NCJWA conference: not so secret women’s business
JEWISH women around the country will unite this week for the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia’s (NCJWA) conference in Melbourne.
JEWISH women around the country will unite this week for the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia’s (NCJWA) conference in Melbourne.
Guest of honour at the quadrennial event will be Sharon Gustafson, president of the International Council of Jewish Women (ICJW), who is travelling from her California home.
Asked about her perspective on the stereotypical Jewish woman, who dotes on her family, nags her children and is an expert cook, Gustafson rejected the characterisation.
“Clearly the emergence of Jewish women from their stereotypical role varies dramatically depending upon both the cultural and community expectations around the world,” she said. “There is no one ‘Jewish woman’ any more than there is one ‘Christian woman’.”
She noted that Jewish women were women of action, in the mould of strong biblical heroines such as Ruth and Rebecca.
It is action that Gustafson’s organisation – of which the NCJWA has been an affiliate since 1949 – promotes.
“We help women, children and the elderly who are disadvantaged,” she said. “We promote adult education, we develop leaders, we participate in interfaith and intercultural activities, we advocate on issues of local and national concern, both religious and secular.”
The ICJW’s other tasks include fighting anti-Semitism and promoting basic Jewish principles. “And through it all, as Jewish women throughout the Diaspora, we show solidarity with the people of Israel,” she said.
Moving beyond the day-to-day work-life pressures, health concerns and economic challenges that many Jewish women face, Gustafson argued the biggest issue for Jewish women today was building a just society.
“We advocate for equality of opportunity, both within the Jewish community and beyond,” she said.
She noted hurdles such as agunot – Jewish women whose husbands will not give them a divorce – religious discrimination in Jewish law and gender discrimination in the secular world.
“We cannot be ‘satisfied’; the world is far from ‘repaired’ and there are boundaries to be breached, ceilings to be broken and sisterhoods to be strengthened,” Gustafson said of the future.
The NCJWA conference begins on Sunday, May 29, with a cocktail party hosted by the organisation’s Victorian patron Lady Marigold Southey.
Conference sessions will take place from Monday to Wednesday, with a closing gala event at Crown Casino on Wednesday evening.
Among the speakers will be Gustafson, who will discuss the topic “Women Hold Up Half the Sky”, former Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Nina Bassat and former Victorian MP Jennifer Huppert.
A community debate, scheduled for the Monday night of the conference, is bound to attract a crowd, with author Dr Leslie Cannold, barrister Colin Golvan, SC, and former Liberal frontbencher Helen Shardey, among others, to debate the topic “Feminism Has Failed”.
NAOMI LEVIN
Photo: Sharon Gustafson
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