When Women and Men Sat Together in American Orthodox Synagogues
SCHIFFMAN, LAWRENCE H.
When Women & Men Sat Together in American Orthodox Synagogues LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN On July 28, 1955, the Beth Tefilas Moses Congregation in Mt. Clemens, Michigan, voted to discontinue the...
...All that can be said of the archaeological evidence is that it is equivocal, providing no definite proof of either position...
...As far back as the medieval period and continuing to the late 19th century, men and women were separated by a mechitza in Jewish worship...
...A traveler in 1748 described the galleries, which ' 'were appropriated to the ladies, while the men sat below...
...Beth Tefilas Moses was an Orthodox synagogue, they argued...
...In part, I numb myself to my negative feelings on being left out of certain ritual roles simply because I want to be part of this community...
...its sanctuary has no mechitza...
...The period from 1880 to 1930 brought vast millions of Eastern European Orthodox Jews to these shores...
...Consider these words of a leading Orthodox rabbi, Joseph 11 Sotoveitchik: A synagogue with a mixed seating arrangement forfeits its sanctity and its Ha la-chic status of mikdash me'st [a Sanctuary-m-miniature...
...By the mid-1950s, it seemed to many segments of modern Orthodoxy that the solution to the issue of the mechitza was to abandon the separation of the sexes in the synagogue...
...After all, the architectural design of the preserved lower floors of these buildings From My Side Of the Mechitza For the past three years, I have sat in the women's section—a balcony, in this case— every Shabbat and holiday...
...This was the case with Rabbi Shlomo Riskin at the famous Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York Even before a mechitza was installed, however, Rabbi Riskin technically avoided praying in a synagogue without a mechitza As he explained to the congregation, as a condition of his accepting the position as rabbt It would be made very clear that though I was present for services, I would not actually be daventng [praying} along with the congregation...
...Otherwise, synagogues, even in this country, retained separation of the sexes by mechitza...
...These are rooms equipped with bleacher-type seating around the sides...
...Apparently he indicated to the congregation's lawyer that if the motion were presented again at that time, it would be granted...
...When it reviewed the record of the trial, it found that the evidence presented by Litvin's group was wholly unopposed...
...But Litvin achieved a larger,Victory, for the mechitza became a symbol...
...In this case, said the court, there was no "ecclesiastical question...
...The women's court was not entirely closed olf to men...
...The congregation won...
...In some ways, the Beth Tefilas Moses case, spearheaded by Baruch Litvin, was the culmination of an inner ferment within the Orthodox establishment...
...3 Baruch Litvin, The Sanctity of the Synagogue, 3rd cd., Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav, 1987, p. 410 * A similar result was reached in a famous case decided in 1875, Solomon vs Congregation B'nal Jeshurun, in which a New York court refused to intervene in the congregation's decision to permit mixed seating based on contradictory testimony regarding its legitimacy...
...From this talmudic discussion, it can be gathered that under normal circumThe sanctuary of Beth Tefilas Moses congregation in Mt Clemens, Michigan, was the focus of a mixed seating controversy in the 1950s that changed the course of American Orthodox practice by turning the tide away from mixed seating...
...What the result would have been if the congregation's lawyer had cross-examined the plaintiffs' witnesses and presented evidence of his own regarding Jewish law and the number of Orthodox congregations that had mixed seating, no one can know for sure...
...the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart...
...Women, however, were excluded from the court of Israel...
...Except for his family, no member socialized with him after the court battle...
...No pretext excuse, ad hoc formula, missionary complex, or unfounded fear of losing our foothold in the Jewish community, can justify the acceptance of the Christianized synagogue as a bona fide Jewish religious institution -HS Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is credited with having drawn many young Jews closer to traditional observance during the years he led Manhattan's Lincoln Square Synagogue...
...sSce Litvin, pp...
...there is no archaeological evidence for separation here...
...In 1952, one commentator had noted that in the preceding two years not a single synagogue built in America was constructed with the traditional separation of the sexes...
...Since the Beth Tefilas Moses case, the trend in the Orthodox community has been in the opposite direction...
