A Song for Women in Five Questions
Dworkin, Susan
A Song for Women in Five Questions Susan Dworkin The very first feminist consciousness raising meeting I attended was noteworthy for one thing: the nonJews had the worst problems. One...
...to the period of Mendelssohn, and the myths of the eighteenth century in which progress and e q u a l i t y were held as sacred fidelities...
...This historic symbol of the intractable original female, who would not accept, physically or figuratively, the supine position under Adam and was cast out of Eden in favor of the more d o c i l e Eve, h a s b e c o m e the new m y t h i c a l ego ideal of Jewish feminists...
...A woman simply would not have time to perform them, what with the baby to be nursed and the floor to be washed and the meals to be prepared for the man of the house when he comes home from shul...
...Feminists do not trust the Jewish women's organizations not because they are insufficiently feminist, but because they are insufficiently democratic and tend to divide and type Jews...
...May Adonai be with you and be gracious unto you...
...In one book and a couple of stories, Philip Roth helped undo the best laid plans of rabbinic generations by destroying the exalted image of the Jewish mother...
...It turns up a lot of hatred and self-hatred...
...Finally, there was the publication of an anthology on " T h e J e w i sh Woman" by the magazine Response (Summer, 1973, No...
...The Encyclopedia quotes: Once Bruria scoffed at the rabbinical saying "Women are light-minded" and her husband warned her that her own end might yet testify to the truth of the words...
...lowed to interfere with my personal — my Jewish — life...
...The Bat Mitzvah preparatory program of one suburban Orthodox shul described itself this way: " T h e c u r r i c u l um of the class includes the study of women in the Bible, Laws of Shabbat and holidays as they pertain to the home, Laws of Kashruth . . . cooking and baking of the traditional Jewish d e l i c a c i e s ." Over the y e a r s , of c o u r s e , and e s p e c i a l l y in affluent America, women have acquired much more leisure and freedom than men have to p e r f o rm the t i m e - b o u n d mitzvot...
...They laughed at non-sexist sexual philosophies...
...sia, and Lord Balfour...
...There was a moderate speech by Jacqueline Levine of the American Jewish Congress at the General Assembly of t h e Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds in 1972...
...3THE QUESTION OF EQUAL TREATMENT BY HISTORY Bruria, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1904, was born in the first quarter of the second century and lived in Tiberias...
...Wait...
...In the wide open search for a viable new role model, the missing ingredient most desired is the power to lead (not j u s t influence) the community (not just the family...
...The rabbinic establishment — all male...
...T h e treatment by Ideas of Nixon and of Watergate provides some insight into the new mood...
...I once saw an Orthodox girl burst into tears because she could not defend tumat niddah to her incredulous non-observant sisters...
...Once my husband ran an interracial summer camp...
...The achieving but powerless woman was produced to perfection by our culture...
...But she couldn't summon the courage to wear it in shul and would end up schlepping it on the subway to her j o b as a computer programmer...
...To be born also means to belong to the community, concretized in Judaism through Covenant...
...Jewish consciousness raising was 1. THE QUESTION OF EQUAL ACCESS TO G OD X A O N 2. THE QUESTION OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR JOY \ 3. THE QUESTION OF EQUAL TREATMENT BY HISTORY ^ ^ V ? 4. THE QUESTION OF EQUAL ACCESS TO POWER W 5. THE QUESTION OF RESPECT made possible by the new national passion for ethnicity (which allowed Jewish women to think of themselves separately whereas once that might have violated their " h u m a n i s t " ideals), and for spirituality, which had repopularized faith and made ritual obligation appealing to people who had never felt the need of it before...
...Adler says the niddah taboo arose because of the influence of Christian, Essene and Islamic asceticism...
...They tread delicately over, or more usually around, Halachah and the t i m e - h o n o r ed priorities of the Jewish family...
...We have shared love and pain and joy in bringing our daughter into life and have been privileged to participate in the marvel and beauty of creation...
...And she is strangely like the killer bitch characterizations of women in some homosexual theatre of the last few decades, indicating that you don't have to be Jewish to be a scapegoat for feelings of emasculation...
