Debora Institue

Inspiring Change, Impacting Tomorrow

Deborah
Institute

The Deborah Institute is an independent academic think tank focused on the protection of women’s rights in Israel. Taking the mission of closing gender gaps as its core goal, the institute translates academic knowledge into policy, produces strategic plans for government and public institutions and is a home for research designed to solve complex problems and offer long-term transformative action plans. The Institute analyzes a diverse scope of issues aiming to address the most pressing challenges in the protection of women’s equal status in Israel. Our analyses are already being used by Israel’s leading institutions. The Institute’s founding head, Dr. Cochav Elkayam Levy, has recently co-authored an analysis of the current legal reform in view of it’s implications on the lives of women in Israel and presented it to the President, authored the national report on gender-mainstreaming in times of emergencies submitted to the prime-minster and adopted in an historic government decision, and was selected among the 40 most promising young leaders under 40 of The Marker Magazine in 2022.

A New Low

Women's political representation in Israel and the protection of our most basic freedoms is at an historic low. Discrimination and inequality between women and men is manifested in all areas of life in the country: in decision-making positions, in religious laws that govern women’s lives, in wage gaps, in expanding gender segregation in the public areas, and unprecedented barriers to fighting violence against women in light of fierce resistance from anti-feminist groups. This is a systemic challenge. The problems are often structural and are met with low motivation of governmental and public institutions to lead change. This prevents women in Israel from realizing their most basic human rights and living with dignity as equal citizens. As such, the aspiration to close gender gaps and protect women must be done simultaneously with perceptual-social change and fundamental structural changes. For this reason, the Institute is home for scholars, activists and leaders to research and provide credible academic knowledge and data that is already instrumental for thousands in the country. Vision Gender equality is one of the cornerston.

Vision

Gender equality is one of the cornerstones of our society. It is crucial for a just and sustainable future. We envision gender equality understood as a national interest, fundamental to Israel’s ability to thrive as a liberal democracy and a condition for its national resilience. Israel will be strengthened as a democratic society that promotes the values of justice and fairness, that acts with a deep commitment to future generations and that bears a real concern for the lives of women and their freedoms.

Goals

We aim to lead profound changes in both the national and local governments and among the wider public. This will be achieved through:

High-quality research that shapes the public discourse and provides policy analysis and
recommendations to decision makers, public leaders, and the strategic community, both in Israel and abroad.
Long-term strategic plans are accepted and implemented by our target populations.
Voluntary and mandatory representation mechanisms are adopted by the government and local authorities.
The concept of transformative equality and the need to lead structural changes will influence the discourse and design of public systems.
New ways of thinking and expanding the traditional contours of establishment analysis of
gender gaps.
Visualizing an egalitarian ecosystem through images and feminist art, revealing the
possibilities for a different future.
A home for scholars and experts that enables advanced, ground-breaking and innovative research.

Successes
and impact

Prepared with the National Security Council a report on gender mainstreaming in times of
emergencies (see here). Currently, leading the implementation of the report’s key recommendations.
Prepared Tel Aviv University's five-year strategic plan on promoting gender equality, diversity and inclusion. This is the flagship plan for gender equality in Israeli academia.
Co-authored the only position paper presenting a gender analysis of the current Israeli government’s proposed judicial reform bill, “Violation of Women’s Rights as a Result of the Proposed Regime Changes in Israel.”
Lectures in Israel and around the world on structural discrimination, international women’s rights and ways of overcoming gender gaps it through systemic thinking and understanding equality as a transformative concept.•
Establishing a research forum for leading feminist researchers.•
Partnership and leadership in coalitions of women's organizations.•
Advocacy in Knesset committees, promotion of bills, meetings with decision-makers, etc.•
Three cycles of the course "The Feminist Movement - Past, Present and Future" with the participation of Israeli women leaders from all over the world.•
Long-term strategic consulting for government bodies and international institutions•
Academic conferences on long-term strategies for promoting gender equality.•
Introducing the concept of transformative equality to the academic discourse in Israel and feminist theory.

Advisory
Board

: Prof. Yifat Bitton, Adv. Tziona Koenig-Yair, Na’ama Shultz, Ariela Grinberg, Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, Merav Israeli Amarant, Dr. Dana Wolf, Michal Yaniv, Efrat Minivitzki-Thein, Prof. Tsfira Grebelsky-Lichtman, Prof. Moshe Cohen-Elia, Moran Zer Katzenstein, Tania Murkes, Shay Bialik, Eyal Sher, Adv. Gali Etzioni.

ועד מייעץ