...For forcing them to retain a mechitza, Litvin was consciously ignored by all synagogue members...
...If Orthodoxy had abandoned this principle, it would undoubtedly have discarded other aspects of the halachic system as well...
...see also Palestinian Talmud Sukkah 5:2 [55b], Mishnah Sukkali 5:2, Shddol 2:5, Toscfta Sukkah 4:1...
...More recently, however, these views have been challenged, first by the Israeli historian Shmuel Safrai and then by New Testament scholar Bernadette Brooten in her 1982 doctoral dissertation at Harvard (see her article on p. 32).9 These scholars make a number of arguments: First, some of the ancient synagogues clearly did not have balconies...
...Second, most buildings that purportedly had balconies were incorrectly assessed by the archaeologists and did not have balconies...
...I was raised in the Conservative tradition, and had always chosen to attend egalitarian services before this...
...In this passage, the prophet foretells a time to come when God will annihilate those who attack Jerusalem...
...A second apparent deviation involves an honorary president of the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America, who testified to the halachic prohibition on worshipping in a synagogue with mixed seating...
...I miss having a//yot chanting haftorahs and being in the procession with my lulav and etrog...
...Traditional Judaism had established itself here with the arrival of Sephardic Jews in the pre-revolutionary period...
...Nevertheless, even here there were some calls for mixed seating...
...After killing the men, he offers to spare the women...
...The defendants had wholly failed to produce any contrary evidence as to Orthodox Jewish law...
...These buildings architecturally resemble Christian churches of the same period...
...The purpose of this arrangement was to avoid the levity that would ensue if the sexes were not separated...
...Theological Seminary itself), was the institution of mixed seating...
...In the Near East, the separation of the sexes at public gatherings was generally expected, and the realm of ritual was generally given over to the males...
...Usually, they failed...
...By that time the Orthodox community had evolved sufficiently so that its institutions and patterns of development and growth were already in place...
...Amazingly, he succeeded...
...The offspring of most Orthodox immigrants to the United States between 1880 and 1930 soon abandoned Orthodoxy and, if they joined a synagogue at all, it was a Conservative or a Reform congregation...
...20 B.C.E.-50 C.E...
...The Reform movement in Germany had maintained separate seating, although usually doing away with the balconies...
...Over the last three years the OU has asked its member congregations without mechitzas either to install a mechitza, "to adopt a program leading toward installing a mechitza"ox to drop their OU membership, Stolper said...
...At the trial, Litvin and his group presented their evidence, testifying that their shut had always been Orthodox and that the women had always been seated in the balcony (except Baruch Litvin, a Michigan carpenter, won the court battle to preserve separate seating in his synagogue, Beth Tefilas Moses, but was ostracized by his community for the rest of his life...
...Only in this context can we understand the reversal of the tendency toward traditionalist compromise in connection with the separation of the sexes in the synagogue that we have observed...
...The congregation's lawyer was confident that his motion to dismiss would be granted when he renewed it after the trial...
...At some Orthodox synagogues, groups campaigned to change their affiliation from Orthodox to Conservative...
...As early as the 1850s, Eastern European Orthodox congregations were being established...
...The forces of tradition were greatly aided by the large number of Jews who came to the United States from Europe in the wake of World WarTI and the Holocaust...
...These thoughts—both positive and neg- -ative—express feelings rather than halachic arguments...
...Rabbi Feinstein saw both the separation and the partition as biblical prescriptions (de'orayta...
...Another observer estimated in 1954 that 90 percent of the graduates of the Hebrew Theological College (an Orthodox institution) led congregations with mixed or optional seating arrangements and that this was also true of 50 percent of the graduates of Yeshiva University (the preeminent Orthodox institution).1 In 1961, it was claimed that in the United States there were "perhaps 250 Orthodox synagogues" with mixed seating...
...Therefore, it is required that just as the sexes were separated in the Temple, so they are to be separated in the synagogue...