...she became a feminist...
...Because the social consequences would be staggering...
...I t ' s not enough to say that if a man doesn't grant a woman a divorce, he's not fulfilling his part of the bargain and the marriage is a n n u l l e d . W e ' v e got to say right there in the k'tubah that women have the right to initiate a d i v o r c e ." T h i s variance in mode and methodology is a major impediment to Jewish feminist consensus...
...The continued on page 52 A Covenant for the Daughters of Israel The symbolism of Covenant has been integral to Jewish life and history...
...Their influence grows in the warm sunshine of rabbinic disregard — like one of those songs that Goldfaden wrote in Yiddish so women could understand — one of those pleasant, hum-a-day songs that came up from the kitchen and filled the soul until it seemed to have been there always and was an a c c e p t e d part of the Jewish tradition...
...Milton Himmelfarb suggests in a Commentary article that to understand Jewish antagonism to low-income housing we ought to consider the posture of other ethnic g r o u p s . Take, for e x a m p l e , the I t a l i a n - A m e r i c a n s . The ItalianAmerican considers his neighborhood as his village...
...She lectures widely...
...4THE QUESTION OF EQUAL ACCESS TO POWER Up to now, most Jewish women have been inspired by the fabulous apologetics girding the " w o m a n of v a l o r " role...
...L e t ' s go up to New City where the Chassidim a r e ! " said her suburban husband excitedly...
...if he is unwilling, or if the rabbis are unwilling to compel him, she's stuck...
...THE QUESTION OF EQUAL ACCESS TO G OD For some time, Frieda Birnbaum came to morning prayer at the Orthodox Lincoln Square Synagogue with a tallit in her briefcase...
...Upon passing the great synagogue where this learned man has his pulpit, the casual observer remarks: " S e e that...
...No one inherits the Holocaust as pointedly as the Jewish wife (especially in Israel) who — knowing that she can never outbreed the Arabs — is still getting pregnant long after it is safe, in a mighty effort to right the h i s t o r i c Jewish population deficit...
...When in R o m e , " he is said to have said, " d o as the Romans d o . " After the Hadrianic o p p r e s s i o n s , Rabbi Meir r e e s t a b l i s h e d the Sanhedrin and, says the Encyclopedia, "introduced the rule of testing the validity of Halachah on rational grounds...
...His claim on her, her children and her prope r t y , can last i n d e f i n i t e l y . Judy Hauptman, a Talmudist and prominent scholar of Halachah, reports that when she speaks to Orthodox women's groups, she finds them disagreeing with every feminist critique except the critique of the divorce laws...
...But Bruria was not to be remembered primarily for her scholarship...
...intermarriage begins to look good...
...Unquestionably, the cause celebre that triggered the formation of this organization was the Forest Hills affair, which grew out of the decision of New York City to build low-income housing in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens for elderly people and others...
...The political ethic of Jewish conservatism is supported by leaders of c o n s e q u e n c e , i n t e l l e c t u a l s in Jewish theological seminaries, universities and prestigious magazines and journals...
...These were t h e first women known to wear tallesim in shul in the New York area...
...As far as economics is concerned, while the magazine favored Nixon's impounding of the anti-poverty funds and his total dismantling of the Office of Economic Opportunity, they were critical of his budget for retaining one hundred twenty five billion dollars for human resources, including some three billion dollars earmarked for civil rights activity...
...This idea, that a n a t u r a l bodily process makes a woman unfit to shake hands with a male Jew or touch a Torah scroll, is so horrifying to a liberated Jewish woman that the less Jewishly educated among them find it hard to believe...
...The January 1973 issue of the National Jewish Monthly included an article by Seymour Siegel, one of Ideas' editors, in which he calls upon Jews to accept Mr...
...italics mine) Meir figures in a discussion of J e w i s h feminism because he was married to Bruria who — like Lilith — has been resurrected by Jewish women looking for an historic ego ideal...
...This helps to explain the " p o w e r " in our time of people like Irving Greenberg (who was Cheryl's Rebbe at CCNY), Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, Shlomo Carlebach, Elie Wiesel...
