Who we are and what we do
Bat Kol is an organization for proud religious LGBT women, founded by women who do not give up their religious identity, nor their right to live their lives as lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queer. Bat Kol works to enable religious LGBT women to live a life of truth and love, a life of sharing and equality, a life of wholeness and acceptance in religious society. Achieving its goals is essential not only for religious LGBT women, but for the entire religious community, to create a more reformed society, a more just society, a society in which kindness, truth, and peace touch.
Since the organization was founded in 2005, which at the time included about ten women, over five hundred women aged nineteen to sixty-plus have joined Bat Kol.
In every population group, 4-10 percent of women are lesbians. Religious women are no exception to this rule. In the past, religious lesbian women had to choose between the different identities that made them up. Some chose to realize their lesbian identity and leave the religious world. Others chose to remain religious and live in solitude without a family, or married into an unhappy marriage to a man, giving up a life of love and sharing. The group of women who founded Bat-Kol chose differently. They chose to remain religious, without giving up their lesbian identity – such an essential component of their inner identity.
The social group that became Bat-Kol was founded by about ten women. In the winter of 2005, the organization was born and its name was chosen. Since then, more and more women have continued to join Bat-Kol. Bat-Kol members include graduates of academies such as Kfar Pines and Tzvia, religious high schools such as Pelech, as well as graduates of the Haredi education system. Some of them have started lesbian families and are raising children with partners, some are in the closet. Each of them is dealing with the complexities of their choice.
In the first half of 2008, Bat-Kol underwent a reorganization process. In a series of meetings with a consultant from Shatil, Bat-Kol's basic guidelines were formulated, and the mechanism that would allow the organization to operate effectively was built. On Tammuz 14, 5768, July 17, 2008, Bat-Kol's first plenary meeting convened. Eighty-four members attended the exciting event. They received membership cards for the first time, signed the basic guidelines document, elected the first executive committee, and Bat-Kol embarked on a new journey.
At the second plenary session held in 2009, Bat Kol's bylaws, written on the basis of the basic outline document, were approved. In December 2010, the process of registering "Bat Kol" as a non-profit organization under the name "Bat Kol, Religious Lesbian Organization" was completed.
In preparation for the Pride Parade in Jerusalem held in June 2005, Bat Kol issued a call for members of the religious community to march together in the parade to promote tolerance and acceptance of diversity in religious society. In this parade, Bat Kol members marched together as a group for the first time, along with pioneering straight religious members who responded to the call. Dressed in white and carrying purple balloons, Bat Kol women made a statement – we are here! Since then, Bat Kol has continued to march in the Pride and Tolerance Parade in Jerusalem every year, with an ever-increasing representation.
In 2009, it was decided to march as an organization in the Tel Aviv Pride Parade. Despite the negative image of this parade in the media and in the public, and despite the fact that it also includes messages with which we cannot identify, we do not doubt the importance of its existence and the achievements it has brought to the LGBT community and within it to the lesbian community.
Within the framework of Bat-Kol, regular meetings and various social activities are held for religious lesbians. These meetings provide a social framework as well as support and encouragement.
Another aspect of Bat-Kol's activities is advocacy and education towards the full integration of lesbians into the religious community. In recent years, there has been a process of change in the perception of the religious public in general, and among its rabbis in particular, regarding homosexuality and lesbianism. There is still much to be done in this area, and therefore Bat-Kol continues to work to change attitudes toward lesbians among the religious public in all its forms through various advocacy activities.
Tamar Lempert
Bat Kol CEO
Ayala Reifler
Project Manager
Dini Rosenfeld
Community Manager
Our team
הודיה נ.
יו"ר בת קול
בת 39, עובדת סוציאלית, חברת ועדה , בוגרת חינוך ממ"ד, חוזרת בתשובה מגיל 16, 13 שנים בבת-קול, בת קול היא מקום שמעניק בית, תקווה ובעיקר הבנה שאנחנו לא לבד.
הודיה ב.
ועדה מנהלת
בת 23, לסבית דתיה וגרה בשומרון, הצטרפתי לבת-ק ול בדצמבר 2022. אחראית מפגשים ביתיים ואתר בת-קול, סטודנטית לתואר ראשון במדעי המדינה.
Executive Committee Members
דניאלה שלו
בת ואחות, סטודנטית עייפה לפסיכולוגיה ולמשאבי אנוש, חברת בת-קול גאה.
בת קול עבורי היא הסמל לאמת, לתורה ולאהבת השם ואני שמחה על הזכות להיות בוועדה זו השנה השניה
מיה אליצור
בת 36, נשואה ליעל, אמא ל-2, גרות בצור הדסה. עובדת בג'וינט כרכזת תקציבים. חברה בבת קול 10 שנים, וחברת ועדת ביקרות בשנתיים האחרונות