Minister offended after Orthodox Israeli refuses to shake her hand

A Belgian minister has complained that a Charedi counterpart refused to shake hands at an official meeting with her because she is a woman.

Laurette Onkelinx was in Geneva at the World Health Assembly conference with Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman when she offered her hand as a greeting.

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Kiddush can't keep our community alive

I was in Carluccio's in St John's Wood having breakfast, planning a fundraiser. It was for the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies but it might have been for any one of the plethora of Jewish organisations. The restaurant was full of women ready for the gym - dynamic, educated, powerful women.

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Strong support for quotas on women leaders

A third of British Jews believe Jewish organisations should positively discriminate in favour of senior female candidates in top positions through set quotas, a survey has found.

And almost 90 per cent of British Jews believe women should be able to chair and be trustees of synagogues - despite a continued stalemate on the issue.

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Women refuse singing ban

A group of South African women are fighting to overturn a ban on them singing at community events.

They released a protest video on Friday to coincide with Freedom Day, which commemorates South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994.

They say women used to sing at events to mark such events as Israel Independence Day or Holocaust Memorial Day until they were stopped in Johannesburg

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Jewish politician wins place on Bahrain defence committee

A Jewish woman was appointed to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security Committee in Bahrain last Sunday.

Bahrain-born Nancy Khedouri, who was named the committee's deputy chairwoman, is the third Jew elected by parliamentary peers to the 38 member upper house Shura Council, Bahrain's main legislative body.

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