...Because observant women have discussed these matters with their " h e t e r o d o x " sisters, Conservative and Reform synagogue practice has come under new s c r u t i n y . The m chitzah is down already, so why don't the girls receive aliyot...
...Her father — a faithful but educated man — explained gently that my young mother-in-law would have to give up her j o b as lookout for Eliyahu...
...I was of the o p i n i o n that no woman who could help it should ever get married in the Jewish State...
...But not to worry, he said (whispering), the Prophet would not come anyway...
...In our context, it catalyzed the only creative dialogue between Orthodox and non-Orthodox going on in the Jewish world today...
...Cheryl Moch grew up in the radical Left...
...Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Ms., HADASSAH MAGAZINE, and NATIONAL JEWISH MONTHLY...
...Nixon's escalation of the bombings in North Vietnam, his policies c a l l i n g for the i n v a s i o n of Cambodia, his opposition to the granting of a m n e s t y . They e n d o r s e d the administration's policy of the benign neglect of the minorities...
...Yet bring Me good guarantors, and 1 shall give you the Torah...
...This means that the discriminatory subtext of the exemption system is bared for all to see...
...The ideals of civil libertarianism, the concern for the freedom of s p e e c h , for t h e p r o t e c t i o n of minorities, the separation of church and state, the general belief that somehow it is necessary for the public sector of society to intervene on behalf of the disadvantaged, the sick and the poor, and the minorities — all these are seen as no longer, if they were ever, in the true interest of Jews...
...This is not a pretty process...
...a raised consciousness can change the tide...
...to cooperate with other groups who are dedicated to similar aims...
...The Jewish woman operates under several cosmic political disadvantages...
...It did not occur to me until recently that mine was a feminist rebellion, a by-product of my " c o l d ly r a t i o n a l " espousal of feminist causes and a very common thing among women like me who are Jewish and a little late-blooming...
...Why can't they march with the lulavim...
...The intellectual establishment — incredibly, virtually still all male...
...Yet bring Me good guarantors and I shall give you the Torah...
...Shrinks are consulted...
...THE QUESTION OF RESPECT Judy Hauptman is the only woman in history ever to teach Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary...
...All he has to do is stand firm when they spit in his e y e . A forthcoming feminist magazine in New York is called Lilith...
...For their sake I give the Torah to you...
...Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who sanctified us with Your commandments and has commanded us to initiate our daughter into the Covenant of the people of Israel...
...So why are the religious powersthatbe so firmly against participation by women in these extra mitzvot...
...The Lilith craze may be part of the excessive feminist concern with the rehabilitation of witches...
...Traditionally, the boy has been linked with this Covenant through the act of naming and circumcision: BRIT MILAH...
...To me, this incident exemplified how corrupt the Halachic mode could become...
...I had developed the vulgar habit of sticking out my hand for Chassidim to refuse to shake...
...Norman Podhoretz, in Making It, records that there was a women's slot in the elite which belonged to Mary M c C a r t h y and was i n h e r i t e d by Susan Sontag...
...Just to write such a preamble required forbearance and tolerance unheard of in other establ i s h m e n t s — s e c u l a r i z e d women broke bread with the Orthodox, and amazingly, vice versa...
...The last sanctuary of the Jewish male would soon be unfit for men to enter, what with all the sweet contralto davening and the lingering perfume and the titillating gossip...
...That is: political power...
...H e l l n o , " said his lovely wife...
...In fact, it is the power of the elite that is really at stake in the feminist confrontation — the power of those Jewish traditions and of those Jews who until now have had the ability to exclude, to belittle and subdue large masses of t h e Jewish public — not only women...
...Nixon was of paramount concern to the Jewish community and that Jews ought to do everything in their power to discourage his impeachment or resignation...
...H o w e v e r , the power of the spiritual establishment is up for grabs — the emotional forces, the aesthetic senses, the moral fibre, the soul of our community has been so neglected for so long by the various elites that anyone who will pay honest attention to it can raise a cloud of chassidim...
