Letters

LETTERS Women Rabbis To the Editor: I found your recent article, "Women as Rabbis," (May 1980) to be very interesting and informative. As a Conservative Jewish woman who has spent the past three...

...All to the pity...
...I find it ironic and saddening that Jewish people as a population And discrimination and subservience of blacks and other minorities on the basis of race so abhorrent, yet our "leaders" at the JTS pursue discrimination and subservience on the basis of gender with great fervor...
...it is your only place...
...Might not Fein also be accused of simplemindedness in stereotyping...
...Joseph M. Ruder Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif...
...May 1980) was both amusing and sad...
...Those affiliated with Bureaus of Jewish Education give more, perhaps because they are employees of a federation beneficiary agency...
...However, I respect my gender enough to challenge JTS' unfortunate and narrow view of the ordination of women, and I insist that some changes and reinterpre-tations of Jewish law and "women's place" be made...
...As your article illustrated, the point of who interprets Halakha is the focus of this momentous problem...
...I love being a Conservative Jew...
...Thirteen Things Kids Don't Know About Tz'dakah," May 1980...
...This is aptly illustrated by the 29-year-old Orthodox male reader in your survey who likened the ordination of women as rabbis to the ordination of chimpanzees...
...Throughout history, many documented sources have illustrated that strong anti-woman sentiment has existed in many cultures and societies, and is alive and well in American Jewish society today...
...Josiah Derby Forest Hills, New York Presidential Candidates To the Editor: Your article on the presidential candidates ("Norman Thomas, Where Are You Now That We Need You...
...The major factor is probably the Soviet Union...
...I doubt that this will be discussed at conferences of Jewish educators...
...It is grossly unfair to Jewish women who have the intelligence and motivation to become Conservative rabbis and successfully guide Conservative Jewish communities...
...What has happened, as Siegel points out, is the reverse—they stop teaching about them...
...If this does not occur sometime in the near future, I will, like thousands of other angry, confused and alienated Conservative men and women, leave my comfort for religious freedom and equality within another sect of Judaism...
...I regret to state that Jewish educators are no better than the general Jewish public in their UJA giving...
...As Conservative Jews, we must finally recognize and acknowledge that current Halakhic interpretation is sexist...
...The Gush Emunim are not the major factor preventing peace in the world today...
...It reminded me of my years at Harvard (B.S...
...Judith Sachs Pila Minneapolis, Minnesota Tz'dakah To the Editor: Danny Siegel's article, "13 Things Kids Don't Know About Tz'dakah" (May 1980), should be in ejery Jewish teacher's mailbox when school opens in September...
...faced in those days in finding an adequate place in the academy...
...And the daily tuna fish lunch...
...As a Conservative Jewish woman who has spent the past three years studying women's history at the University of Minnesota, I see the conflict over the ordination of women in a different light...
...What, in fact, they are saying, and have said throughout the ages is: You have a place...
...I remember, too, that as a Sabbath observer I was forced to miss the Saturday lectures in Math 13 (Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable) in my senior year...
...AlSd the long subway-to-ferry-to-narf?w gauge railroad to Winthrop to teach at the Hebrew School five days a week, and the long ride thereafter to the (then) Hebrew Teachers College in Roxbury...
...1939) as a commuter from the West End, frequently hitchhiking across the Charles River, and sometimes hiking the rest of the distance, just to save the nickel carfare...
...Audrey Friedman Marcus Vice President, Alternatives in Religious Education, Inc...
...One must bear in mind that past and present Halakha has been interpreted both by men and for men, thus resulting in a biased translation of what women and men should be in Jewish life...
...stay there...
...There are hardly any mitzvot mentioned more frequently in both the Torah and the Talmud than those relating to tz'dakah...
...And here's another shocker: California was in much better shape when Reagen left office as governor than when he took it over from our current governor's father...
...Yet there is a laity, small but influential, that is aware of this, and their awareness is a contributing factor to the low esteem in which our Jewish educators are held...
...Truth to tell, one of the major causes of my leaving mathematics after obtaining my Masters in that field and turning to the rabbinate was the dismal prospect that a Jewish Ph.D...
...Most gifts fall well below $100...
...I am aware of literally hundreds of principals and teachers and there is only one whom I know whose gift exceeds $500 per year...
...Anti-woman sentiment exists at a more subtle and less obvious level, exemplified in many readers' comments which insist that a woman is fulfilling the most important mitz-vot of her life by becoming a wife and mother and creating a traditional Jewish home...
...How things have changed—and how grateful American Jewry must be...
...This raises a fundamental question as to whether knowledge of a mitzvah actually leads to a certain kind of behavior...
...This is a story that can be repeated a thousand times...
...In their comments, they seem to feel as\hough they pay women a great compliment by acknowledging that they can perform a vital function in Jewish life...
...There is no question that anti-woman sentiment exists in present-day interpretation of Halakha...
...Yet many of those who bear the responsibility for teaching them do not feel it imperative to live by them...
...Philip Horn Teaneck, New Jersey Jews at Harvard To the Editor: I read the several articles in "Jews at Harvard" (June 1980) with excitement and nostalgia...
...An unfortunate comment, but not a surprising or unusual feeling in regard to female qualities and abilities...
...Fein notes that Reagan is a non-stere?typic right-winger because he may have compassion, yet he is terribly upset about Reagan's simplemindedness...
...Is this not precisely what the JTS seeks to avoid: more division within the movement and disillusionment among its people...
...San Jose, California To the Editor: As a professional with UJA, I could not share Danny Siegel's surprise at the low priority given tz'dakah in Jewish schools...
...1936, M.A...
...It seems to me that the JTS stands to lose more than it will gain by remaining firmly entrenched in its prejudice and inflexibility...
...After all, it is very difficult to expect an honest person to teach a certain value if he does not live by it...
...I am comfortable in my beliefs and practices...

Vol. 5 • July 1980 • No. 7


 
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