Defining a sage and the Ethics of the Mothers

(2:12 min)

Only God could have created Shakespeare

(1:46 min)

Why spirituality needs Judaism

(1:16 min)

“Israel Women’s Network,” Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, CD-ROM, edited by Paula Hyman and Dalia Ofer (Jewish Publication Society, 2007)

Shalvi’s article for the Encyclopedia discusses the background of the Israel Women’s Network. The Encyclopedia was produced by Shalvi’s husband, Moshe Shalvi, on the occasion of their fifty-seventh wedding anniversary as a testament to his wife’s work. Created as a CD-ROM, the Encyclopedia has two thousand entries, including more than sixteen hundred biographies of Jewish women from Lilith through the present day, written by leading feminist scholars from around the world.

“Alice Hildegard Shalvi,” Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia

This is the entry about Shalvi in the Encyclopedia. It is a detailed biographical article by Charlotte Wishlah documenting Shalvi’s life and her many accomplishments and listing her most significant publications.

“ ‘Renew Our Days as of Old’: Religious fundamentalism and social change in the modern Jewish state,” chapter 4, The Freedom to do God’s Will, edited by Gerrie ter Haar and James J. Busuttil (Routledge 2003)

Shalvi takes a hard look at the androcentric and patriarchal tradition that governs Jewish fundamentalist thought and practice and examines its relationship to law and education in Israel.

“The Geopolitics of Jewish Feminism,” chapter 16, Gender and Judaism: The Transformation of Tradition, edited by TM Rudavsky (New York University Press, 1995)

Shalvi compares the progress of Jewish feminism in the U.S., Western Europe, and Israel based on her decades of observation.

“ ‘Women’s Wisdom Has Built Its Home’—A Highly Personal Account of the Pelech Experiment,” Studies in Jewish Education 7, edited by Walter Ackerman (Jerusalem, 1995)

The title says it all. This is a personal, factual, and moving history of this cutting-edge school for religious girls in Israel and Shalvi’s connection to it.

Promoting the Jewish Family in the Diaspora

Steven Bayme, Donald Feldstein, Susan Mizrachi, Alice Shalvi
(Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, 1992)

“Daniel Deronda”: A Centenary Symposium

Alice Shalvi, ed
(Jerusalem Academic Press, Israel, 1977)

Relationship of Renaissance Concepts of Honour in Shakespeare’s Problem Plays

(Salzburg, 1972)

World and Art of Shakespear

by A.A. Mendilow and Alice Shalvi
(Israel Universities Press, 1967)

Studies in English Language and Literature (Scripta Hierosolymitana: vol. XVII )

by Alice Shalvi & A.A. Mendilow, ed
(Hebrew University, 1966)

Selected articles and chapters

These recent articles and chapters were identified by Shalvi as being particularly significant and/or representative of her work.

Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies

Shalvi was the first female rector (academic dean) of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. The organization’s mission is to help fashion an Israeli society and a Jewish world secure in its Jewish roots and strong in its democratic values. In 1999 Shalvi became acting president and in 2000 was chosen to chair the institute’s executive board.

International Coalition for Agunah Rights (ICAR)

In 1992 Shavli cofounded ICAR, a coalition of twenty-seven organizations working to promote solutions to the problem of agunot and mesoravot get, women whose husbands are unable or unwilling to grant them a Jewish divorce in accordance with Jewish law.

Israel Women’s Network (Hebrew)

Shavli founded the Israel Women’s Network in 1989, the goal of which is to turn Israel into an egalitarian state where all citizens, male and female, are equal both in theory and in practice. She served as the organization’s director from 1984–2000.

Pelech School

Pelech was founded in 1963 in Israel as an experimental school for religious girls—it included Talmud as a compulsory part of the curriculum, a subject which previously was off limits to Orthodox women. Shalvi served as principal from 1975–1990.

Ohalim

From 1973 to 1979, Shalvi chaired the advisory council of the Ohel Joseph Community Center, the first Israeli grassroots neighborhood association, which later developed into the Ohalim movement, an Urban Social Movement in Jerusalem.

Rites of Passage: The Spiritual Journey of Alice Shalvi (aka The Annotated Alice), director Paula Weinman-Kelman (1998)

A documentary in which Shalvi shares her thoughts and memories of her public and private life, from her childhood in Essen to her present-day success as a leading Israeli scholar, feminist, and peace activist.

“Half the Kingdom” a film directed by Francine E. Zuckerman and Roushell Goldstein (National Film Board of Canada, 1989)

In this provocative documentary film, Shalvi is one of seven remarkable Jewish women featured because of their quest to find common ground between religious and cultural tradition and contemporary feminist principles.

2011 New Israel Fund Award for Social Leadership

Shalvi received the NIF and Dafna's Fund Prize for social and feminist leadership. This NIF webpage documenting the event also includes Some Things You Should Know About Alice, a short documentary about her life (length: 4:05) and a link to a feature article about Shalvi, “A Soldier for Sexual Equality,” published in Haaretz, June 7, 2011.

2009 Leibowitz Prize presented by Yesh Din

In honor of her public activism, Shalvi was co-recipient (with Rabbi Arik Ascherman) of this award.

2007 Israel Prize

Shalvi was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for her lifetime achievement and special contribution to society and the State of Israel.

1989 Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award

Presented by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, for individuals who have made unique contributions to human rights, awarded to Shalvi for founding the Israel Women's Network.