Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel

Transcription

1 Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel Ruth Kark, Margalit Shilo, Galit Hasan-Rokem, Shulamit Reinharz Published by Brandeis University Press Kark, R. & Shilo, M. & Hasan-Rokem, G. & Reinharz, S.. Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel: Life History, Politics, and Culture. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, Project MUSE., For additional information about this book Accessed 19 Jan :03 GMT

2 J Hannah Safran International Struggle, Local Victory Rosa Welt Straus and the Achievement of Suffrage, What next will you be introducing from America? [they asked.] Strikes, perhaps. We do not want such things in a Jewish Colony in the Holy Land. 1 Ayear after her arrival in Eretz Israel in 1919, Rosa Welt Straus wrote a letter to Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA); the letter was published in the organization s journal Jus Suffragii. 2 In it, Welt Straus tells that on the eve of her departure for Eretz Israel she received a suggestion from Chapman Catt to organize the women in Palestine and to have them join the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Welt Straus continues that carrying out her task was easy, because upon her arrival she found that women s political associations were already active in the country. Moreover, she learned that the Jewish women had obtained the right to vote the previous year. 3 But attaining the right to vote for Jewish women in Eretz Israel was not gained as easily as Dr. Welt Straus had thought at first. The struggle for suffrage that the Association of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Eretz Israel began in 1919 lasted for eight years, ending only in Three months after coming to Eretz Israel, Welt Straus, who had been active in New York This article is part of my doctorate on The American Connection: The Influence of American Feminism on the Struggle for Women s Suffrage in the Yishuv ( ), and Women s Equality in Israel ( ), written for the Department of History at the Haifa University, under the guidance of Prof. Michal Sobel and Prof. Deborah Bernstein. I wish to thank both of them for the help, the encouragement, and their support. I would also like to thank Prof. Margalit Shilo for the indefatigable help she provided me in writing the Hebrew version of this article.

3 218 Education, Health, and Politics on behalf of women s suffrage, became chairperson of the association. She conducted the association s international connections for twenty years. This article focuses on the Jewish women s fight for suffrage at the time the national institutions of the Yishuv in Eretz Israel were established and particularly on the role that American women, such as Welt Straus, played in this struggle as well as in the establishment of women s organizations in Eretz Israel. Their contribution is addressed here for the first time and anchors the discussion of the issue of women in Eretz Israel within feminist activity the world over. 4 A Forgotten Struggle For a long time, the struggles for women s suffrage in Eretz Israel and elsewhere, too, were not the object of historical research and exposure. In recent years, these battles for the right to vote have begun to stimulate fresh interest and have become a topic on the historiographic agenda. 5 In Israel, until recently, women had been missing in the historiography of Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel, since discussion of women s place had been rooted in the myth of equality. The source of the myth lies in the aspirations and hopes of the labor movement and in the Zionist dream of creating a new society in Eretz Israel, and not in the realities of the life in which the debate and struggle were waged, at times bitterly, on the role of women. The prevailing supposition was that the labor movement, which laid the foundations for the society and the state, was the body that worked for and cared for the rights of woman and that inherent in the creation of the new society were equal rights for women. Challenging the myth of women s equality in Eretz Israel in recent years made possible a reexamination of women s history in the country. Feminist women, who began to be active in the 1970s, found the book by Sarah Azaryahu, which documented the history of the struggle for women s suffrage, and they republished it. 6 In their studies, Margalit Shilo, Dafna Izraeli, and Deborah Bernstein cast doubt on the myth of the equality of Jewish women in the Yishuv. Their research shed light on the centrality of the labor movement that focused on the struggle for the conquest of labor for the women laborers, especially in agriculture. 7 Sylvia Fogiel-Bijaoui and others have pointed out the centrality of the fight for suffrage in the process of building the Jewish society in Eretz Israel. 8 Zohara Bozich-Hertzig inquired into the controversy over the