...It was only that the balcony was necessary for this particular ritual.* Rabbi Kotler points out that based on the talmudic principle that the synagogue is a sanctuary in miniature (mikdosh me'at), the same level of sanctity observed in the Temple in Jerusalem must be observed in the synagogue...
...The decree in the Beth Tefilas Moses case specifically provided that 'it was the practice in the Synagogue of Congregation Beth Tefilas Moses to assign one bench in the Southwesterly comer of the main floor to elderly women who were crippled or otherwise by reason of disease unable to ascend the stairs to the balcony, [and] nothing in this Decree contained shall be construed to prevent the continuance of that practice' This practice is not a violation of Orthodox law, however, if a mechitza is erected on the main floor...
...Even more surprising, in 1955 Beth Tefilas Moses was part of a growing trend in modern Orthodox synagogues...
...Moreover, separation of the sexes for worship is in accord with the general behavior patterns of Near Eastern social convention...
...For this joyous occasion, a special arrangement was made: A balcony was constructed so that the men could not see the women during the celebrations...
...Rabbi Soloveitchik also saw the separation of the sexes as a biblical law, but understood the partition itself as a rabbinic ordinance (de'rabbanan...
...This practice can only be explained as a reflection of contemporaraneous practice in Jewish houses of worship...
...Litvin and others like him argued that adherence to halachah cannot be compromised under any circumstances...
...They respond, "Do to those above as you have done to those below...
...there are three buildings—at Masada, Herodion and Gamla—that are usually identified as synagogues...
...Invariably, however, he sat alone, unless a son or grandson joined him...
...Modern Orthodox writings stress that the traditional mode of worship is not intended to indicate any secondary status for women in Judaism...
...In the Second Temple, which flourished in Jerusalem from about 520 B.C.E.-70 C.E., there was a women's court...
...9 Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue, Chico, Calif: Scholars Press, 1982 (Brown Judaic Studies, no...
...8 Alongside the halachic issues, the results of modern archaeological research have added a new dimension to the mechitza controversy...
...And the material he assembled and published provided the arguments for others to follow in his trail...
...From the first century C.E...
...I think I now feel less inhibited in prayer—more free to let some tears roll, for instance—because of separate seating I also notice that separate seating forces married people to interact in the synagogue setting—at least a little—independent of their mates, which I think is a healthy thing Now that I've gotten accustomed to it, I can see how many women who have sat separately in synagogue all their lives would have absolutely no thought of changing the system...
...I used to participate in an egalitarian minyan where some of the men decided to start a custom of having a shot of schnapps during a lull in the service, a custom that none of the women there took on...
...The trial judge granted the motion to dismiss...
...This old phenomenon [of mixed seating], which was typical of the immigrant generation, is all but phased out In the last 10 or 15 years, no congregations without mechitzas have applied for membership in the Union," Stolper told MOMENT...
...Shortly after their court complaint was filed, the congregation's lawyer submitted a motion to dismiss the case on the ground that a civil court had no jurisdiction over what was essentially a religious question...
...What distinguished Beth Tefilas Moses in Mt...
...Consistent with this view, he did not cross-examine his opponent's witnesses nor did he present any evidence on behalf of the congregation, but announced that he would instead renew his motion to dismiss the case on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction over matters of religious law...
...7 Litvin, pp...
...Beginning in 1837, the German Reformist Abraham Geiger promoted reforms regarding the role of women in Jewish life...
...Joscphus, The Jewish War, V, v, 2, 198-200...
...Just how many adopted mixed seating is not known...
...In the end, the judge did grant the motion, but the attorney for the congregation made a fatal mistake in relying solely on this motion...
...The congregation was given another piece of property nearby on which to build a new synagogue...
...Not the court victory per se, but the publicity that attended it insured his victory...
...This they refused to do...
...In the period after World War II, however, momentum for mixed seating grew even in modern Orthodox synagogues...
...The building was sold to the city of Mt Clemens in 1975, and was razed to make way for a senior citizens' housing project A new synagogue building was erected elsewhere...
...Litvin's group promptly appealed the trial court's decision to the Michigan Supreme Court...
...Some indication comes, however, from a suit brought not long after the Mt...
