Kevin Peraino writes in Newsweek: If Tzipi Livni manages to assemble a coalition, all three branches of Israel’s government will be led by women: Dalia Itzik became Israel’s first female speaker of Knesset in 2006 and Dorit Beinisch heads the Supreme Court.

So you might think all the fuss in America about lipstick and pigs is a little passé in Israel. Golda Meir, after all, cracked Israel’s glass ceiling some 35 years ago.

Not so, Peraino’s piece suggests.

Some Israeli pundits have argued Livni is the manliest woman in Israeli politics. JTA’s Dina Kraft explored that theme a bit in her Livni profile earlier this month.

Glynis Ann Ritchie has a touching essay in The New York Times’ style section about how she, a starry-eyed American Jewish girl, fell for a hunky Israeli soldier on a Birthright Israel trip. Though the Israeli turns out to be part of the parade of callous men that Ritchie says “opened up my chest, scooped out the contents and tossed them into the trash,” he does leave her with something positive and long-lasting: a healthy self-image.

Flash90

Miriam Shaviv, of London’s Jewish Chronicle, offers her take on a growing trend:

In the past few months, reports have emerged of more than 100 Orthodox Israelis who have taken to wearing a Muslim-style burka, in the belief this will bring about redemption. They can be seen in Orthodox areas of Tiberias, Safed and even Jerusalem, and are mostly followers of Rabbanit Bruria Keren, a mother of 10 from Ramat Beit Shemesh.

According to the newspaper Ha’aretz, she rarely leaves her home and speaks only for four hours a week to offer “alternative therapy” to her followers.

Some wear more than 10 layers of clothing, including dark socks, with the ends cut off, over their hands. They never wear heels, lest the noise attracts attention.

What to make of this?

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