OUR STORY · TIMELINE
From excluded women
to visible active women
The story of the last suffragettes.
From the struggle over women's suffrage in pre-state Israel to Haredi women's struggle for the right to be elected, how a movement was born, an NGO founded, a Supreme Court case won, and a generation of Haredi women leaders trained.
TIMELINE
1 / 21Primaries for Haredi women
The "Primaries for Haredi Women" initiative launches, driven by social activists — some of them movement alumnae — seeking to open up the political arena to Haredi women from within.
HaNivcheret 9
The ninth leadership cohort meets. The movement keeps working for representation, equality and voice, and the road is still long.
The alumnae network
The program's next step: a survey among "HaNivcheret" alumnae, a first step toward an active alumnae network - a home, a source of support and a platform for lasting influence.
Haredit Meduberet goes on air
Esty Shushan's podcast launches, bridging worlds. In the municipal elections a notable number of Haredi women run, the fruit of a decade of awareness-building and training.
Widening the circles
New HaNivcheret cohorts launch every year. The Sicha project opens dialogue circles that include Haredi men, and the Haredi women's lobby works in the Knesset. After October 2023, "Harediyot Shutafot" organizes Haredi women's support for soldiers and the home front.
The "Achotenu At" group
HaNivcheret alumnae found the "Achotenu At" ("She Is Our Sister") group, a space where Haredi women take part in an ongoing discussion, with more women joining over time.
Two alumnae on the national stage
Michal Chernovitzky runs in the Labor Party primaries and finishes in 20th place. At the same time, Omer Yanklevich is placed 23rd, a realistic slot, on the Kachol Lavan list — and later becomes the first Haredi woman to serve as a government minister in Israel.
Victory at the Supreme Court
The Court orders Agudat Yisrael to remove every barrier to women's party membership, the peak of four years of litigation. Esty Shushan receives the Rappaport Prize. Around the repeated election rounds, the Empty Chairs protest makes the vacant seat a symbol of missing representation. This is attorney Tami Ben Porat's petition, which Nivcharot and the women's organisations had backed since 2015.
From the Knesset to the religious council
Hila Hassan Lefkovich runs second on the "Am Shalem" list, led by Rabbi Chaim Amsalem, for the 24th Knesset. The list receives about 592 votes and doesn't pass the electoral threshold, but Hila is elected chair of the religious council in Kfar Yona, a position she still holds today.
HaNivcheret alumnae enter local politics
For the first time, "HaNivcheret 1" alumnae run in local government elections. Racheli Solomon runs for the youth council in Petah Tikva; her list doesn't pass the electoral threshold. Hila Hassan Lefkovich runs for the Kfar Yona city council and withdraws partway through. Penina Poifer runs for the Jerusalem city council, and finds herself dropped from the list a month before the election, after months of grassroots campaigning on its behalf.
HaNivcheret, the first leadership cohort
With WIZO, the U.S. Embassy and the Shaharit Institute, the first Haredi women's leadership training group is launched. Meanwhile the Supreme Court demands that United Torah Judaism answer whether it will amend its bylaws.
The Kol Barama case
Esty Shushan submits testimony, together with Didi Shor, in Kolech's class action against Kol Barama radio, over the harm to Haredi women caused by silencing women's voices on air. In 2019 the court orders Kol Barama to pay roughly a million shekels in compensation, plus legal costs — which the station's staff deliver to the petitioners in buckets of 20,000 NIS in coins.
An activists' Shabbat at Nir Etzion
Nivcharot holds an activists' Shabbat at the Nir Etzion hotel near Jerusalem, with Rabbanit Malka Piotrkovsky among the guests. The Shabbat becomes another point of unity for the forces active in Haredi feminism on the ground, and pushes the question of Torah-observant religious feminism powerfully into internal discourse.
Law and policy
Position papers to the Supreme Court, the UN, government ministries and the Knesset; round tables with legal scholars and meetings with MKs. Esty Shushan receives the Yaffa London-Yaari Prize for women's social initiatives.
Community work and rights awareness
Conferences, writing and messaging on religious women's leadership: the in-community arm raises awareness of how the absence of political representation affects Haredi women's lives.
A second campaign, an NGO, and legal action
Ahead of the 20th Knesset elections, activists step forward under their full names and demand action from Haredi MKs. The movement registers as an NGO, Nivcharot, with Sarah Schenirer in its logo, and joins the legal battle against exclusionary party bylaws. The petition against Agudat Yisrael is filed by attorney Tami Ben Porat, after journalist Tal Schneider revealed that the Haredi parties' bylaws entrench the absence of women from their ranks. Ten women's organisations join the petition, led by Itach-Maaki, Women Lawyers for Social Justice, with the Concord Center as amicus curiae.
First Knesset hearings and online circles
Activists initiate hearings in the Committee on the Status of Women, data on Haredi women's health, wages and education barriers is presented for the first time. The closed Facebook group "Feminists Under the Wig" opens, followed by "Haredi Feminism".
First wave of municipal candidates
Haredi women announce runs for city councils. Apart from the "Ir VaEm" list in Elad led by Michal Chernovitzky, which ran to the end, the candidates withdraw under threats.
Media attention and "Meoravot"
The protest draws wide coverage, the first time a clear Haredi women's voice against their silencing is heard. After the elections the first grassroots group, Meoravot, is founded by Esty Shushan and Racheli Ibenboim. Early meetings are held in complete secrecy.
The struggle for representation begins
Months before the 19th Knesset elections, Esty Shushan, a Haredi journalist and copywriter, opens a Facebook page called "No Voice, No Vote", calling on Haredi women not to vote for parties that exclude women.
The struggle over suffrage in Israel
When Israel's civic institutions were formed, a bitter battle was fought over women's right to vote. The state was founded with women's suffrage, but one group received the right to vote while the right to be elected was formally denied to it in party bylaws: Haredi women.