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From the 24^th to the 26^th of December, an international conference of the Israeli Law and Society Association was held at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Bar-Ilan University itself boasts a sizable number of scholars who focus their research on various aspects of the intersection of law and society generally, with many focusing on the specific context of gender. Accordingly, one of the panels offered during the Conference, entitled Motherhood, Family, Feminism, and Law, included a majority of Bar-Ilan scholars in its ranks, primarily from the Program of Gender Studies. Indeed, two of the participants -- Anat Herbst and Omi Leissner – number amongst the first group of students to receive their doctoral degrees through the Program and are currently teaching under its auspices.

Dr. Omi Leissner opened the session with her talk entitled "The Business of Being Born: Israel’s Story." The title sought to echo that of a new and well-received documentary -- made by Riki Lake and Abby Epstein -- which shows how childbirth in America has become a multi-billion dollar business, at the increasing expense of the good of mothers and babies. The talk in Jerusalem set out to translate and describe the various interests in Israel's "business of birth", with the State itself as one of the major beneficiaries. Thus, for example, early in the history of the State, a unique, Israeli law was enacted (section 30a of the National Insurance Law (1954)), whereby only women who have themselves hospitalized in connection with birth are entitled to receive a Birth Grant -- including the costs of the birth. A law such as this one not only severely deprives birthing women of free choice, but must also be considered particularly problematic in the local context, in which a number of hospitals that directly gain from it are also owned by the state.

Next, Dr. Anat Herbst spoke on "Single Mothers in Israel and the Social Welfare Policy: Grace or Social Rights?" The talk entailed the comparison of the discourse and justifications around two laws concerning single mothers in Israel enacted during the 1970s and the 1990s respectively: the Child Support Law (Payment Assurance) (1972) and the Single Parent Family Law (1992). Through these laws, the changes in modes of discourse over these two diverse time periods were examined, thereby revealing the manner in which the social privileges of single mothers as a group have evolved. More specifically, the relevant laws were examined and analyzed as a "gender issue", that is, they are seen to reflect directly on the status of women in Israel as a welfare state.

Finally, a paper entitled "Exposing Family Secrets: Judicial Decision Making and the Publication of Family Court Decisions in the Age of Computerized Data Bases" was presented by three scholars from Bar-Ilan working together: Dr. Bryna (Rina) Bogoch (of Political Science), Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari (Law Faculty) and Eyal Katvan (an external lecturer at Bar-Ilan University). The paper was based on a study of the implications of the availability of computerized databases in family law on the development of jurisprudence in family law. The authors compared the characteristics of cases judged in the family courts to those published in the databases, focusing specifically on the decisions by men and women judges in each source. Their findings show that a generally more favorable picture was presented of the decisions passed by men judges toward women and women's interests in the databases rather than in the court files.

Also participating in the panel were Prof. Corey Shdaimah (University of Maryland) talking on "Families in the Liberal State: Child Protection, Not Child Welfare" and Lidia Rabinovitch, a masters' student from Tel Aviv University, talking on "What Can Be Learned about ‘Motherhood’ from Consensual Adoption?" Chairperson and discussant of the panel were Dr. Assaf Meydani (The Academic College of Tel-Aviv) and Dr. Daphna Hacker (Tel Aviv University) respectively.

The Conference revealed, once again, that Bar-Ilan scholars remain at the forefront of Gender Studies in Israel, and are major contributors to the field.