Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
My name is Polina Kempinsky, and I’m proud to be here as Israel’s Youth Delegate.
As a daughter of a Jewish family originating from former Soviet Union, I grew up hearing stories. Stories about how different their lives were, about their everyday struggles.
The stories I found most upsetting were the ones about the opportunities that they didn’t have.
One of these stories was the story of my mother being denied the opportunity to learn how to swim because she was what we would consider as somewhat chubby – but the Former Soviet Union people were allowed to take swimming lessons only if they had the potential of becoming professional athletes, and she didn’t show the potential they were looking for.
Another story, of an even more upsetting nature, was about my father being turned away from the University of his Dreams, despite his well recorded abilities in math, just because he is Jewish. .
My parents were denied these opportunities because they were living in a world in which things like gender, race and sexual orientation were the most important things. I, on the other hand, got the opportunities my parents didn’t have, thanks to Israel’s democratic nature. I got to learn how to swim; I got to go to the University of my Dreams. I get to express my opinions freely, to believe in myself, to have people tell me that only the sky is the limit.
This year, as a university student, I got to participate in a project named Young Women Politicians. This project was found by a young Israeli journalist, a woman, who felt that women weren’t represented enough in the decision-making process. Its goal is to encourage and strengthen young women to take part in the different stages of decision-making processes.
The participants of this incredible project got to meet women who decided to take matters in their own hands. We met women who were involved in Politics both on national and on the local levels. We got to meet economists, researchers, diplomats, women who founded NGO’s and many others. We got to ask them questions, to get involved, to understand how things work.
One thing I learned from this project is that the story of my parents as Jews in the former Soviet Union is a part of a bigger story - one that has everything to do with questions of gender, gender equality, LGBT rights and Young People’s rights. I learned that the world that I want to see is a world in which inclusion not a privilege but a given. In which the answer to the question “Does gender, sexual orientation or race influence the opportunities that I get” in very simply NO.
This room is filled with youth delegates. People that grew up in the 21st century. A generation of social media users, a generation in which diseases that were once lethal, such as pneumonia, would just get you a week’s break from school.
We are the generation that has the freedom to look at questions of gender and sexual orientation and refer to them as irrelevant. A generation that is able to put aside the prejudice and judgment of previous centuries in order to treat people with respect, in order to give ourselves and the generations to come the opportunities that they deserve.
We are the generation that shouldn’t be fighting for women’s rights and LGBT rights – but should see them as the natural way of the world.
Thank you.