Link Roundup: Passover and Freedom

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.

On Tuesday, women around the United States observed National Equal Pay Day. The day marked how far into the year women must work for their earnings to match what men earned in 2010. [National Committee on Pay Equity]

Many women’s rights activists, like Marlo Thomas, shared a feeling of frustration for having to observe yet another Equal Pay Day as the wage gap has only reduced by 18 cents over the past 40 years. [Huffington Post]

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate rejected a measure to defund Planned Parenthood just moments after the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of it. However, not all went as planned. As Katha Pollitt points out, “the final budget cuts Title X, the federal family-planning program, by $17 million.” [The Nation]

A new study revealed that contraceptive use is the norm among religious women. [Guttmacher Institute]

Is voting immodest? Jewish women in Crown Heights are banned from voting for the Jewish Community Council, which received $1.9 million in government grants in 2008. [City Room]

Today is National Day of Silence, a day in which many U.S. students take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT bullying. [GLSEN]

This week, France enacted a new law prohibits women from wearing any kind of face covering, including a niqab, or full-faced veil, in public. The new policy has become a hot topic among feminist on whether or not it is a violation or protection of women’s rights. [Sisterhood Blog]

Over the weekend, we attended the Women’s Liberation and Jewish Identity conference at NYU. The conference featured many speakers from the Lilith family, including Editor-in-Chief Susan Weidman Schneider and Aviva Cantor, one of Lilith’s founders, as well as Lilith writers Meredith Tax, Arlene Agus, Blu Greenberg, Joyce Antler and more. To learn more about the conference, check out what our friends Chanel Dubofsky and Judith Rosenbaum had to say. [Sisterhood Blog] [Jewesses With Attitude]

And now a special Passover roundup:

After 69 years of publication, the Maxwell House Haggadah has been updated to include a more gender-neutral translation. [NY Times]

Dasee Berkowitz describes how remembering the “righteous women” in the story of Exodus can deepen the Passover experience. [JTA]

Moving Traditions created a special quiz to bring attention to gender stereotypes in the story of Passover. [Moving Traditions]

Chanel Dubofsky reflects on what the orange on the seder plate means to her as a single woman. [Lilith blog]

Maya Bernstein blogs about teaching her three-year-old the meaning of Passover. [Lilith blog]

Read Rabbi Susan Schnur’s 1992 article on the tradition of adding a Miriam’s Cup to the Passover Seder. [The Cult of Miriam]

As a reminder of women’s power to drive change, we offer you a special addition to your Seder, this Miriam’s Cup blessing from Rabbi Susan Schnur.