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November 19, 2004/Kislev 6 5765, Vol. 57, No. 12
Symposium examines women's roles, issues
LEISAH NAMM
Managing Editor
Has the decades-long work of feminists been in vain?
During the opening session of the "On the Cutting Edge - Today's Jewish Woman: A Women's Symposium," Linda Hirshman, attorney, author and retired Brandeis University professor, spoke about her research for a book in progress. She contacted high-powered couples who announced their weddings in The New York Times in 1996 and discovered that within eight years, 85 percent of these highly educated, successful women who married gave up their careers to stay home either full- or part-time.
Whether the women in the audience agreed or disagreed with Hirshman's assertion that these women were "making a mistake" by giving up their careers to raise children, the session started participants on a journey of examining issues relevant to women's lives.
From politics to bioethics, the Nov. 14 symposium at the Memorial Union at Arizona State University covered a wide range of topics.
Brandeis member Liz Jacobs of New York called the symposium "wonderfully stimulating on different levels." For the past five years, Jacobs has been a winter visitor to the Valley and said she "didn't expect this level of Jewish activity here."
Although about 99 percent of the 325 attendees were women, there were a few men. Joseph Goldfarb, who attended with his wife Bunny Goldfarb, president of the West Valley group of Hadassah, said he found the topics interesting and that many sessions focused on "universal issues" rather than those only affecting women.
For example, one session addressed the impact of local and national elections on the state, the country and on Israel. "The World of Politics: After the Elections, Dissecting the Results," featured Queen Creek Mayor Wendy Feldman-Kerr; Mike Dubin, president of the governing council of the Rio Institute for Senior Education (RISE); and Evan Bernstein, Arizona director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After the formal question-and-answer session ended, participants gathered around the stage to ask further questions.
Other sessions touched upon stress and disease; advocating for children; Zionism in the 21st century; anti-Semitism; and finding a spiritual journey toward a life of meaning, purpose and joy. During lunch, Francis Kalush, a scientist at the Center for Human Genes in Rockville, Md., spoke about the applications of the Human Genome Project in medicine and women's health.
Event chairwoman Gloria Weiss had approached Hadassah Valley of the Sun Chapter board members three years ago with the idea for the symposium. "They said 'go ahead and begin investigating,'" she said.
She did, basing her research on past symposiums she had attended in New York.
"It was a phenomenal day," she said. "You could touch the enthusiasm."
The symposium was sponsored by Hadassah, the Bureau of Jewish Education and the Jewish Studies Program of Arizona State University in collaboration with Brandeis University National Women's Committee of Phoenix and the Weizmann Institute of Science. Jewish News of Greater Phoenix was a media sponsor and the project was funded in part by a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix.
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