4 safran: International Struggle, Local Victory 219 right of women to vote, and Hannah Herzog suggested seeing the reasons for shunting aside the memory of the struggle for suffrage in the link between women s forgotten role in Zionist historiography and the centrality of the labor movement in formulating the past of Israeli society. 9 These studies demonstrated the complexity of Jewish women s place during the Mandate period and enabled a wider discussion of the importance of their struggles. The struggle for the right of Jewish women in Eretz Israel to vote began with the end of World War I. This battle was waged at the same time that the Zionist movement began to establish national institutions in Eretz Israel with the aim of founding a national home for the Jews. But in contrast to Zionist myth, the Jewish women in the Yishuv had to fight for their civil rights. 10 The contribution of women to family, childcare, health, and social welfare was not given a place of pride or value in the new society, thus the role of women in the creation of Jewish society and in public endeavor was forgotten. 11 The fight for women s suffrage was considered a bourgeois struggle and perceived as a change in the agenda of social struggles of the Yishuv in Eretz Israel as well as deriving from Western influence. The women s labor movement, established in the early twentieth century to fight the discrimination suffered by women laborers, concurred with these perceptions. Despite that, Ada Maimon, head of the Women Laborers Council in the 1920s, considered cooperation among the women s organizations as the right way to attain common goals; obtaining the right to vote for women seemed to her an imperative process that would lead to true achievements for all women. 12 International Struggle Since the end of the nineteenth century, international women s organizations have been established that cooperated with each other and supported local struggles in different countries. The active women crossed national borders, and at times also those of class and religion, and created international organizations out of a feeling of solidarity for the status of women the world over and from the need to create additional sources of power. They prepared an international plan of action and perceived international connections and influence as source of power that could change the situation of women everywhere. 13 Aletta Jacobs and Carrie Chapman Catt set out in 1911 for a journey around the world. On this trip, during which they visited Palestine, they met

5 220 Education, Health, and Politics many women and tried to influence them to establish a women s suffrage organization. 14 In 1921, the chairperson of the IWSA, Millicent Fawcett, was invited to speak by the Association of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Eretz Israel, and her visit was publicized around the country. 15 In many countries, Jewish women took part in the fight for suffrage as members of local organizations, as activists in the founding of international organizations, and as members of Jewish women s organizations. The proportion of Jewish women in international organizations was very much higher than their percentage in the population. In the United States, the participation of Jewish women in feminist activity was great, owing to the influence of the Reform movement in which women had had equality since the nineteenth century. 16 The Jewish women s involvement in these movements led them to demand a change in the attitude of the Jewish community and influenced the initiation of a process of change in the attitude of the Jewish religion toward women. 17 In 1923, the World Council of Jewish Women was established to promote the rights of Jewish women, and women from many countries worked with it. 18 The Opposite Struggle In contrast to many countries in which the struggle for women s suffrage dragged on for many years, the Jewish women in Eretz Israel were part of the elected institutions from the time they were founded. The fight for Jewish women s suffrage in Eretz Israel was to a great extent an opposite struggle in which the women demanded for themselves the right to vote while they were already part of the elected body. Women attended every gathering that was aimed at establishing a representative body, beginning with the preparatory meeting held in January Women took part in each of the three preparatory gatherings, in the elections for the First Elected Assembly, as well as for the three sessions of the Elected Assembly. 20 This led Rosa Welt Straus to think that women had already achieved the right to vote. Yet, the presence of the women did not prevent a struggle that lasted for eight years ( ). During this time, women not only participated in the elections, they even founded a women s party that gained representation, and women also were elected as representatives of various parties. In the course of these eight years, the debate changed from a controversy over women s right to vote and be elected to the major issue of how to create a consensus of leadership in the Yishuv. Opposition to giving women the right to vote derived

6 safran: International Struggle, Local Victory 221 from two factors: the Orthodox/ultra-Orthodox Yishuv and the British Mandate authorities. The Legislative Council, the representative of the High Commissioner in Palestine, did not recognize women s right to vote in the Palestine Order in Council of September 1922 and not even in that of The agreement of the British administration in Palestine was imperative for obtaining approval of the legal standing of the Elected Assembly. Thus the situation demanded an external struggle with the British authorities and an internal one within the Jewish community. 22 The women were sure that the issue of their right to vote and be elected a right they had had in the Zionist movement from its very beginning would not be put to question again on the Yishuv agenda. But the struggle for suffrage was more complex than it had seemed to be at first glance. The presence of women in the representative body did not forestall debate and opposition to their very being there. The struggle within the Jewish community over the right of women to vote and be elected began with the second preparatory assembly, with the joining of the Mizrachi and other Orthodox groups. The ultra-orthodox and at times the religious groups headed by the Mizrachi movement conceived the equality of women as undermining the sexual ethical norms of their society. These groups fought against the attempt to establish a new, secular Jewish society and considered participation of women in government institutions as a symbol of a society with free relation between the sexes. Religious circles saw in the demand for women s suffrage an expression of the desire to imitate the culture of the Western nations and its innovations. 23 The ultra-orthodox parties managed to postpone the elections to the founding assembly six times by using various means. The first election was held finally in April 1920, but in October 1920, the ultra-orthodox demonstratively left the first session of the Elected Assembly. In March 1922, the ultra-orthodox as well as the Mizrachi refused to take part in the elections until the women s right to vote was cancelled. At the third session of the Elected Assembly, convened in June 1925 after a difficult period of pressure from the Mizrachi and the ultra-orthodox the delegates became aware of a secret agreement signed between the ultra-orthodox and the Executive of the Va ad Le ummi ( National Council ): It determined that granting the right to vote to women is a religious issue and therefore is not amenable to political decision and that the issue would be put to the public in a referendum whose results would determine whether women would join the Assembly. This agreement aroused fierce opposition. 24 During the course of the fight to keep the right to vote, Jewish women in