...This group refused to bow to the trend toward compromise that was beginning to dominate Orthodoxy in America...
...Some authorities might not go so far...
...stances the sexes were also separated...
...J. Werthcimcr, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 380, quoting sociologist Marshall Sklarc...
...and is unfit for prayer____With full cognizance of the implications ot such a Kalachic decision, I would still advise every Orthodox Jew to forgo tettllah betztbbur igroup prayer] even on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kip-pur, rather than enter a synagogue with mixed pews, notwithstanding the fact that the officiating rabbi happens to be a graduate of a great and venerable yeshivah...
...on (the precise dating of these buildings is a matter of great debate), many synagogues in Galilee and the Golan—such as Hamat Tiberias, Capernaum and Bet Alpha—are arranged with a main hall in the middle, and two sets of pillars running along the sides, creating smaller chambers on each side...
...The rabbis believed that this indicated the normal course of affairs in the Jerusalem Temple all year round...
...5 The reason there is no explicit law in the traditional literature may well be that the laws relating to the mechitza were so well known that knowledge of them was simply taken for granted...
...3 The court had no choice but to accept the plaintiffs' version of the evidence...
...In most of these congregations, a minority of traditionalists fought to stem the tide...
...The court pointedly noted that "the defendants [the congregation] herein had an opportunity to present testimony to dispute the plaintiffs' testimony...
...It was then torn down to make way for a senior citizens' housing development...
...B'nai Jeshurun thereafter became affiliated with the Conservative movement...
...12 Sarna, pp...
...In 1824, however, the earliest stirrings of Reform took place in the United States...
...According to Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Green-berg, an Orthodox rabbi noted for his efforts to bring together Jews of all denominations, The interesting discussion now engaging Orthodox synagogues is the question of the adequacy of the women's section...
...2 Baruch Litvin contended in the Mt...
...it provided a rallying cry, an occasion to organize and clarify arguments...
...The Jewish community never made its peace with him...
...In the words of Rabbi Soloveitchik: Prayer means communion with the Master of the World, and therefore withdrawal from all and everything...
...At this time, Orthodoxy was very much on the defensive...
...he wanted to awaken the Orthodox community to the importance of the traditional seating pattern, to reverse the trend in so many American Orthodox synagogues...
...The Michigan Supreme Court agreed with the congregation's lawyer that it had no jurisdiction over "ecclesiastical questions," only over property rights...
...The Beth Tefilas Moses case, however, proved to be a watershed...
...they were known and practiced by the entire people, in general and in particular, and not one detail was beyond anyone's ken...
...The emerging Conservative approach stressed adherence to tradition while also allowing certain changes...
...When he became rabbi at Lincoln Square, the sanctuary had no mtchita...
...Only in fertility or sexually oriented cults did females take a leading role...
...Yet this debate has been improperly focused...
...the inhabitants of Jerusalem will then show pity and compassion, and lament for the slain: And the land shall mourn, every family apart...
...Clemens case that he and his group, who had been members of the congregation for many years—Litvin had even served as president—would be deprived of their property rights to use the synagogue if mixed seating were permitted...
...This group sued the congregation in the Michigan courts to enforce the requirement of a mechitza, a separation of men and women in the synagogue either by a screen or a balcony...
...The synagogue has been praised Cor its relatively equitable seating-in-the-ro' nd arrangement in which men and women sit on opposite sides of a centra bimsrX and the mechitza is a glass and wood partition...
...All agree that a balcony or partition is required by the law...
...He based his view on Zechariah 12:7-14...
...But Eastern European immigration would soon reverse this trend...
...In short, this passage was understood to mean that separate areas for men and women existed in the Temple, even before the balcony was constructed for the Water Drawing Ceremony, but that once a year, for this special occasion, the special precaution of the balcony was required because of the joyous atmosphere that prevailed (Babylonian Talmud Sukkak 51b-52a...
...Most of the discussion of balconies has focused on this second type of building...
...To enter the mainstream of American life, they assimilated to dominant American ways...
