Events
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Upcoming Events
Photo Credit: Anna Roberts
November 18, 2025
11:30 am EST | Online
Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
As the daughter of a rabbi raised in an Orthodox Jewish community, Fletcher struggled to conform to the strict expectations placed upon her and her siblings. As she grew older, these restrictions intensified and her questions for G-d hung heavier than ever. Repeatedly let down by those who were supposed to protect her and pushed on to a path that seemed to take her further away from who she really was, she began to yearn for a life where she could embrace all facets of herself. When Fletcher’s sexuality came in conflict with the expectations of her family and community, she was confronted with either losing the faith she loved or losing herself. Fletcher made a daring decision: she decided to stay.
Yehudis Fletcher is the co-founder of Nahamu, a think tank that counters extremism in the Jewish community. She is an author, scholar and activist within her Charedi community. She has written for The Times, Haaretz, The Forward, the Jewish News and the Jewish Chronicle. She has just finished a masters degree in religion and theology at the University of Manchester and is beginning a PhD in the same at the University of Durham. She lives and loves in the heart of Manchester's Charedi community.
Chutzpah! is available at Penguin, Blackwell's, Amazon (UK), and other booksellers.
December 8, 2025
HBI Seminar Series
Dotan Brom, PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University's School of Historical Studies, HBI Scholar in Residence
12-1:30 pm EST | Hybrid: In-Person at HBI | Liberman-Miller Lecture Hall and Online
12 pm: brown bag lunch at HBI | 12:30-1:30 pm EST: lecture
This talk will explore the formative years of lesbian-feminist activism in Israel, tracing the influence of American and other English-speaking feminists on the creation of the country's first lesbian organizations and spaces. At the center of the story is Marcia Freedman, an American Jewish feminist who immigrated to Israel and became a pivotal figure in both the Women's Liberation Movement and in establishing lesbian-feminist institutions such as ALEPH and Kol HaIsha.
Drawing on archival sources - including Freedman's papers held at Brandeis University's Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections, as well as personal testimonies, the presentation will highlight how immigrant women, particularly from the United States, helped shape Israeli feminist and lesbian politics, and how transnational networks of knowledge transmission and activism connected local struggles with broader global feminist movements.