Uja Mission To Israel Includes Feminist Bus

LILITH Board Member Barbara Dobkin led a busload of women (and a couple of men) on a New York UJA-sponsored mission to Israel in April. What made this group’s agenda unique in UJA history was the feminist focus of their tour.

“We saw first hand what an underclass Israeli women have become!’ Dobkin said. “They’re behind in health care — for example, it’s very difficult even to get a mammogram. The discrimination against women in employment shock all of us.”

Dobkin, who insisted on a substantive program, arranged for feminist educator Alice Shalvi, head of the Israel Women’s Network, to act as scholar-in-residence for the tour. The group as also met with women active in political, in the nascent social change movement in Israel and with kibbutz women activists.

“We intend to have continuing dialogue with these women’,’ said Dobkin on her return.

Dobkin’s “women’s issues” bus was part of a larger mission of close to 1,000 New Yorkers.