...The discussion in the Babylonian Talmud includes a statement that "originally the women would sit inside [the court of the women] and the men outside...
...It had no mechitza...
...In synagogues with separate seating, women generally don't play active roles in the service This is more difficult for me to feel comfortable with...
...Third, neither biblical nor talmudic passages indicate that the sexes were separated in the Temple...
...Today, fewer than 10 of the OU's 900 member congregations have mixed seating The program leading to installing a mechitza, Stolper explained, can be different in different synagogues...
...Indeed, today the most visible distinction between an Orthodox synagogue, on the one hand, and a Conservative or Reform synagogue, on the other, is whether or not mixed seating prevails...
...On this basis Orthodoxy has survived and flourished in America...
...Today, separation of the sexes is no longer an issue, except in a very few Orthodox synagogues still without a mechitza...
...Orthodox Judaism is based on its adherence to halachah, an entire system of Jewish life and law...
...Although I can accept separate seating it's crucial to me to be able to see and hear what happens on the bimah...
...This was probably an exaggeration, but even such hyperbole testifies to what was a large-scale trend toward mixed seating in American Orthodox congregations...
...Early American synagogues such as the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue, Shearith Israel, founded in New York in 1655, naturally had a mechitza, as well as a bimah in the center of the prayer hall...
...As early as the first decade in the 20th century, an Orthodox synagogue in Harlem also adopted mixed seating, but it was the exception that proved the rule...
...I respect the halachic system and I hope that it will develop in ways that allow ever-increasing numbers of Jews to feel at home with traditional Judaism and partake of its delights.—J.K.R...
...Women are entitled to a seating setup that lets them truly follow and be a part of the service" number of these buildings as having balconies for women...
...Ironically, one of the few places where Litvin failed was Beth Tefilas Moses itself...
...It is true today, just as it had been in the 1930s, that mixed seating "symbolizefs] . . . that which differentiate^] Orthodoxy from Jewry's other branches...
...Rambam (Maimonides) himself noted that the Mishnah did not discuss, for example, the mezuzah or the blessings that must be lecited when a rnezuzah is affixed to a doorpost: "The reason for this [silence of the Mishnah], it seems to me, is that these matters were common knowledge at the time the Mishnah was composed...
...There is no explicit law in the Bible, Talmuds or other rabbinic literature that states directly that men and women must be separated during synagogue worship.5 Now, however, stimulated by this controversy, especially the case instigated by Baruch Litvin, the leading American Orthodox rabbinical authorities (poskim)—Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Aaron Kotler— enunciated this requirement and its halachic basis in unmistakable language.6 A careful and detailed study of the ancient legal sources led Rabbi Soloveitchik to conclude: The separation of the sexes in the synagogue is a basic tenet in our faith...
...I would daven privately and be present at services merely to con-dud and explain the prayers...
...What was decreed by God can never be undone by human hand . . . [WJhoever dares to question this institution either is uninformed or consciously distorts religious realities.7 Rabbi Feinstein and Rabbi Kotler reached the same conclusions...
...With the help of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Litvin's group was also able to present as witnesses several distinguished Orthodox rabbis, including the The morning reading of MegMM Esther on Punm at Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan...
...they sat in the extreme southwest part of the synagogue...
...As in most cases in which Orthodox synagogues opted for mixed seating, a vocal minority in the Beth Tefilas Moses Congregation opposed this move...
...The motives, however, were always expressed in terms of maintaining the loyalties of the younger generation to Jewish tradition...
...The arguments presented by Safrai and Brooten are far from conclusive...
...One might debate about the correct halachic ruling, but the axiomatic subservience of the individual and the community to Jewish law had to remain unquestioned...
...Clearly, the presence of women among men, or of men among women, which often evokes a certain frivolity in the group, either in spirit or in behavior, can contribute little to sanctification or to the deepening of religious feeling...
...Clemens case, in Louisiana...
...Even if there were no balconies or permanent partitions in ancient synagogues, there may well have been mechitzas that simply did not survive the centuries...
...Based on these views, as well as the prevailing trend toward family pews in American Protestantism, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise initiated the mixed choir and mixed pews in America...
