MK Hotovely speaks at Shalhevet High School

Stressing the importance of having Orthodox Jewish women in leadership roles, and noting that they “have the power to change things,” Likud Knesset member Tzipi Hotovely addressed all the students of Midreshet Shalhevet High School for Girls this past Friday in the shul there.

Speaking in English, the youngest Knesset member emphasized the importance of contributing to Israeli society, the importance of women in the growth of Israel, the need to strengthen Jewish Israeli ties to the Jewish religion and to the land of Israel.

Hotovely cited an explanation of the first sentence of Parshat Shlach by the Kli Yakar (Rav Shlomo Ephraim Ben Aaron Luntschitz, a Torah commentator from the 1500s), that Moshe should have sent women rather than men as spies “because women love the land more, women have a stronger connection to the land than men.”

“Women have the power to bring changes,” continued Hotovely. “By giving birth they bring new things to the world,” she said, noting that the “spirit of women in leadership” is needed. She said that there are currently 25 women MKs and that two babies were born during this Knesset session. “It’s a revolution,” she proclaimed, noting that women MKs used to be in their 50s before they entered politics, and that now they are young women.

After asking the students some questions, she said that she was “happy to hear that most visited Israel and that some want to live in Israel,” stressing that they “have to be involved.”

Responding to students’ questions, she noted that there is no clash between Orthodox life and politics and since there is no problem with men why should there be a problem with women in politics? She also pointed out that there are enough Orthodox men in Knesset to supply the three ongoing minyanim in the Knesset. As far as equality for women in Israel, she pointed out that Israel had a female prime minister years ago and America has still not had a woman president. “Women are appreciated if they have vision,” she said. When women in the Knesset have babies, she said they either bring their babies to the Knesset, their “husbands do mommy work, or they try to reduce their activity, that it is their decision as to how to balance public life vs. family life. They are doing something important for the nation.”

Hotovely’s rise to politics is deeply rooted in strong family ties and a Zionist, religious and intellectual education. Her parents were from Georgia and she was raised in Rechovot. Hotovely is a product of the religious public school system and studied in Ulpanit Bnei Akiva and Midreshet Lindenbaum. During her sherut leumi (national service), she was a shaliach (emissary) for the Jewish Agency in the United States, teaching in Jewish schools in Atlanta, Georgia. She also served in Bait HaRav Kook in Jerusalem, a museum that teaches the philosophy of Rav Avraham Yitchak HaCohen Kook.

Hotovely continued her education at Bar Ilan University in Jerusalem, earning a BA and MA in law and graduating with honors. She passed the bar in 2003 and was active in a student organization, the World Union of Jewish Students, and was an editor of Bar Ilan’s Journal of Law. She is studying for her doctorate in law at Tel Aviv University.

During her studies in Bar Ilan, a television producer called Hotovely and begged her to fill the position of a young religious Zionist woman on a debate. Hotovely didn’t want to, but, “no one was willing to interview on the issue,” she said.

Those three minutes on the television show, Hotovely explained, “changed my life.”

The host of the television show, Dan Margalit, was impressed and asked her to join the left-leaning secular panel on “Moetzet Hachachamim” (Council of the Wise), reprising her role as right-wing female voice.

She wrote a column for Maariv and, after consulting with her on various issues, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recruited Hotovely to join the Likud list on the run-up to the 18th Knesset. She came in at the 18th slot.

She maintains a hectic schedule, rising at 6 am, davening Shacharit, meeting with journalists, and is in her office by about 8. She tours Israel to keep in touch with all the Likud offices on Sundays and Thursdays, and meets with committees on Mondays Tuesdays and Wednesdays, often ending at midnight.

When asked regarding Migron, she said that she felt that it is “a small story” but that she felt that it should be allowed to remain. Discussing the recent joining of Likud with Yisrael Beitainu she said that “most people don’t want to repeat the mistakes of Oslo and the Pinuy, most are sympathetic to the Jewish communities in Yehuda and Shomron.”

“I got into politics to make a difference,” said Hotovely. “In 2005, the government of Israel committed, I think, a crime, the disengagement. They uprooted 8000 people from their homes, not for peace or an agreement but so that in Gaza there would not be a mixed population. It is a nightmare, with rockets on the head for the last seven years. (Then PM) Sharon went against the democratic rules in the party and changed ideology to commit a crime.”

“The problem,” she continued, “is not understanding the relationship with the land of Israel—it’s not just real estate. The result is playing with peoples’ lives.” Noting that she is against a two-state solution, she said that the “big question is if the Jewish people feel connected to those areas or consider it ‘occupying.’” She said that they are not learning the history and halacha (Jewish law), citing the first Rashi in the Torah, “we need to know our connection.” She also quoted Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, that the Jews are and have to be a “’light for the nations,’” promoting justice and values like Shabbat, Yovel, Shmittah--economic justice.” She stressed the need to interact with the secular in society, that 20% are Orthodox and that 80% of the population spans the gamut between religious and secular. Without connecting with the land, she said, they won’t understand its importance, and that as religious people, she stressed that it is important to build a society based on justice, as the neviim, prophets, called for.

Hotovely said that as students, they should get information from Israeli websites, that they should be informed and “know the facts.” She exhorted the girls to build their homes in Israel and asked them, “what is your contribution to the enterprise,” and invited the seniors to visit her at the Knesset when they are studying in Israel next year.