Professor Tsvia Walden

Mimi Silberstein

Visit by noted feminist 

On 7 March the Year 9 Jewish studies class studying Judaism’s perspective on gender and sexuality were privileged hear a presentation by Professor Tsvia Walden.

Professor Walden is the daughter of Shimon Perez and a well-known Israeli feminist. Her area of expertise is Psycholinguistics, which she studied in order to explore how the structure of the language impacts on one’s view of gender and equality.

Professor Walden spoke about the fact that English does not specify gender whereas Hebrew does. This can play a large role in shaping one’s beliefs on gender ‘norms’ and gender equality. She also spoke about the history of feminism and how we are where we are today. One example she cited was the Women of the Wall Movement, in which Jewish women are fighting for equal access to prayer at the Kotel. 

Professor Walden gave us many examples of this to demonstrate the progress women have made over the past few decades and how they have impacted society. 

Mimi Silberstein

Miriam Itzkowitz

On Wednesday, the Year 9 Gender and Sexuality Jewish Studies class had the privilege of meeting Professor Tsvia Walden, a psycholinguist and daughter of Shimon Perez. The talk was very insightful and quite enjoyable with her great sense of humour. We learnt about how there are issues with female rabbis in Israel and all over the world and the fact that Hebrew is a very genderised language, as opposed to Swedish or Finnish. This may affect people’s impact on world views, such as the acceptance of female rabbis. In English, we have the word ‘rabbi’, however, in Hebrew there’s a word for a female and a male rabbi (Rav and Rabbah). 

Professor Walden made the lesson interactive and when asked about her opinions on the Kotel, she explained how the amount of space given to women is completely unfair in comparison to the space given to men. She said it was also unfair how Progressive Jews can’t pray together so she took the Orthodox Israelis to court and now Progressive Jews can have a small section of the wall. While it’s about the same size as the women’s section, I find it amazing how much Judaism has progressed. 

I think it is also worth mentioning that apparently Shimon Perez was disappointed that Tsvia was a girl when she was born, however, as he got older, he admired his daughter tremendously. Tsvia told us that when her mother died, she recited Kaddish, a practice which traditionally is unavailable to Orthodox Jewish women. After the funeral, Shimon Perez said that her mother would have been proud of her, hinting that she should do the same thing when his time arrives. She also recited Kaddish at her father’s funeral, leading to women from around the world writing to her, thanking her because she empowered and enlightened them.

I think that Professor Tsvia Walden is a great inspiration for young women and Jews both in Israel and the Diaspora because of how influential she is and her beliefs and actions. I really enjoyed getting to know her and really support all the work she’s done for women.

Miriam Itzkowitz