Israel’s religious Zionist kids growing up in a world where females are taboo
Source: Haaretz:

Cleansing texts and other media of women is a relatively new development among religious Zionists, and the phenomenon is of particular significance given the fact that these religious viewers are, in practice, a captive audience.
…………… Arutz Meir (TV) caters specifically to families from the religious Zionist sector, a population which has moved more and more in recent years toward gender-segregation and the exclusion of women (both of which are already common among the stricter, ultra-Orthodox communities). Public singing by women, even by 4-year-old girls, is no longer permissible, let alone on-screen. In fact, any mention of women has been removed from many of the schoolbooks used in religious schools.

Needless to say, many of the religious programs on the Internet are devoid of women, as are plays and DVDs. “I know someone who initiated a nice cultural project involving DVDs for children – he didn’t do very well”, says Shmuel Shatach, chairman of Ne’emanei Torah Ve’Avodah, a nonprofit organization that combats the move toward extremism and exclusion of women in the Orthodox sector. “Singing by girls does not take place anymore in schools and kindergartens belonging to the religious Zionist stream. If it’s missing in the educational system, it’s nonexistent.”
The absence of women has become especially prominent in illustrated Jewish texts, such as the Passover Hagaddah and the Megillat Esther for Purim. “It’s absurd that there are now Hagaddah books in which it looks as if only men left Egypt,” says Rachel Azaria, a Jerusalem councilwoman who represents the Yerushalmim Party and is one of the leading figures in the struggle against gender-segregation and the exclusion of women.
“Our religious Zionist kindergarten had a Passover Hagaddah in which Pharaoh’s daughter is pulling Moses out of the water. Only her hand could be seen; her face was hidden behind bushes,” says Azaria. “And this is the lenient version of such books. They only show women with their heads lowered or facing away. What is of concern here is the question of what part women play in the Jewish story. It says that everyone left Egypt, but the pictures show only men around the seder table. This presents a distorted world.”
Cleansing texts and other media of women is a relatively new development among religious Zionists, and the phenomenon is of particular significance given the fact that these religious viewers are, in practice, a captive audience. This is particularly true in religious schools, where textbooks conspicuously leave out images of women.
In these books, Azaria says, sentences such as “’Mother is cooking in the kitchen’ – in itself a gender issue – has no picture to accompany the text. But when it comes to describing the father going to work, the picture is there.”
What’s more, many religious households consider reading an important and valued activity, and so on Sabbath children regularly turn to books. That makes the reality portrayed in books especially impactful when it comes to shaping religious children’s worldview, notes Azaria.
Art imitates life
Meanwhile, as boys and girls become segregated in print, so too are they becoming segregated in the real world – namely, in schools. “Separate schools and exclusion of women are two phenomena that feed on each other – it’s the chicken and the egg,” says Shatach. “Since a boy grows up isolated, without the other gender, one cannot create an environment that might shatter [his worldview]. Just like one cannot show these boys popular old documentaries that describe the theory of evolution, one also cannot show them women, since they have no girls in their schools.”
Shatach adds that because these program aren’t in English (with the occasional exception), young religious viewers aren’t exposed to English the way their peers in the general population are. Given the fact that religious schools typically don’t go to great lengths to teach students English, Shatach says, these kids’ options later in life become limited, particularly when it comes to their education and careers.
“Many men from the religious Zionist camp now prefer to study in men’s-only colleges, choosing teaching as a profession. They then return to the same schools, where most of the teachers are from the same community. This cyclical system only leads to further cultural isolation and extremism,” Shatach says.
Girls’ schools, meanwhile, don’t allow men to enter, not even fathers wishing to attend the ceremonies in which their daughters receive their first siddurs upon starting school. “The insult is twofold, since the implication is that these men will lust after 6-year old girls in first grade,” says Shatach.
Azaria recalls a time when girls and boys in Israel mingled freely. “This was particularly striking on Jerusalem Day, a highlight of the Bnei Akiva youth movement’s activities. The boys would come from different yeshivas across the country for Shabbat, and everyone would meet at the Western Wall at the end of the day. It was very exciting to meet the boys. Today, each gender follows its own path.”

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