7 222 Education, Health, and Politics Eretz Israel were helped by their international connections. In response to a proposal to carry out the referendum, the Association of Hebrew Women organized a propaganda day for woman s rights. At the events of the day, Henrietta Szold called upon the Yishuv to preserve at all costs the principles of equality and justice that were laid at the foundation of our national project. 25 The Association of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights mustered the aid of the women s organizations in the world as well as Jewish women s organizations in Europe and America. The Association s many connections, particularly those of Welt Straus, resulted in the broad support of women s organizations the world over. 26 These groups flooded the Va ad Le ummi with protests against any attempt to negate women s civil rights. A telegram that Henrietta Szold sent in the name of the Hadassah Women of America states that forty-five thousand members, organized in over one hundred branches, urgently demand that the Va ad Le ummi recognize the right of a woman to vote and to be elected. Protest telegrams came from the Jewish Women s Association in Poland, reading The women in Eretz Israel are not alone, with them in this battle are all the democratic women of the Diaspora, we protest against any attempt at depriving rights from half of the Yishuv. Additional telegrams were received from women s associations in Switzerland, Romania, Austria, and Germany. The Zionists of America convention announced its decision demanding equal rights for the man and the woman in Eretz Israel. 27 The Hebrew press stressed the importance of these telegrams and publicized them. 28 Association members in Eretz Israel presented to the Va ad Le ummi the statements from the women abroad and addressed the Va ad members with a proclamation that said: Nations the world over have given women the right to vote, while our nation in our national home will deny the rights of the woman that she has already enjoyed for five years? Will Eretz Israel move forward or slide backwards? 29 These struggles bore fruit, and in January 1926 the right of women to vote was finally ratified. A women s political party list in the 1920 elections was called Aguddat Nashim ( Women s Association ). It ran in the elections in 1925, under the name Hit ahdut Nashim Ivriyyot le-shivvui Zekhuyyot be-eretz Israel (Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Eretz Israel), led the battle to victory in the Yishuv in 1926, and to the inclusion of women s suffrage in the Mandate Laws in In the first elections, held in April 1920, the Aguddah garnered five representatives; in the elections for the second Elected Assembly, thirteen women were elected on behalf of the Union. 30 Together with the women elected for the Labor party, the women had twice as many representatives. Yet, despite the relatively large number of women elected for

8 safran: International Struggle, Local Victory 223 Fig. 1. Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Eretz Israel. Rosa Welt Straus seated in middle. Sarah Azaryahu, Hit ahdut Nashim Ivriyyot le-shivvui Zekhuyyot, Perakim letoledot Tenu at ha-ishah ba-aretz (Jerusalem, 1949). two Elected Assemblies, no women were added to the Va ad Le ummi Executive until Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Eretz Israel The need for mutual aid during World War I and the changes that took place in Eretz Israel with the British occupation prompted wide-ranging activity by women. Women began to organize themselves throughout the country, and they established mutual aid societies to provide support for the needy. A portion of the women sought to expand the woman s role in society and to ensure her full participation in the process of creating a new society. Another part considered the establishment of these associations as a way of creating an infrastructure for providing health services and social welfare, particularly to women in need and their children.31 The opposition of the ultra-orthodox and the Mizrachi to giving women the right to vote for the Elected Assembly made clear the need for common