...It seemed to me that these men were unconsciously trying to set up a kind of boys' club for schnapps-drinking because they no longer had an all-male Torah-reading club...
...Philo (c...
...Most discarded their Eastern European dress...
...Indeed, the first-century historian Josephus also describes the separation of the sexes in the Temple itself...
...I wanted my equality in ritual, but I didn't begrudge the "boys" their desire for a club...
...the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart...
...Clemens, Michigan, however, was the lawsuit that ensued after the opposition group, led by an indefatigable carpenter and lumberyard operator named Baruch Litvin, lost in a congregational vote...
...Up to that time, the women had worshipped in a balcony...
...have been uncovered in Eretz Yisrael as well as elsewhere in the Mediterranean world...
...No rabbi, however great in scholarship and moral integrity, has the authority to endorse, legalize, or even apologetically explain this basic deviation...
...364-368...
...118-125, also pp...
...The responsa of the poskim explain that the purpose of the separation is to avoid the distraction of the male worshippers that would result from mixed company...
...From the third century C.E...
...The earliest congregations established by these immigrants were traditional in nature...
...These reforms would have a lasting impact on the American Jewish synagogue.** By the last quarter of the 19th century, Reform Judaism was clearly dominant on the American scene...
...125-139 for Rabbi Kotler's...
...It seems to indicate that in the synagogues of Palestine at this time, the women sat above the men, and this would only be possible if there were balconies...
...One of the " many joys of Shabbat and holidays is coming together with the community for worship...
...This, it is argued, is the traditional and historical form of Jewish worship, and it is required by halachah...
...The judge denied the congregation's motion to dismiss, but said it could be presented again after the trial...
...More and more Orthodox congregations were removing mechitzas and tending toward mixed seating...
...In 1986, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations found that only approximately 20 among more than 800 Orthodox congregations did not have a mechitza.11' And the modern Orthodox community has thrived without compromising on the issue of separate seating...
...Sectarian groups often patterned their worship on that of the Temple, which they saw as either defiled or simply too far away for them to participate in its rituals...
...The separation of the sexes by the Therapeutae, therefore, must have accurately reflected the practice in the Jerusalem Temple...
...for elderly women or women with disabilities who could not manage the stairs...
...Neither would countenance any concession to modernity that they judged to be not in keeping with Jewish law...
...An earlier generation of scholars, led by the distinguished archaeologist Eliezer Sukenik, interpreted a No Mechitza, No (u) There are still a handful of Orthodox synagogues in the United States that have mixed seating according to Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, executive vice president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (also known as the OU—the group that authorizes the (u) symbol on the products it certifies as kosher...
...Talmudic sources suggest that in Palestine in the Amoraic period, women worshipped in an upper chamber in the synagogue.* In the early Middle Ages, synagogues were built with places for men and women on the same floor with a partition separating them...
...I want to strive to follow halachah and live my Judaism the way it is lived in a traditional community...
...the men shaved off their beards...
...The case ultimately went all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court, which ruled that the congregation had to keep the mechitza...
...While many scholars have argued that there is archaeological evidence for balconies in these synagogues, others have as strongly disputed the claim...
...I'm very uncomfortable in situations where I can't, and this is the case for women in some, though not all, Orthodox synagogues, and even in some women's seats in my own shut I've also felt uncomfortable in synagogues where the rabbi's message and body language make it clear that he addresses himself only to the men...
...This is one of the most important differences between the Orthodox approach to Judaism and that of the other movements...
...Accordingly, the court ruled that: "Because of defendants' calculated risk of not offering proofs, no dispute exists as to the teaching of Orthodox Judaism...
...I certainly treasure activities that are for "girls" only...
...Clemens, Michigan, voted to discontinue the separation of men and women during worship and henceforth to permit mixed seating...
...The thread of the rabbis' argument, based on the classical sources, runs as follows: In the Second Temple period, a special observance known as the Water Drawing Ceremony {Simchat Bet haSho'evah) was instituted in the Temple in Jerusalem on the second night of Sukkot...
