Students

-Renana Herman -

Name: Barak Fuchs

Age: 26

Year: 3

The facts: Alongside his legal studies, Bark is currently also serving as a full-time father (or “househusband”) while his wife Naama takes her first steps as a legal intern. The couple were recently featured in a news report on the subject. “It isn’t easy to combine degree studies with fatherhood.”

Why law? “When I was about 21 I realized that I wanted to study law. It wasn’t a sudden and dramatic decision. I used to argue with people a lot and I generally won the argument. Slowly I realized that this was the right subject for me. I really like reading and analyzing texts and have a critical mind. Also, if we are honest about it, law is all around us. Those who write the laws or rulings ultimately decide what happens in the country. That’s why I think it would be a good thing if everyone took a degree course in law.”

A second hearing: “Over my years at the university I’ve participated in some interesting projects. In the first year I took part in the Beit Midrash for Human Rights. We studied human rights and volunteered in the “social seal of approval” project run by the organization Ma’aglei Tzedek. Caf?s that were found to be providing decent rights for their workers received the “social seal of approval.” The goal of the project was to encourage potential customers to prefer businesses that were attentive to workers’ rights. In the second year I volunteered in Breira (“Alternative”). I spent six months in the family affairs court and six months in the administrative affairs court. This work is an example of changing the world a day at a time. Ostensibly all we did was help people to fill in forms, which sounds very easy and technical. But we helped lots of people who weren’t fluent in Hebrew or experienced expressing themselves in writing. For example, I helped a battered woman who was in a very emotional state and couldn’t start to fill in a six-page form. In those kind of situations you really feel that what you’re doing is meaningful. If I hadn’t been there, she wouldn’t have completed the form and her husband would have continued to beat her. It’s as simple as that. This year I am working in the legal clinic on women’s rights in labor law. I am concentrating on the issue of the conditions of employment of Haredi women.

Name: Esterika vidal

Age: 25

Year: 4

The facts: Estherika is combining her law degree with a degree in media studies. This coming September she will officially complete her studies and begin an internship at Yigal Arnon law firm in Jerusalem. She serves as the law students’ representative on the general student union, guides high school groups visiting the Supreme Court, and works in a hostel for youth at risk in Mevasseret.

Why law? “When I was young I dreamt of studying law. If I made a list of things to do before I was 30, it was there – to be a lawyer. People around me always said that I was suited to law. As I neared the end of high school, I became less enthusiastic about it for some reason. I went to see a counselor and he told me that I simply had to study law. So I couldn’t refuse. In the future I imagine that I will work in the media field. Law will be a ‘bonus.’”

A second hearing: “I get great satisfaction from working as a guide for high school students who visit the Supreme Court as part of their civics studies, and see it as much more than a mere job. There are various things that I only found out after beginning my university studies, and I’m glad that these students hear about it while they are still in high school. For example, what the Supreme Court does, and the fact that every person can submit a petition. We tell them about famous rulings such as Alice Miller (the first woman to be admitted for pilot training in the Israel Air Force) and other cases that are relevant to their own lives. I also worked in the clinic for women’s rights at work. I led a workshop for women in the Pat neighborhood of Jerusalem with the goal of raising their awareness of the rights they are entitled to. The workshop gave the women an opportunity to share their experiences in the workplace, to present themselves, and to discuss problems they had encountered, with the goal of identifying solutions to difficult situations.

Name: Ariel Galili

Age: 29

Year: 3

The facts: Ariel, who originally comes from Holon, is a diehard activist. Professor Alon Harel is responsible for giving him his nickname of “Galili the Scholar.” Ariel explains: “Before studying law, I completed a BA in literature with an emphasis on creative writing. I have been involved in social action for many years. I spent a year volunteering with the youth movement Hanoar Ha’oved Vehalomed: I lived in the movement commune and ran subsidized summer camps for children from poor families. During my previous degree I coordinated leadership development programs for students. We talked to them about the welfare state, conformism, oppression of all kinds, and feminism. Immediately after I completed my degree in Hebrew literature, I began to study law.

Why law? “What pushed me to study law was my desire to represent women who are caught in violent relationships and are longing for some kind of legal help, such as a restraining order, protection order, or any other legal tool that will enable them to live in financial security and physical safety. During my studies I participated in the social capital market clinic, which has raised my awareness of a field that’s relatively new in Israel: the use of the capitalist market to meet social needs. Or to put it another way – combining social yield with economic yield. This field involves commercial companies that create profit, which in turn is used to create all kinds of social solutions. I have just finished Dr. Yifat Bitton’s course on law and gender, which exposed me to different ways of using damages law to combat violence against women. For me, a law degree is a tool. Even if protests and demonstrations achieve change, this will be very slow. We need the legal tool in order to change things.”

An additional hearing: “Apart from my degree, I am also involved in writing poetry. I recently published my work in a left-wing journal called Mitan, which is published in Jaffa and advocates Jewish-Arab coexistence in the city. It’s very difficult for a poet to turn into a law student. In some ways I feel that it’s all alien to me. But this is a very important part of my personality. I hope to publish my first book of poems over the next couple of years.”