Rachel Stomel, at The Blogs

Rachel Stomel

Nov 25, 2020, 12:34 PM

Elimination of Violence against Women Day

Being abused won’t get you a divorce in Israel’s rabbinic court

With domestic violence on the rise, we must set aside the traditional vague calls for empowerment and embark on dismantling the invisible systems that perpetuate violence

Nov 25, 2019, 7:49 PM

Violence against women: It is always about control

For two years, Chava* watched herself become a shell of the person she once was. Physical and emotional abuse chipped her soul away from the inside, like an invisible poison. You must be defective, inadequate as a woman, he convinced...

Oct 7, 2019, 11:36 AM

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The murder of Michal Sela

Michal Sela, found stabbed to death at her home outside Jerusalem on October 3, 2019. (Facebook)

Domestic violence is a weapon from within, turning your most intimate and safe spaces against you

Jun 6, 2019, 2:40 PM

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Suffocating under the Rabbinate’s chokehold

Rabbi Daniel Sperber, presiding over an independent (non-state) Orthodox rabbinic court. (Nurit Jacobs Yinon. courtesy Center for Women's Justice)

When rabbis wield the Torah as a political weapon, instead of the tool of justice it should be, the innocent suffer

May 22, 2018, 2:12 PM

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A prying shame: The public scrutiny of get refusers

In May 2017, Zvia Gordetsky launched a hunger strike outside the Knesset after being refused a religious bill of divorce for 17 years (Courtesy)

We need to stop publicly prying into the nitty gritty of people's marriages and divorces in agunah cases

May 18, 2018, 10:39 AM

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#MeToo at Mount Sinai

Moses Breaking the Tables of the Law (1659) by Rembrandt. (Wikipedia)

How could the Children of Israel stand in God's powerful presence and truly consent to His command?

May 11, 2018, 12:39 AM

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Defying conventions

Illustrative: Orthodox Jewish women attend a kashrut supervision course at the Emunah Seminary College for Jewish Women’s Studies in Jerusalem on April 18, 2013. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

When Religious Zionist rabbis discuss women's roles in shul, childbirth, and feminism -- in a woman-free zone

Jan 16, 2018, 9:08 PM

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Writing her own Song of Glory

Mor Berenshtein, Shir HaKavod. (screenshot, YouTube)

With the synagogue podium off-limits, Orthodox female musician Mor Berenshtin cries out to God from the stage

Oct 26, 2017, 1:42 AM

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Immigrants: We get the job done — Aliyah Day

Have Americans been conditioned to waltz into other countries and tell everyone how to run things better?

May 28, 2017, 8:03 PM

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She’s no laity: Orthodox women clergy and the problem of titles

Titles Orthodox women clergy CAN use (well, maybe), since the one concocted to avoid 'rabbi' is out

About Me

Rachel Stomel is a literary translator, graphic designer and slam poet. She is passionate about social justice in the Jewish community, with a special focus on women’s rights and issues of religion and state. She is the English communications director for the Center for Women's Justice, a legal advocacy NGO advancing the civil and religious liberties of Israeli women.