9 224 Education, Health, and Politics effort among the various associations. The women quickly expanded their philanthropic activity into the political sphere, which included the establishment of a women s party. The Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Eretz Israel, founded toward the end of 1919, was composed of women s associations formed in various settlements. 32 The first association was organized in Jerusalem, and it offered Hebrew lessons for women, arranged training courses in professions for young women, and held discussions and lectures. Similar women s groups were already operating in six settlements beside Jerusalem, which was the center: Rehovot, Rishon le-zion, Petah Tikvah, Haifa, Safed, and Tiberias. Five women comprised the Jerusalem committee that coordinated the unification of the groups: Dr. Rosa Welt Straus, Dr. Miriam Nofach, Eshter Yeivin, Hasia Feinsud-Sukenik, and Sarah Azaryahu. Each settlement added one representative to the committee, and with that the activity of the Union began. The Union was apolitical, and women could belong to it as well as to political parties. Most of the members were non-partisan and held democratic, liberal views. 33 The decision to create a party that would run independently for the elections was exceptional in the politics of women s suffrage in Eretz Israel and elsewhere. Sarah Azaryahu, who was aware of the importance of this decision, called it a stratagem and a very bold step. In her memoirs, Azaryahu, one of the Union leaders, relates with pride the Eretz Israel movement s achievements, which did not diminish the pressing need to join international women s organizations and to obtain international recognition. 34 Worth noting is that the Union was the first Eretz Israel organization accepted into any international association. The Union did not consider attaining the right to vote as its ultimate goal but rather saw suffrage as a means for achieving equality for women before the law and in every economic level. The women in the organization stressed that the Union s objective was to gain equality for women in human society, and the right to vote was only one of the means to that end. The Union saw the woman as fulfilling traditional roles while at the same time having equal rights. This perception enabled bridging the gap between different concepts of equality and made it possible for different women to share a common, broad basis for engaging in the organization s work. At the same time, the organization remained one of urban, middle-class women, and most of its members were educated professional women. This liberal worldview allowed the women to struggle gradually for their advancement in society and to focus the fight on one defined topic. At the same time, it enabled

10 safran: International Struggle, Local Victory 225 the expansion of their group of supporters among the public, thereby concealing the potential threat of a struggle such as this to relations between the sexes in society. The Place of Rosa Welt Straus The election of Welt Straus as chairperson of the Union of Hebrew Women upon her arrival in Eretz Israel indicated the importance the Union attributed to the international women s movement and its achievements. And indeed, Welt Straus s connections with the International Women s Alliance and with women leading this alliance paved the way for the Union s acceptance, in 1923, as a member of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Rosa Welt Straus was born in 1856 in Czernowitz, Bukovina. She and her three sisters obtained a general education that enabled each of them to continue with higher studies. Welt Straus was among the first women to receive a matriculation certificate from the classic gymnasium, and even one of the first women in Europe to study for and receive a degree in medicine. Immediately upon completing her studies, Rosa left for the United States; she worked in New York as a doctor at an ophthalmologic hospital and at the eye clinic in a women s hospital. She was active in the struggle for women s suffrage in New York and a founder member in the establishment of the International Alliance founded by Chapman-Catt. 35 Upon her arrival in Eretz Israel in 1919, at the age of sixty-three, to live with her daughter Nellie Straus (later Mossinsohn), Rosa discovered that activity toward maintaining the right to vote for the Elected Assembly was in full force. She was immediately offered the leadership of the Union for Equal Rights that had just been established, and she accepted this role. Welt Straus became the foreign secretary of the Union: In July 1920, she traveled to London and participated in the conference that decided to found the Women s International Zionist Organization (WIZO). 36 She represented the Union at the congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) held in Geneva in 1920; she took part in all the congresses of the International Alliance for Equal Rights; she was a member, on behalf of the Alliance, on important international committees and was included numerous times in delegations to heads of governments in the countries where the congresses were held. Similarly, she was a member of the Mandates Committee in Geneva and the United Committee of nine international women s orga-

