View source for Adina Bar-Shalom

{{Short description|Israeli educator, columnist and social activist}}
{{Infobox Jewish leader
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| name             = Adina Bar-Shalom
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| image            = Adina Bar-Shalom (16903070753) (cropped).jpg
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| birth_name       = Adina Yosef
| birth_date       = {{Birth date and age|1945|1|5}}
| birth_place      = [[Jerusalem]]
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| nationality      = [[Israel]]i
| denomination     = Sephardi [[Haredi Judaism]]
| residence        = Jerusalem
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| parents          = Rabbi [[Ovadia Yosef]] and Margalit Fattal
| spouse           = Ezra Bar-Shalom
| children         = 3
| occupation       = Educator and social activist
| profession       =
| alma_mater       =[[Shenkar College of Engineering and Design]]
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'''Adina Bar-Shalom''' ({{langx|he|עדינה בר-שלום}}; January 5, 1945) is an Israeli educator, columnist, and social activist. She was the founder of the first college for [[Haredi Judaism|Haredi]] students in [[Jerusalem]], and has spent years working to overcome [[sexism|gender discrimination]]
in the Orthodox Jewish community. She was awarded the [[Israel Prize]] for lifetime achievement and special contribution to society in 2014.<ref>[http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Adina-Bar-Shalom-to-receive-Israel-Prize-345790 Adina Bar-Shalom to receive Israel Prize] The Jerusalem Post</ref><ref>[http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/IsraelExperience/People/Pages/Adina-Bar-Shalom-Education.aspx Bar-Shalom's profile from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs]</ref> A daughter of [[Ovadia Yosef]], she is a member of the prominent [[Yosef family]].
==Biography==
Adina Yosef (Bar-Shalom) was born in Jerusalem, the eldest daughter of Rabbi [[Ovadia Yosef]] and Margalit Fattal. From age 3 to 6, she lived in [[Cairo]], [[Egypt]], where her father served as deputy chief rabbi. She is a graduate of the [[Bais Yaakov]] girls' school network. As a teenager, she studied tailoring at a Bais Yaakov professional institution.
At eighteen, she married Rabbi Ezra Bar-Shalom, then taught sewing, and opened a fellowship for young brides for several years. In 1975, she began to study [[fashion design]] at the [[Shenkar College of Engineering and Design]], after her husband and her father had opposed her plans to study [[psychology]] at a university.
In 2001, with the permission of her father, Bar-Shalom founded [[Haredi College of Jerusalem]], the first higher education institution in that city designed for the Haredi sector.<ref>[http://www.jerusalemfoundation.org/media/44769/Haredi-College.pdf Haredi College Jerusalem] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125133347/http://www.jerusalemfoundation.org/media/44769/Haredi-College.pdf |date=2015-11-25 }} (PDF) The Jerusalem Foundation</ref> The college's programming and degrees are provided by Israeli academic institutions such as [[Ben-Gurion University of the Negev]], [[Bar-Ilan University]] and others, but the study takes place in a strictly gender-segregated environment, with schedules and childcare arrangements to enable students to uphold traditional Haredi
expectations of Torah study for men and motherhood for women.<ref name="HarediCollege">{{cite web |last1=Ben-Shimon |first1=Kamon |title=Deferentially progressive |url=https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/the-region/deferentially-progressive |website=The Jerusalem Post |access-date=10 February 2024}}</ref>
Bar-Shalom resides in the [[Ramat Aviv]] neighborhood of [[Tel Aviv]] with her husband, who is a [[beth din|rabbinical court judge]] and formerly served as president of the Tel Aviv Beit Din. The couple has three children. Their daughter, Chana, who was the director of former MK [[Shlomo Benizri]]'s office, is married to lawyer Moshe Shimoni, director general of the farmers' union and former director general of the [[Ministry of Religious Services]].
==Political and social activism==
Bar-Shalom became involved in politics as a member of the [[Tafnit]] social protest group, led by [[Uzi Dayan]], but left when the movement evolved into a political party and ran in the [[2006 Israeli legislative election|2006 Knesset elections]] (though it failed to cross the threshold). She then founded a forum for dialogue between religious and secular Jews in Israel. In the summer of 2011, she worked on the Spivak-Yona committee to address social inequality.
