In Israel, feminist changes affecting the rights of women in both the secular and religious spheres have greatly lagged behind those in the United States. If you didn ’t know this, there was often a reason: perhaps you thought that if Golda Meir could have been prime minister, an Israeli woman could do anything. Perhaps you assumed that the women in the army and kibbutzim could do the same work as men.

Even if you were aware of gender inequalities, you might have been persuaded that equal rights for women was a project trumped by the priorities of this war or that one. Perhaps you were persuaded that in a place where the sensibilities of the ultra-orthodox have been privileged with surprising accommodations, powerful traditions cannot be changed overnight without completely shattering the integrity of Judaism.

How easy it is to explain away lethargy and discrimination and to caution patience when the status quo does not threaten one ’s own human dignity. It is easy enough to say that change happens slowly for those who can already pray at the Kotel wearing a tallit and reading from a Torah scroll; or for those who can freely remarry after a divorce without needing to receive a get.

As an activist who has tried to address women’s religious rights in Israel, I have often been aggravated to tears by Israel’s snail’s pace towards granting equal rights for women. But then something quite wonderful will happen that distinctly improves the lives of women: a seminary once closed to women now ordains its first women rabbis; a school that teaches Talmud at advanced levels to women is built; an orthodox synagogue in which men and women participate with near-equality is packed with worshippers.

Witnessing such accomplishments with my own eyes and celebrating them, I tell myself that while the Israel of my own vision is unlikely to be built in my own lifetime, it may still happen one day.