{"id":3535,"date":"2015-11-05T18:02:31","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T01:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/?p=3535"},"modified":"2015-11-06T10:38:18","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T17:38:18","slug":"the-war-for-the-souls-of-orthodox-jewish-women-and-men-and-why-it-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/05\/the-war-for-the-souls-of-orthodox-jewish-women-and-men-and-why-it-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"The War for the Souls of Orthodox Jewish Women (and Men) and Why It Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l0MVJPSNFKs\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe young woman who wrote and recorded this song (watch it if you haven&#8217;t; it&#8217;s wonderful) is a &#8220;Singer\/songwriter, vlogger, Orthodox Jew, and English major on the verge of &#8216;real life.'&#8221; \u00a0Her name is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/a-youtube-ode-to-orthodox-jewish-feminists\/\" target=\"_blank\">Talia Lakritz<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The young woman who wrote and published<a href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/ooenpdu\">\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0piece, which begins with the word &#8220;Hineni&#8221; (Here I am &#8211; a response to God&#8217;s call several times in the Torah)\u00a0is a Maharat and a pioneer in ritual Orthodox Judaism. Her name is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.yeshivatmaharat.org\/class-of-2013\/2014\/5\/21\/maharat-rachel-kohl-finegold\" target=\"_blank\">Rachel Kohl Finegold<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0young woman who was\u00a0my <em>best<\/em> teacher of all things Jewish (and many other things) is a model for many. \u00a0Her name is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aliza.sperling.3?fref=ts\" target=\"_blank\">Aliza Sperling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The young woman who helped to support\u00a0traumatized\u00a0victims of the &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/crime\/dc-rabbi-scheduled-to-be-sentenced-today-on-voyeurism-charges\/2015\/05\/14\/4a1187b0-fa77-11e4-9030-b4732caefe81_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">mikvah rabbi scandal<\/a>&#8221; is a Maharat at The National Synagogue. \u00a0Her name is <a href=\"http:\/\/ostt.org\/Maharat_Ruth\" target=\"_blank\">Ruth Balinsky Friedman.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The young women who ranked highest among my other great teachers offered wise, knowledgeable, exciting education both in theory and practice. \u00a0Their names are\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.yeshivatmaharat.org\/faculty-and-staff\/2015\/10\/8\/laura-shaw-frank\" target=\"_blank\">Laura Shaw Frank<\/a> (JD and almost PhD), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/rachel.weintraub.33?fref=ts\" target=\"_blank\">Rachel Weintraub <\/a>(JD), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/brooke.pollak?fref=ts\" target=\"_blank\">Brooke Pollack <\/a>(JD),\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aliza.levine\" target=\"_blank\">Aliza Levine<\/a> (MD). \u00a0There were more, too.<\/p>\n<p>They are all treasures in my life; I wish every Jewish seeker could have so stunning an educational-religious posse.<\/p>\n<p>So what&#8217;s going on? \u00a0Why has The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) stuck a stick in the eye of every Jewish woman, especially women like these\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0passionate Jews; learners and teachers\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0by issuing a kind of fatwa <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jta.org\/2015\/11\/03\/news-opinion\/united-states\/with-resolution-against-hiring-women-rabbis-rca-votes-for-confrontation\" target=\"_blank\">against the rabbinic ordination of Orthodox Jewish women<\/a>. \u00a0This is just the most recent episode in\u00a0the soap opera\u00a0that their\u00a0effort to keep women from formal religious leadership. \u00a0Predictably, outrage ensued.<\/p>\n<p>From New York&#8217;s towering Modern Orthodox leader <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thejewishweek.com\/editorial-opinion\/opinion\/women-can-be-rabbis-keeping-tradition\" target=\"_blank\">Avi Weiss<\/a> \u00a0LA&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jewishjournal.com\/morethodoxy\/item\/we_have_arrived_orthodox_spiritual_leadership_is_gender_blind\" target=\"_blank\">Rav\u00a0Yosef Kanevsky,<\/a>\u00a0word emerged that this blow was unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p><em>Why does it matter?<\/em> \u00a0RCA claims that there are plenty of ways for women to participate and even lead, they just can&#8217;t be ordained. \u00a0Why the uproar from college women and teachers and rabbis and parents and &#8211; generally &#8211; people who really like being Jewish? \u00a0<em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Because it&#8217;s terrible to\u00a0continue, with even more emphasis than usual, to\u00a0shut half your community off &#8212; by fiat &#8212; from the privilege of spiritual leadership. Remember the slogan &#8220;If \u00a0you can see it, you can be it.&#8221; \u00a0Sounds right doesn&#8217;t it? \u00a0But if you&#8217;re set apart, part of your soul is\u00a0set apart\u00a0too.<\/p>\n<p>The Jewish people lose way too much,\u00a0kept from 50% of the talent and strength and smarts and love in our own communities.<\/p>\n<p>Read this story by the renowned feminist Letty Cottin Pogrebin, on the death of her mother:*<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;One night about twenty people are milling about the house but by Jewish computation there are only nine Jews in our living room. \u00a0This is because only nine men have shown up for the memorial service. \u00a0A minyan, the quorum required for Jewish communal prayer, calls for ten men.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know the Hebrew.&#8221; I say. \u00a0&#8220;You can count<em> me<\/em>, Daddy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I meant <em>I\u00a0want to count<\/em>. \u00a0I meant, don&#8217;t count me out just because I am a girl.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You know it&#8217;s not allowed, he replies, frowning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For my own mother&#8217;s Kaddish I\u00a0can be counted in the minyan. \u00a0For God&#8217;s sake, it&#8217;s <em>your<\/em> house! \u00a0It&#8217;s <em>your<\/em> minyan Daddy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Not allowed!&#8221; says my father.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Later she wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The turning point in my spiritual life&#8230;.I could point to the shivah experience in my living room, say that my father sent me into the arms of feminism, and leave it at that&#8230;.No woman who has faced the anguish and insult of exclusion on top of the tragedy of her bereavement forgets that her humiliation was inflicted by Jewish men.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s heartbreaking, isn&#8217;t it? \u00a0Such a loss for those who wish to serve and all of us who need them. \u00a0Besides, as my friend Chana reminded me, in last week&#8217;s parsha God told Abraham &#8220;Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you.&#8221; \u00a0If only He&#8217;d get in touch with the RCA and remind them, too.<\/p>\n<p>*<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Deborah-Golda-Me-Female-America\/dp\/0385425120\" target=\"_blank\">Deborah, Golda and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The young woman who wrote and recorded this song (watch it if you haven&#8217;t; it&#8217;s wonderful) is a &#8220;Singer\/songwriter, vlogger, Orthodox Jew, and English major on the verge of &#8216;real life.&#8217;&#8221; \u00a0Her name is Talia Lakritz. The young woman who wrote and published\u00a0this\u00a0piece, which begins with the word &#8220;Hineni&#8221; (Here I am &#8211; a response &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/05\/the-war-for-the-souls-of-orthodox-jewish-women-and-men-and-why-it-matters\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The War for the Souls of Orthodox Jewish Women (and Men) and Why It Matters<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,7,1917,9,98,29],"tags":[220,219,3477,3479,3482,3480,223,3476,3483,3475,44,3478],"class_list":["post-3535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-life","category-nablopomo","category-politics","category-religion","category-women","tag-jewish","tag-judaism","tag-maharat","tag-modern-orthodox","tag-nerd-with-a-voice","tag-open-orthodox","tag-orthodox","tag-rabbinical-council-of-america","tag-rachel-kohn-finegold","tag-rca","tag-women-2","tag-women-rabbis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-V1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3535"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3547,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions\/3547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}