Record Number of Women Elected to Knesset
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Amid all of the speculation about post-election coalition building, let’s not overlook the exciting fact that a record number of women will serve in the 19th Knesset. With yesterday’s vote, the number of seats occupied by female MKs has risen from 22 to 26.
This means that women comprise over 23% of the Knesset. While this statistic does not come close to representing the proportion of women in Israeli society, it is better than the situation in the U.S. Here, a record 98 women were recently elected to Congress, but that represents only 18% of all those serving on Capitol Hill.
As would be expected, the 19th Knesset will include some familiar faces, including Tzipi Livni, Shelly Yachimovich, Miri Regev, Tzipi Hotovely and Zehava Gal-On, but with the election of 53 new MK’s there are plenty of fresh faces as well. Among them are former Herzliya mayor Yael German; scholar Aliza Lavie; social activist Adi Kol; attorney Karin Elharar; Jewish educator Ruth Calderon; attorney Penina Tamnu-Shata (the first female MK of Ethiopian origin); vocational training expert Rena Frenkel; Hod Hasharon city council member Yifat Kariv of Yesh Atid; journalist Merav Michaeli; social protest leader Stav Shaffir; doctoral student Michal Biran of Labor; rightist activist Ayelet Shaked; Yesha Human Rights Organization chair Orit Strook of Habayit Hayehudi; former CEO of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel Michal Rozin, and Tel Aviv-Yafo councilwoman Tamar Zandberg of Meretz.
Clearly — and thankfully — very few Israelis heeded Religious Zionist leader Rabbi Shlomo Aviner’s (out-of-touch) warning that women, for the sake of modesty, should not vote or run for the Knesset. Sorry, Rabbi, but it’s obvious that more and more Israelis think a woman’s place is in the house. That is, the Jewish State’s house of representatives.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
