THE RUTH AND EMANUEL
RACKMAN CENTER
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN’S STATUS
THE RUTH AND EMANUEL
RACKMAN CENTER
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN’S STATUS
BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY IS VERY STATUS MINDED
Improving women’s status, that is
AT THE FOREFRONT
OF SOCIAL CHANGE
The Rackman Center is a junction between research and activism. It offers help between legislative work, litigation, and public advocacy, situating itself in the highest realm of academia also serving as a grassroots organization that offers individual support. Just as significant, the Rackman Center bridges the gap between domestic and international policy – and between religious and secular legal spheres.
The Center’s dual-track approach informs students and clients of government policy reforms, and at the same time takes an independent stand where appropriate. Rackman’s position as an academic institution with a law faculty creates a unique synergy between the work it does representing clients in family law cases and its academic expertise in analyzing cases, researching scholarship, finding innovative solutions and recommending legal changes. This demonstrates another facet of the dual-track approach, that of engaging in a bottom-up method through individual litigations, and at the same time promoting the top-bottom process of legislative changes and policy reforms. This translates academic research, knowledge and training into action bringing about social and legal change.
ABOUT
OUR NAMESAKE
Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Rackman was one of the most prominent, profound, and outspoken Jewish leaders in our time, who advocated tirelessly for women’s rights and social justice. His activism stemmed from a conviction that halakha, the Jewish legal system, is a central moral force to rectify injustice. Rabbi Rackman had consistently asserted that Judaism could and must fully engage modernity in all spheres and respond with sensitivity and creativity to its many challenges. He was both a brilliant defender of halakha and an inspiration its practitioners to do better for the Jewish people and the world. Alongside his deep commitment to the halakhic system, Rabbi Rackman was dedicated to the advancement of women’s rights both in Jewish and civil law.
The Center provides legal aid programs to women in rabbinical courts. It holds annual halakhic conferences on halakhic topics relating to women in Jewish law. And in a joint venture, it issues Din VehaDayan, a publication devoted to furthering the defense of agunot through the study of current legal cases.
For Jewish women worldwide, Bar-Ilan University is fast becoming its own 21st century pioneering advocate.
Where can an Orthodox single woman
train to represent a secular mother seeking a divorce?
Professor Ruth
Halperin-Kaddari
international womens advocate
professor of law
Rackman Center
"Through legal aid, public advocacy,
research and woman’s empowerment,
we work to fulfill the vision of
Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Rackman
to advance women’s rights in Israel
and to better women’s standing
within Jewish family law."
In
Focus
Professor Ruth
Halperin-Kaddari
international womens advocate
professor of law
Rackman Center
"Through legal aid, public advocacy,
research and woman’s empowerment,
we work to fulfill the vision of
Rabbi Dr. Emanuel Rackman
to advance women’s rights in Israel
and to better women’s standing
within Jewish family law."
In
Focus
Ruth Halperin-Kaddari is an Israeli legal scholar and international women’s advocate, known for her work on family law as well as women’s rights in international law.
The Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women at the Bar-Ilan University Law School was established in 2001 with the goal of improving the status of women and bringing an end to gender discrimination in Israeli society.
As Professor of Law at Bar-Ilan University, Halperin-Kaddari teaches family law; feminist perspective of the law, women and religion, and international women’s rights.
Halperin-Kaddari is also a member and former Vice-Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the only Israeli to serve on this committee, as well as being its youngest member. In addition, she was an advisor to the Prime Minister’s office on the status of women in Israel, and a member of the Committee on Family and Rabbinical Courts’ Jurisdiction at the Ministry of Justice.
During her tenure as Director of the Rackman Center, the Center has successfully lobbied the Israeli Knesset for the enactment and amendment of laws aimed at improving the status of women in Israel, for which it has won numerous acclaims, such as the Gorni Prize, given by the Israeli Association of Public Law.
Prof. Halperin-Kaddari has successfully positioned the Rackman Center as a driving force for ending gender discrimination in Israeli society, through legal aid, public advocacy, research and women’s empowerment.