Elana Sztokman, at The Blogs

Jun 1, 2026, 6:09 PM

Raviv Drucker and prime-time himpathy for rapists

In 2022, a woman walked into a police station and reported that she was raped. Although her name was publicly known while she begged the justice system to investigate her case, the man’s name was kept secret under a...

May 6, 2026, 1:48 PM

Pushed Out and Pushing Back: Everyday Sexism

FUN: Women's faces were painted over on a poster in Kiryat Ono

Snippets from recent life in Israel: In Kiryat Ono, a billboard featuring women was vandalized shortly after it was installed. Black markings were drawn over the women’s faces, obscuring their features while leaving the rest of the image intact....

Mar 24, 2026, 5:30 PM

Theocracy in Israel? The Halakhic State is Here

Caption reads: What does the government do while the country burns? Burns the rights of women.
Photo courtesy of the Israel Women's Network

While we were busy dodging rockets and sitting in safe rooms, the Israeli government took advantage of our distraction to alter the place of religion in our government. The Knesset passed a law this week significantly expanding the authority...

Feb 16, 2026, 3:04 PM

Kicking women out

Tal Hochman, CEO of the Israel Women's Network

Yesterday, women across the country gasped in horror at the scenes of women being violently chased out of Bnei Brak by an angry mob of ultra-religious men. It was a vision of some of our worst fears coming true....

Feb 9, 2026, 10:01 PM

The new/old religious war on women in Israel

From the IWN campaign to raise awareness about the violent radicalism of Sukkot.

A few weeks ago, pastry chef Keren Kadosh stepped into an elevator near Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem with two other people: an ultra-Orthodox man and an ultra-Orthodox woman. While riding, she gathered her hair into a ponytail. When the...

Feb 8, 2026, 9:07 PM

The erasure of women in the name of religion

MK Bismuth is leading the process of "sterilizing" the IDF by making women-free zones. The Israel Women's Network is leading a campaign to protect women from this slippery slope.

The Israeli government is throwing women under the bus in the name of religion. And nobody in any position of power seems to care. Many, in fact, are encouraging it. Over the past several months, as much of the Israeli...

Dec 17, 2025, 4:41 PM

Gender equality in Israel is getting worse

Infographic about femicide in Israel, courtesy of the Israel Women's Network

On the evening of September 11, Hodaya Fadida, 26, who was three months pregnant, was shot to death outside her home in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem by her ex-husband, Matan Fadida. He used a licensed firearm he held...

Dec 9, 2025, 5:34 PM

A woman is murdered every nine days in Israel

Imagine for a moment this headline: “A Jew is murdered every nine days in this country.” We would all be outraged, up in arms, unwilling to talk about anything else until this problem was solved. And yet, here we are, the women...

Sep 27, 2024, 6:37 PM

The problem is not antisemitism, it’s Bibi

There's an annoying meme about the hostages that is going around social media that needs a major correction. It reads: "Imagine being captive for almost a year in a world that cares more about its captors than you." This is wrong. It's...

Sep 20, 2024, 7:04 AM

The Kamala Effect on Women — even in Israel?

Women historically don’t vote for women. At least not as a voting bloc. Exhibition A: The American elections, 2016. Had women prioritized gender, or supporting a woman whose career was about supporting women, well, we would be in an alternative...

About Me

Dr Elana Maryles Sztokman, two-time winner of the National Jewish Book Council Award and co-host of the Women Ending War podcast, is a Jewish feminist author, activist, educator, researcher, indie-publisher, coach, consultant, and facilitator. She writes and speaks widely about culture, society, gender, and equality. She has been involved in many causes, is one of the founders of Kol Hanashim, the new women's political party in Israel, and was Vice Chair for Media and Strategy for Democrats Abroad-Israel from 2016-2021. Follow Elana's newsletter, The Roar, for news and updates, at https://elanasztokman.substack.com/ listen to her podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/0XZ1Xc0IN6auZ7eP25wVCV or watch on Youtube ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@elanahope, or contact her at elana@jewfem.com.

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