In 2012, bar shalom took part in a widely publicised meeting with [[Mahmoud Abbas]], the President of the [[Palestinian Authority]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=Elhanan |title=How Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s Daughter, Adina Bar Shalom, Became Israel’s Leading Ultra-Orthodox Iconoclast |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/adina-bar-shalom |website=Tabletmag |access-date=10 February 2024 |date=11 February 2016}}</ref><ref name="Abbas meeting">{{cite web |last1=Podolsky |first1=Philip |title=Two years after her father wished him dead, Abbas hosts Ovadia Yosef’s daughter |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-hosts-delegation-of-israeli-rabbis-in-ramallah/ |website=The Times of Israel |access-date=10 February 2024 |date=27 August 2012}}</ref>
Bar-Shalom regularly speaks about the importance of women's education and work, and in 2013 supported a women's-only political party in the Haredi town of [[El'ad]].<ref>[http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/193330/video-adina-bar-shalom-supports-womens-list-in-elad-race.html VIDEO: Adina Bar-Shalom Supports Women’s List in Elad Race] Yeshiva World News</ref> In addition, in early 2014, she considered a bid to become the [[president of Israel]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Haaretz|title=Next goal of Shas leader's daughter: Israeli presidency Adina Bar Shalom, oldest daughter of Ovadia Yosef and founder of ultra-Orthodox college in Jerusalem, said to be angling for Shimon Peres' job.|url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.569976|accessdate=February 26, 2014|newspaper=Haaretz|date=Jan 22, 2014}}</ref> In March 2014, Bar-Shalom wrote that the Haredi feminist revolution is already here, writing that, "The train has left the station".<ref>{{cite web|last=Bar-Shalom|first=Adina|title=Haredi feminism is already here|url=http://www.jewfem.com/index.php?option=com_easyblog&view=entry&id=419&Itemid=233|newspaper=Yedioth Ahronoth|date=6 March 2014|accessdate=6 March 2014}} Posted to [http://www.jewfem.com/ AJewishFeminist blog] in English translation by [[Elana Maryles Sztokman]]</ref>
Bar-Shalom supported Shas, the political party founded by her father, and in 2014 founded and led its women's committee.<ref name="Shas Women">{{cite web |last1=Ronen |first1=Gil |title='Shas Will Have Female MKs, Too' |url=https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/188679 |website=Israel national News |access-date=10 February 2024}}</ref> However in 2018, she broke with Shas and founded a new party, Ahi Yisraeli, to run in the [[April 2019 Israeli legislative election|2019 Israeli elections]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sharon |first1=Jeremy |title=Adina Bar-Shalom registers new party, Ahi Yisraeli |url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/daughter-of-rabbi-ovadia-yosef-registers-new-political-party-563767 |website=The Jerusalem Post |access-date=10 February 2024 |date=30 July 2018}}</ref> Ahi Yisraeli pulled out before the election, and Bar-Shalom endorsed [[Moshe Kahlon]]'s [[Kulanu]] party.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hoffman |first1=Gil |title=Adina Bar-Shalom endorses Kulanu |url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-elections/adina-bar-shalom-endorses-kulanu-585045 |website=The Jerusalem Post |access-date=10 February 2024 |date=28 March 2019}}</ref>
==Awards and recognition==
In December 2012, she was honored as a "Knight of Quality Government" by the [[Movement for Quality Government in Israel]]. In 2013, Bar-Shalom was selected by Nashim magazine, part of the [[Makor Rishon]] newspaper, as one of the twenty most influential religious women in Israel. In April 2013, she received an [[honorary degree|honorary doctorate]] from [[Ben-Gurion University of the Negev]].
==References==
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[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Israel Prize women recipients]]
[[Category:Israel Prize for lifetime achievement & special contribution to society recipients]]
[[Category:Ovadia Yosef]]
[[Category:Israeli people of Iraqi-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Israeli Orthodox Jews]]
[[Category:Israeli feminists]]
[[Category:Rebbetzins]]
[[Category:Haredi feminists]]