11 226 Education, Health, and Politics nizations that the League of Nations established to seek a solution to the issue of citizenship of women the world over. 37 Welt Straus brought before the IWSA congress the request of the Union for acceptance as a member of the international alliance, and in 1923 a positive answer was received. This membership was a distinct achievement, since the Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Eretz Israel represented only the Jewish women, a small part of all the women in the country, while the International Alliance was interested in representing all women. The issue of national or ethnic representation remained everpresent for international women s organizations throughout the years, and in certain cases prevented the acceptance of a country or one or another minority group into international organizations. Undoubtedly Welt Straus s activity and her personal connections with the organization s leaders opened the door to membership for the Union. 38 Despite her pivotal role in the organization, Rosa seldom made public appearances, because she was not fluent in Hebrew; it was not fitting, so she thought, to speak a foreign language in public. That also explains why she was not chosen as the Union s representative for any public office in the country, but her place among the organization s leadership was not undermined because of this, and she continued to be chairperson of the Union until the day she died. In contrast to the report that Welt Straus gave to Chappman- Catt, the Hadassah women in the United States believed that it was Welt Straus herself who began the struggle in Eretz Israel. Sarah Kussy, a Hadassah leader in New Jersey, made a trip to Eretz Israel in 1923, following which she described the Americans in Eretz Israel as people with organizational experience and a quick, comprehensive eye for locating problems and needs and finding solutions for them. About Welt Straus she wrote: Dr. Straus has organized the Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights, which is highly influential in improving the political status of the women in Palestine. Her work is influential on the creation of a constitution for that country. 39 As Welt Straus said, she was not alone: Other women, including those who had come from America, such as Henrietta Szold and Bat Sheva Kesselman, worked for the establishment of women s organizations and laid the foundation for health and welfare services. Nellie Mossinsohn, Welt Straus s daughter, was a member of the Hadassah Organization, a personal friend of Henrietta Szold, and the representative of Kehillat Zion in Eretz Israel. She was involved in the establishment of Tel Adashim, Balfouriyya, and Kefar Meir Shfeya, and also was among the founders of the Hebrew Women s Federation. 40

12 safran: International Struggle, Local Victory 227 When Welt Straus came to Eretz Israel, she was part of a community of American women, mostly living in Jerusalem. These women had belonged to women s organizations abroad, Jewish and general, and they brought with them codes of behavior and methods of operation that they had acquired in the course of their previous experience. The feminism of these women was influenced by the ideas of the Progressive movement in America that sought ways to fight poverty and considered the establishment of health services for everyone and caring for the rights of working women and children a sociopolitical goal. 41 After the Victory: Mundane Reality Despite the impressive achievement of gaining the right to vote and be elected, women were a minority in the preparatory assembly and on the Va ad Le ummi. They were forced to continue to battle for an equal place in society. With the end of their struggle at the countrywide level, the influence of these women declined. Cooperation among the organizations did not continue, and the women s movement attained no further political achievements. Even so, the Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights continued to fight for women s rights. The struggle was centered in various settlements, in each of which was a local need to fight for suffrage for women in the settlement itself. Subjects such as marriage age for minors, polygamy, the right of women to enter the country, and the status of women in the rabbinic courts all of these continued to occupy the Union. With the growth of the large women s organizations Hadassah, WIZO, and Mo etzet ha-po alot (Womens Workers Council), and the merging of the Federation of Hebrew Women into WIZO, a large part of the activity shifted to these organizations. The strength of the Union of Hebrew Women during the fight for women s suffrage, expressed in its ability to work toward a single goal, with no other political obligation, turned into a weakness once the goal was attained. The Women s Workers Council, which was part of the Labor movement, became a central factor in the women s movement. The Labor movement grew increasingly stronger, with its main goals being the building of the foundation for the future state and achieving domination within the Jewish community. Promoting the status of women was marginal to the Labor movement agenda, but at the same time it was important for the movement to perceive itself as fighting for equality of women. Apparently inherent in this contrast is the origin for the development of the myth of equality in the Yishuv and

13 228 Education, Health, and Politics for the assigning to oblivion the role of the women who did not belong to the Labor movement. As in other countries, the struggle for women s suffrage in Eretz Israel became a symbol of the women s fight for their right to shape and choose the social and sexual ethics of the new society. The women s ability to organize themselves and to set up the infrastructure for health and welfare services, to mobilize the public in Eretz Israel and abroad, to learn from the activity of other women, and to act together all of these led to victory in the fight for the right to vote. To be sure, this battle was only part of the fight for the place of women in society, but their achievement made it possible to continue the struggles on different levels. The struggle for women s suffrage in Eretz Israel during the early years of the Mandate has not been given the attention it deserves in Zionist historiography, and it was almost forgotten in the history of the Yishuv. The women waged the battle and led it to victory but they did not get the publicity and fame for it, their names are not known, and the organizations they established merged and disappeared into other women s organizations. The number of women from America among the activists who came to Eretz Israel was not large, but they were among the women who founded, initiated, and led the fight. 42 The struggles toward obtaining suffrage in Eretz Israel were not mute and the quest for that history is not a research into women s silences but into the silencing of the persistent, energetic endeavor to obtain the right to vote.