A commitment to our shared vision of a just, egalitarian, and pluralistic Israel.
Your legacy gift means that people like Keren and Jonathan now have equal access to parenthood through adoption. In protest against the Orthodox monopoly on marriage and divorce in Israel, the couple decided not to marry, and were therefore barred from applying for adoption. This led to a successful joint petition by IRAC and the Israeli Gay Father’s Association to the Supreme Court ensuring equal access to parenthood through adoption.
As a result of Operation Solomon in 1991, 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were brought to Israel. In response, IRAC created its Legal Aid Center for Olim (LACO). The only program of its kind, LACO offers disadvantaged immigrants recourse in dealing with a callous bureaucracy by giving them access to legal advice and full legal representation by some of the best immigration lawyers in the country.
Photo: LACO Director Nicole Maor explaining to clients.
Your gift means that women can walk freely in the religious town of Bet Shemesh. Orthodox women from the Bet Shemesh asked us to help remove ‘modesty signs’ which restricted their movement and dress. We took on the municipality and won. The Supreme Court ordered the signs be taken down.
Photo: Our clients from Bet Shemesh beside graffiti reading: “Passage in modest dress only”
Your gift will help advance freedom of choice in marriage in Israel so that couples who are not recognized as Jewish by the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate, same-sex couples, and couples who choose to marry through the Reform movement will be able to marry legally in Israel.
Photo: Three Weddings and a Statement Washington D.C., March 2019
When the late Renee Rabinowitz z”l, a holocaust survivor, was asked to switch seats upon the request of a Haredi man, IRAC assisted her in filing a court case against El Al. Your gift will allow us to continue to advance gender equality in the public domain.
Photo: Renee Rabinowitz and IRAC Attorney Riki Shapira
Your gift will allow us to advance an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall, and equality for all streams of Judaism in Israel.
Photo: Torah March, March 2022