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| Dancing to Jewish music during a morning talk show |
In the days when I was a young mother, we'd advise each other to encourage our children to "go into the media" as careers. It was a very sturdy "double-glazed glass ceiling" in terms of both religious observance and politics. Until not all that long ago, the Israeli media was strictly secular-Left. If anyone didn't "fit in," he or she'd be relegated to technical staff at best.
A few years ago, Bibi Netanyahu's Likud Government disbanded the old Leftist government Israel Broadcasting Authority and established a few "private," though government backed television/radio companies. Even though some of the old veteran media stars are still featured, there are many new ones. This new media revolution broke the hold the Histadrut, Israel's powerful labor union, had on the media.Today, Channel 11 seems to be dominated by men who wear kippot, and many of those kippot are cloth, usually black, not the crocheted favored by the religiously moderate Bnai Akiva, NRP.
True change is always slow, and of course nothing will ever be perfect. But I think that we're going in the right direction. Religious women, married with hair covered in various styles, are also now seen on television even giving opinions. Gd willing I'll try to take photos and write about them, too.
Yes, I see wonderful changes and improvement here in Israel. This isn't the way things were half a century or even twenty years ago, Baruch Hashem, Thank Gd.