by Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll, guest contributor
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| Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll (Forward) |
In a recent post I wrote in praise of the recent election of a Dati (MO/RZ) woman, Dr. Aliza Bloch, as mayor of Bet Shemesh. In discussing my views about feminism, I reiterated my personal views about what is right with it – and what is wrong with it as it is interpreted today. As an example of the latter, I used the words of Rena Hollander (quoted in the JTA article upon which my post was based) to demonstrate that.
I was immediately contacted by 2 people from that area - one of whom was Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll - that were outraged by that! They both said I had completely and unfairly characterized Mrs. Hollander – vilifying her in the process.
After at first insisting that I was only using her quoted words to make a point – I decided that Mrs. Keats-Jaskoll was right. I don’t know Mrs. Holander at all and should not have used her to make my point. I then updated the post and removed her name or any reference to her personally while retaining the point I was making.
Before I did that, I had offered Mrs. Keats-Jaskoll an opportunity to rebut my post and that I would publish it. After at first refusing, she reconsidered and submitted a rebuttal. It follows unedited and in full.
A recent post on this blog mentioned the Beit Shemesh elections of a few weeks ago, and distinguished between “good feminists” and “bad feminists.” The post spotlighted my friend and colleague Rena Hollander as one of the latter, based on a few lines of a JTA article that said she “intends to “empower women in the city” through a variety of measures, including pushing for the use of affirmative action policies in municipal hiring that had gone largely unenforced during Abutbul’s tenure as mayor.”
The post called Ms. Hollander’s plans "reverse discrimination" and accused her of placing gender over merit. I was distressed to read these words, given just how far their claim is from the truth.
Perhaps, in a vacuum, it is possible to say that affirmative action is reverse discrimination, but Beit Shemesh is hardly a vacuum. Beit Shemesh is a city where women have systematically been kept from policy making positions, where women have been assaulted and threatened for being in public. Perhaps in a vacuum, it makes sense to accuse a woman of putting gender before merit, but characterizing Rena Hollander should not be done in a vacuum.
Some necessary context:
Beit Shemesh has become a city steeped in nepotism. Here, men have their city jobs not because they are qualified, but because their uncle, cousin, or brother in law is in government. According to the State Comptroller report, “Over half of the municipality's employees have at least one other relative working there.”
The report further states that the city has completely flouted the law that says there must be at least one woman on the committees that interview prospective senior employees, and that in a place where a man and a woman have equal credentials and experience- the city must hire the woman or give a good reason why not. Hollander told me, “I do not believe in affirmative action per se, and have never demanded it for myself or anyone else, but in the case of the city of Beit Shemesh, they are in gross violation of the law in this regard and have gone totally the other way. There are no women in senior positions. Moreover, many women who had been in senior positions in the municipality, were replaced by men. This includes the heads of the Education and Welfare Departments.”
It should be noted that the welfare department has since been run into the ground leaving thousands of families who need help desperately with nowhere to turn. The Education Department is sorely lacking with thousands of students in decrepit conditions. This is part of the nightmare that so many people, men and women of all backgrounds, worked hard to leave behind in these new elections.
Reversing the practice of preventing women from taking a role in their local government is critical for the future of this city and community. When Hollander seeks to incorporate women into positions of influence, she is trying to restore balance to a city that has been thrown off kilter by the public exclusion of its female residents.
For ten years, the city been driven by extremists and many have suffered. Women and girls have been physically assaulted, simply for being present, against the wishes of certain people. The ones who suffered the most, however, are the moderate haredim, those who want a decent quality of life and normalcy for their families. Their lives were made hell by neighbors for whom no one was ever modest enough, religious enough, or zealous enough.
The extremists made new rules about modesty, threatening all publications until they removed all images of women and girls. They put up modesty signs that marked their turf and gave them license to harass, throw rocks at, spit on, and assault women in the streets.
In the summer of 2017, when teenagers, residents of the greater Beit Shemesh area, walked from one neighborhood (RBS-A) to another (BS), to volunteer with special needs children, via the area home to the extremists (RBS-B) -- it’s literally unavoidable -- they were attacked by both kids and adults. Children screamed and yelled, while teens and adults threw dirty diapers, bottles, eggs and trash from their home balconies.
It was Hollander who organized a parent escort to walk the teens and ensure their safety. When the attacks continued, it was Hollander along with other activists who sought to keep it out of the press and resolve it internally, when the absence of security cameras hampered police action.
It was Hollander who initiated meetings with government ministers to help increase the security in Beit Shemesh and insist that missing security cameras be installed. And it was directly due to her efforts that the violence finally stopped.
When control of all the mikvaot in this mixed town was given to an extremist rabbi who then appointed his wife to be in charge of the balaniot (mikveh ladies), and she insisted that women adhere to the strictest interpretations of halacha, despite the instructions of their own rabbis, it was Hollander who defended the rights of women to perform the mitzvah as they wished - and won.
When the local community center began providing more and cheaper services for haredi families than those for everyone else, and segregating children’s activities, to the extent that some days, only haredim were allowed, Hollander ensured that the center remained undivided, installing a Dati Leumi (Modern Orthodox) coordinator and doing away with segregated days.
In fact, Hollander, who is a wife and a mother, and has her own law practice, has arguably done more for this city’s residents than any other person. I cannot think of one community battle, whether about school hours or safety, women’s rights, community resources, distribution of funds, communal safety, etc. in which Hollander wasn't front and center.
She is currently the head of the Bayit Yehudi party and will be the only woman aside from Mayor Bloch on the 21-member city council. That makes her one of two women, working with the 19 male council members.
In 2016, Hollander became the first and only woman on the religious council among eight men. This is the council that deals with all things having to do with religious life, from burial services to religious events, to how mikvaot are built and run.
Hollander knows Beit Shemesh and what it lacks, she has seen the destruction wrought by the marginalization of the city’s women. If she feels that bringing more women into positions of influence will assist this city in running better, getting out of debt, having fair distribution of funds and better services, and fundamentally being a safer, better place to live, then we should listen to her. She has proven her dedication to this city above and beyond anyone who was elected or paid to care for it.
She deserves our appreciation and praise, not mischaracterization.