups, the GOP plans to continue fighting for the defunding of Planned Parenthood and its other anti-choice legislation. [Women’s eNews] [Kaiser Health News]
Individual states have also taken extreme measures in the war against women’s reproductive health. South Dakota’s Senate passed a bill requiring women to wait 72-hours and visit an anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy center (CPC)” before being able to obtain an abortion. [NPR] Indiana introduced a bill that would require doctors to tell women that having an abortion is linked to breast cancer. The bill would also outlaw abortions after 20 weeks and require women to view an ultrasound of the fetus. [Huffington Post]