The Road to Gender Equity with Ting Ting Cheng and Nadine Epstein

Women still do not have equal rights to men in the United States, leaving them vulnerable to changing political winds. What needs to be done to finally achieve this critical goal? Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein is hosting a series of informal “dinner party” conversations, exploring long-term strategies that could lead to true gender equity. The focus is not on politics but on big picture legal, organizational and cultural change. In this inaugural conversation, Epstein talks with civil rights attorney Ting Ting Cheng, Director of the Equal Rights Amendment Project at Columbia Law School.

“The Road to Gender Equity” series is in memory of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose legal strategies, based on the 14th Amendment, helped strengthen the rights of American women.

Continue reading

Memories and Stories of RBG on What Would Have Been her 89th Birthday with Nina Totenberg and Nadine Epstein

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s birthday was March 15th. To remember her, NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg, author of the forthcoming book Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships, and Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein, author of RBG’s Brave & Brilliant Women: 33 Jewish Women to Inspire Everyone, will share their memories of the late Supreme Court Justice and discuss her legacy.

Continue reading

Why Women Need to Pray at the Western Wall with Anat Hoffman, Susan Silverman & Deborah Katchko-Gray

Anat Hoffman, board chair of WOW and board member Rabbi Susan Silverman discuss the history of Women of the Wall, why it’s important to continue demanding equality for women praying freely at this holy site as well as the setbacks and triumphs the movement has faced over the years. Hoffman and Silverman are in conversation with Cantor Deborah Katchko-Gray, founder of the Women Cantors’ Network and organizer of the first WOW choir to help lift women’s voices through song.

This program is in commemoration of International Women’s Day.

Continue reading

RBG's birthday

Make RBG’s Birthday a National Holiday

This March 15th, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would have been 88. Over the last year of her life, she and I collaborated on a book for young readers, RBG’s Real Wonder Women: Brave and Brilliant Jewish Women to Inspire Everyone, which comes out in September. Although it is about 33 amazing women, the late justice, who died after completing her part of the book, is the true star of the book. In the months since her death, I have come to believe that that the United States needs a national RBG Day. Yes, an actual federal holiday with all the trimmings, not just a monument as recently has been suggested by a group of women lawmakers in the House and Senate. Monuments are meaningful, but you have to go to a monument. Holidays come to...

Continue reading

Three Women You Should Know

Gal Lusky, founder of Israeli Flying Aid (IFA), has brought humanitarian help into some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones. Lusky was born on Kibbutz Hokok in northern Israel, and she says her upbringing provided her with independence, while her Jewish values taught her to help others in need. She never thought of a career in international aid until 1992, when her brother was seriously wounded during his army service. She sat by his bedside for nearly a year and came to understand “how blessed I was to be born in Israel with its amazing medical infrastructure,” she says. “I wanted to bring this to others in the world.”

Continue reading

The Equality Myth

The story of Israel’s founding usually  goes something like this: Sun-kissed male and female pioneers plowed the fields by day, danced the hora by night, did guard duty until dawn and together built an egalitarian utopia. The equality of men and women, the narrative continues, was enshrined into law upon independence in 1948 when women were given full equal social and political rights. Three years later, gender discrimination was outlawed. Meanwhile, as part of universal conscription, women also fought alongside men. To top the story off, Israel was the third country in the post-World War II world to be led by a female prime minister, following Ceylon and India: Golda Meir was elected Israel’s fourth prime minister in 1969 after long stints as labor minister and foreign minister. Although some of this is true, Israel is not...

Continue reading

year-of=the-woman

Welcome to Moment’s ‘Year of the Woman’

Misogyny has deeply shaped me, and nearly stifled me. From growing up in a Jewish world where boys were golden, to pursuing an academic and journalism career rife with outright gender discrimination, to taking over the old boys’ club that was Moment in 2004, I found that men around me too often treated me as if I were a child or their lover.

Continue reading