Podcast: Daily Briefing Mar. 8 - On Int'l Women's Day, how does Israel stack up?

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing: Your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Today’s panel comprises Biranit Goren, the editor of Zman Yisrael (The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site), and ToI’s ops and blogs editor Miriam Herschlag, along with host Raoul Wootliff.

Goren and Herschlag discuss how each amplifies women’s voices on their platforms and the role gender plays when they are choosing material to feature.

Veteran Israeli journalist Goren discusses how the lack of female voices in creating government policy influences families’ lives in debilitating ways.

Herschlag chose a selection of three blogs that illuminate different aspects of women in Israel. The first is a personal blog, “Planting an Audrey” by Kally Rubin Kislowicz, which illustrates “all the elements of the pandemic (without directly mentioning it) and how, the private has become public and how central women’s experience is in that,” says Herschlag.

The second piece is an op-ed from the Israel Democracy Institute written by Ofer Kenig called “No one since Golda: Woman politicians in Israel and beyond,” which is chockfull of cold hard numerical facts. Read ’em and weep.

The third post, “Agunah Day: 3 times public outrage rescued chained women,” says Herschlag, was written by Susan Weiss and represents “the fierce, badass Orthodox women warriors changing Judaism and fighting the Israeli Chief Rabbinate,” specifically on the issue of “chained women” stuck in marriages because their husbands will not grant a writ of divorce, or a get.