Love, Marriage, and Jewish Families by Sylvia Barack Fishman

Author:Sylvia Barack Fishman [Fishman, Sylvia Barack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611688610
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 26396568
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
Published: 2015-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

Single Mothers by Choice in Israel

In Israel and in the United States, as in some other Western societies, the increase in later motherhood is accompanied by an increase in older unwed Jewish mothers.45 Many of these women achieve motherhood through medically assisted conception. By 2010 the Israeli organization New Family was reporting increased numbers of single women in Israel applying for a sperm donation to realize their dreams of motherhood.46 In addition, there has been an increase of 90 percent in the number of unwed Jewish mothers, from 8,400 in 2000 to 16,100 ten years later.47 As elsewhere in the Western world, the historical attitude in Israel toward single mothers by choice was primarily negative. Bar, who compared self-image and the maternal role in married and single women, found that although there was no difference in their functioning as mothers, the single women suffered from a lower self-image.48 According to her, this was the result of society’s negative attitude toward unwed mothers.49

Yet increasing liberalization along with greater numbers of single mothers by choice has influenced societal status and brought about a change of attitude on the part of establishment policymakers in Israel. For example, in 1992 single mothers by choice were included in the group of those eligible for social security annuities according to the same criteria applied to single-parent families, and in 2000 the Israeli Supreme Court canceled the requirement of the Health Department for single women to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to obtain a sperm donation.50 This latter change is mentioned in the research of Segal-Engelchin and Wozner from 2005, which compared married women, divorced women, and single mothers.51 They concluded that regarding “quality of life,” the highest level was found among single mothers by choice who felt that they had societal support and that their lives were full of gratification and interest.

Moreover, in Israel there are other social-psychological factors at play. In a paradoxical way, even though Israel is still a traditional society that emphasizes the sanctity of married life and family, when it comes to childbirth, the general population is very accepting and prepared to acknowledge children born by unwed mothers. Israel is a country that encourages procreation. Motherhood in Israel is much more than a role in the family—it is perceived as having a dimension of patriotism; it is a national role. Israeli society expects Jewish women to take on the demographic struggle (explicitly and implicitly) against the Arab population, to give birth to a nation after the annihilation of the Holocaust, and to provide soldiers for the people’s army.52 Therefore, there is no obstacle to “enlisting” a single woman to the task.

The actualization of the “Jewish mother” role, is the woman’s “entrance ticket” to the Israeli collective and a well-regarded status within it. In a discussion at the first Israeli Knesset on passing the “Women’s Equality Bill” (passed in 1951), then prime minister David Ben-Gurion said that “the simple and human reason” to grant women equality is their status as mothers. In his own

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