They Can (International Women’s Day 2023)

TAU Alumni Organization headed by Sigalit Ben Hayoun marked Women’s Day this year with a forum of world-changing alumnae with a musical number by students from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Faculty of Arts of Tel Aviv University , in honor of the 100th birthday of the queen of Hebrew music, Shoshana Damari.

Sigalit thanked the participants and mentioned: “55% of all university alumni are alumnae, and for us, an organization that promotes gender equality and variety, not only this day have high importance, but also promoting an agenda of equality, variety, and community 365 days a year”.

Elah Alkalay – chairperson of IBI Mutual Funds and VP of Business Development at IBI Investment House, head of IWN  – the women’s Lobby in Israel, Alumna of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and Coller School of Management, spoke at the event, saying “The value of equality is important to us as a society, but the numbers show we’re going further away from this target. We must leave our comfort zone and create real equality and variety. The current political situation teaches us that if we don’t learn to do that, we won’t last long as a society and a country”.

Elah Alkalay (photo by: Yael Tzur)

An exciting panel about variety, gender and community followed and was moderated by Prof. Neta Ziv, the Vice President for Equity, Diversity and Community at Tel Aviv University. Other attendees were:

Racheli Ganot – Founder and CEO of Ready Group, an R&D chip development company that employs haredi women, Alumna of the Coller School of Management.

Lena Russovsky – Media personality and radio presenter at “Kan”, social entrepreneur and activist, founder of the extraordinary “Russians Without a Sense of Humor and Their Friends” community. Alumna of the Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities.

Adv. Rina Ayalin-Gorelik – Executive Director of the Association of Ethiopian Jews (AEJ), Alumna of Gershon H. Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences.

Dr. Efrat Liani – Business and corporate counselor in the tech sector, entrepreneur and bestseller author of “Presence, Impact, Leadership”, chosen as one of the 40 under 40 successful leaders in Israel, Alumna of the Gershon H. Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences

From the right: Prof. Neta Ziv, Rachel Ganot, Lena Russovsky, Dr. Efrat Liani, Adv . Rina Ayalin-Gorelik (photo by: Yael Tzur)

Prof. Neta Ziv said at the opening of the panel: “We have to fight for our rights, especially in times like this. Women are achieving success through fighting, solidarity, and a supportive environment. 

Rachel Ganot said: “I grew up in an orthodox Jewish community believing women het educated, manage and provide for their houses. Kind of Super-women!

Nowadays, haredi women aim to have what is considered a “manly” job and career, in software and hardware fields. I believe that the environment a woman grows up in has a significant impact, but there are always the voices that lift you and those that get you down, and it’s up to you to decide which voice to listen to”.

Lena Russovsky also added: “I came from a very successful career in the biotech field, but at some point I felt that I need to grow in other directions too, to do something different in this world. Help to make it a better place. I fell in love with feminism and gender studies. I felt it was my purpose. From there I got into social enterprise and the advancement of women, and I created a successful Facebook group, which became the main Hebrew-speaking place to discuss everything about the Russian speakers. Many social initiatives were created inspired by this community all over the country, and some even say it changed the public discourse regarding Israelis from the former Soviet Union”.

As for her studies at Tel Aviv University she said: “The degree in Gender Studies that I completed turned my life upside down. It improved my mental and intellectual skills, and helped me to use them in practice”.

Adv . Rina Ayalin-Gorelik told her story: “I grew up in a house that took principles of hard work and self-responsibility very seriously. If you put enough effort into something, you’ll get it. It’s all up to us. Only later in life I found out the complexity of being an Ethiopian woman in Israel.

Personal growth has to be done through education. In the beginning, I thought it was only a tool for social and economic status rise, but now I understand it’s more than that. I came from a feminist house- my mother became the first Israeli-Ethiopian teacher in Israel while raising five children”.

Adv . Rina Ayalin-Gorelik (photo by: Yael Tzur)

Dr. Efrat Liani added: “We have to aim to increase women's representation in working places. Heads of organizations need to decide which moves will bring them to equality”. She also said about studying “One shouldn’t underestimate the power of getting an academic education! Academic backgrounds show important features in a worker, which are very important to an organization”.

In her opinion, “We can’t be off guard, everyone has to create that change, each in her environment. It is crucial to lead it together, men and women”.

After the empowering discussion, the alumnae enjoyed a musical number by students from the Buchmann-Mehta School Music, Faculty of Arts, Tel Aviv University in honor of the 100th birthday of the queen of Hebrew music, Shoshana Damari.