Join the BETC Sisterhood and their guest speaker Stephane Acel-Green, New England New Israel Fund Regional Director. Stephane will discuss the latest developments about social justice for Israeli women.  Please read more about this timely issue. Sisterhood Shabbat service is on March 16th at 7pm. Hope many of you can attend this special service to celebrate sisterhood and to learn about this timely social justice issue.

In Israel, women are leading the movement for social justice. Women were instrumental in this summer's tent city protests, which involved the largest demonstrations in the country's history culminating in the establishment of a special government commission to address protestor grievances. Women also head some of Israel's most prominent civil society organizations and progressive political parties. Against this backdrop, gender segregation in the Israeli public sphere is growing and women are paid an average of only 62 percent of men's salaries. Recent controversies in Israel, such as gender separated seating on some public bus lines and the recent incident in Bet Shemesh where an eight year-old girl was subject to verbal abuse by extremists have inflamed tensions. What do these conflicting pictures tell us about the state of women's issues in contemporary Israeli society? Stephane will explore this question and also recount recent successes, obstacles, and next steps in Israel's women's rights movement.

Stephane Acel-Green is New England Regional Director for the New Israel Fund. Stephane has worked with Jewish day schools nationally through the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) and was executive director of Ameinu: Liberal Values, Progressive Israel, where he advocated for the Middle-East peace process in conjunction with Israeli, Palestinian, and American officials.

The New Israel Fund is the leading organization committed to equality and democracy for all Israelis.

We are a partnership of Israelis and supporters of Israel worldwide, dedicated to a vision of Israel as both the Jewish homeland and a shared society at peace with itself and its neighbors. NIF strengthens organizations and leaders that work to achieve equality for all the citizens of the state; realize the civil and human rights of all, including Palestinian citizens of Israel; recognize and reinforce the essential pluralism of Israeli society; and empower groups on the economic margins of Israeli society.