...At the same time, I respect the feelings of those who say that separate seating is an insult to women...
...Riskin came to services to conduct and eiplain the prayers, but did his own praying in private until a mecbitzs was built Riskin now heads a ytshrva in Efrat IwaeL permit mixed seating, relying on testimony stating (1) that there was a dispute within Orthodox Judaism as to whether mixed seating was permitted, and (2) that in 250 Orthodox synagogues in the United States, mixed seating was practiced.4 Prior to these court cases, there was no clear halachic statement of the requirement of separate seating and a mechilza...
...therefore he [the redactor of the Mishnah] saw no need to speak of them, just as he did not set down the order of the prayers, or what the reader of the congregation should do, for this was all common knowledge" (Commentary to Mishnah, Mcnaholh 4:1...
...When the Orthodox community decided to adhere firmly to the principles of halachah in this matter, it also decided that in all segments of the Orthodox community halachah would remain authoritative...
...It saw itself as unable to compete with Conservative and Reform Judaism...
...It reversed the decision of the trial court and permanendy enjoined the congregation from instituting mixed seating...
...The issue of separation of the sexes for prayer was, for American Orthodoxy, the test of the entire structure...
...They could enter while making their way into the court of Israel, or to make use of a variety of chambers that surrounded the women's court.10 As prayer became a more important feature in the late years of the Second Temple, n specific area was cordoned off for women's prayer in the women's court...
...What is surprising is that Beth Tefilas Moses was an Orthodox congregation...
...to the eighth century C.E...
...S. Lieberman, Tosefla Kifshutah IV [New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1962], p. 866...
...Most prominent among these changes, and adopted by virtually every Conservative congregation in this country (with the exception of the synagogue of the Jewish Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (left, 1895-1986) and Rabbi Aaron Kotler (right, 1892-1962) were two of the foremost halachic scholars of this century...
...One synagogue has held a series of educational lectures for congregants, started a chapter of the OU's youth group (the National Conference of Synagogue Youth) and started holding a service with a mechitza as an alternative to the main service on Shabbat "When we see progress and good will, we are satisfied that this will lead to the desired results If, however, a congregation tells us that the*situa-tion is too far gone and there's no point in raising the issue" then the OU asks the congregation to drop its membership...
...But it was left to the new immigrants to develop these shoots into the blossoming Orthodox community of the second half of the 20th century...
...According to the hatackah (Jewish religious law) to which Orthodoxy adhered, a mechitza was required and no Orthodox Jew, like themselves, would be permitted to participate in services without a mechitza...
...The rationale was that it was better to make this one compromise and to retain identity as an "Orthodox" synagogue, rather than to stand on principle...
...When elderly women or women with disabilities are not able to climb the stairs to the women's balcony, they are permitted to sit at the back of the mam prayer hall...
...Whoever dares to question this institution [of separate seating] either is uninformed or consciously distorts religious realities," Soloveitchik wrote...
...139-140...
...a Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, tells us that the Jewish sect of the Therapeutae practiced separation in their prayers...
...The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that an Orthodox congregation could Orthodox rabbi who may serve a congregation with mixed seating if he believes that within a reasonable amount of time, he can convince the congregation to install a mechitza...
...Out of the depths have I called Thee, O Lord" (Psalms 130:1), says the Psalmist...
...Within a few months of his death in 1975, the synagogue was sold to the city of Mt...
...Both took strong stands against mixed seating...
...Further, the early church separated the sexes in worship...
...This was a period in which religious compromise was assumed to go hand in hand with Americanization...
...nor can it help instill that mood in which a man must be immersed when he would communicate with the Almighty...
...3' 1 Jonathan D. Sarna, "The Debate over Mixed Seating in the American Synagogue," in The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed, ed...
...Historians know of no ideological reason for the change.12 * A passage in the Palestinian Talmud (Sukkah 55b) tells of the destruction of an Alexandrian synagogue by Trajan...
...Not until the mid-19th century did mixed seating come to the United States...
...Such a state of being will not be realized amid "family pews...
...Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (now in his 80s), a leading religious philosopher and talmudic scholar who taught at Yeshiva University, is known by his many followers simply as the Rav (rabbi...
...is, in fact, well suited to separation, allowing for female participants to sit on the sides...
...Many of these immigrants)tfeven those who were shul-goers, also abandoned halachah...
...Estimates such as 250, cited at the beginning of this article, may well be gross exaggerations, but still the number was substantial...
...He continued to attend services daily, sitting in the corner of the last pew...
...This would show that separation of men and women was the norm in Judaism in late antiquity...
...This was the consistent, undeviating practice...
...The congregation lost the case—perhaps because of a strategic error by its lawyer...
...Departure from the traditional separation of the sexes was part of this program...
...This passage evidences the Palestinian rabbinic view in the Byzantine period when this account was set down...
...10 Mishnah Middol 2:5...
...519-544 for an explanation of Rabbi Feinstein's views, pp...
...What may appear to be two deviations from strict halachic adherence to the principle of separate seating seem to be permitted The first is quite common, and was actually involved In the Beth Tefilas Moses case...
...In this picture, some men who prefer not to face the women's section or who want to hear better are sitting around the btmjh Exceptions to the Rule...
...In the last 25 years, more than 50 Orthodox synagogues that previously had no mechitza have installed one...
...The Union has not publicized this program because it has been our desire neither to embarrass nor to apply outside pressure on these congregations, but instead to create an internal momentum," Stolper added...
...In the past 80 years or so, dozens of ancient synagogues dating from the first century C.E...
...It was among these immigrants and their children who moved to the suburbs that the Conservative movement, now fully organized, gained wide acceptance...
...This photo was taken from the men's section...
...On the other hand, part of me enjoys the traditional division into men's and women's roles, having some things as the men's shtick and others, the women's...
...8 Soloveitchik in Litvin, p. 116...
...The first mixed pews were introduced in this country in 1851 by the Reform rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise at Congregation Anshe Emeth in Albany, N. Y. In 1854, New York's Temple Emanuel followed suit...
...But the victory for the supporters of the mechitza so galvanized the Orthodox community and its leadership that today there are almost no Orthodox congregations with mixed seating...
...Now I find that I enjoy praying among women...
...they rejected this tendency, as well as the spirit of defeatism that had prevailed in the Orthodox community...
...Even the committed Orthodox found it difficult to transmit their steadfastness to their children...
...In both these cases the change was made when the congregations acquired new buildings that had formerly been churches without balconies...
...It dates back to the very dawn of our religious Halachic community . . . [It] can never be abandoned by any legislative act on the part of a rabbinic or lay body regardless of its numeric strength or social prominence...
...there is a sense of sisterhood, a bonding that takes place among women praying together...
...The well-known Reform rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise testified that mixed sealing "is not antagonistic to the teachings of the Holy Scriptuic and the Talmud" (Sarna, p. 377...
...Any rabbi or scholar who attempts to sanction the desecrated synagogue, ipso facto casts a doubt on his own moral right to function as a teacher or spiritual leader in the traditional sense of the word...
...When we speak of ancient synagogues, two architectural patterns must be considered...
...Litvin wanted more than a court victory...
...During prayer man must feel alone, removed, isolated...
...By the 1200s the pressures of space and the desire to imitate the balconies that were understood to have existed in the Temple combined to lead to the construction of separate facilities, usually balconies, for female worshippers...
...He must then regard the Creator as an only Friend, from whom alone he can hope for support and consolation...
...Some differences of opinion exist among the major authorities about the specific prohibitions involved...
...Therefore a property right was involved which the court would enforce...
...This too implies separation of the sexes...
...This court was entered from the perimeter of the Temple complex, and led directly into the court of Israel, essentially that of men...
...2 Sarna, p. 386...
...13 Litvin, p. 513...
...But the congregation's lawyer had not considered how all this would look on appeal...
...In the early 19th century, Ashkenazic immigrants, mainly German, began to stream to the American shores...
Vol. 14 • December 1989 • No. 7