...She was scared to take it out and put it on...
...Tnere is a n e w mood, a new ethic, a new vocabulary emerging among American Jews...
...She is made to feel that she must shelter the frail machismo of the men in her life — a machismo retarded in the first place by the aggressiveness of an anti-Semitic, anti-intellectual world...
...The traditional enthusiasms of liberalism are disavowed...
...They are ignored but not generally ridiculed...
...Although she felt no compulsion to be a feminist ( " I knew it was unusual to be a rabbi but I never exp e c t e d any o p p o s i t i o n " ) , Sandy Sasso automatically raised the consciousness of the 1974 class at the Reconstructionist Seminary...
...I recall my mother-in-law's story that when she was a girl in Poland, she was always the one who waited for Eliyahu on Pesach...
...The same simple q u a l i t i e s that characterize these new " s p i r i t u a l" l e a d e r s c h a r a c t e r i z e the Jewish feminists...
...As long as a woman cannot be included in the minyan, she may daven until her soul grows hoarse and she still counts for zero in shul...
...BRIT B'NOT YISRAEL Covenant for the Daughters of Israel Blessed is she who comes in the name of Adonai.- ^ DW3l HKBD t ; T T - v When Israel stood to receive the Torah, the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to them: I am giving you My Torah...
...Defenders of these exe m p t i o n s say they were given to women out of consideration for their responsibilities at home...
...We are committed to the development of our full human potential and to the survival and enhancement of Jewish life — communal, religious, educational and political...
...W h a t e v e r problems we h a v e , " feminist leader Cheryl Moch said, " w e ' r e not afflicted with a race of j o c k s . ") If a Jewish girl turns out to be a fine student, she must be careful not to excel in relation to Jewish men — lest she be left unmarried or wreck the marriage she's got...
...T h e r e was t h e first Network Jewish Women's Conference in N ew York, in early 1973, at which about 450 women of every variety discovered a feminist mutuality...
...Revolutionary heroines...
...Adapted from a passage by Martin Buber) Uniqueness is concretized in the Jewish tradition through the act of naming...
...What happens if many women begin to refuse the non-roles set aside for them in public worship and to perform those time-bound mitzvot from which they are now exempted...
...Their opposition is as loyal as opposition can be...
...Who the next " s h e" will be is therefore of very little importance, since everyone knows that being one is no fun...
...Bruria married Rabbi Meir (Meir Baal Ha-Nes — Meir the Miracle Worker), Rabbi Akiba's best stud e n t . Meir was a great legal and liturgical scholar, and popular among the masses...
...She is a veteran member of "Ezrat Nashim," and a founding member of the Jewish Feminist Organization...
...Without a man like Meir to encourage women like Bruria or the simple lecture-goer, there can be no feminist reform of Jewish life...
...I was in open rebellion against Jewish life as it is lived — at t he same time that I was developing a f o n d n e s s for J e w i s h learning and t r a d i t i o n far b e y o n d the w i l d e st nightmares of my assimilated parents...
...A t one j o b interview," she recalled, " t h e y asked me questions like: 'Will you be afraid to drive to shul in heavy traffic?' 'What will happen if you get pregnant?' " ( I t ' s hard to convince people that pregnancies, like sabbatical years at the Hebrew University, can be planned and have an equally maturing effect on the J ew involved...
...The editors admire(d...
...Ideas maintained that the issue of the impeachment and resignation of Mr...
...nso>i trying o j s n i? nnab» n p p j w d w? On this day of our joy we raise this cup of wine in thankfulness for the fullness of life's blessings...
...And it's all clearly laid out in the preamble to their constitution...
...And I really wanted to help her...
...We now propose that girls also be welcomed into the Covenant of the Jewish people through the act of naming on Shabbat, since this day has served from biblical times as a covenantal symbol in Judaism...
...Hauptman said that at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, any woman could have her k'tubah drawn up to include the clause that her husband would grant a divorce, if and when she wanted it, so that if the marriage ever failed and he did not grant the divorce, he would be violating his own k'tubah, thereby annulling the marriage...
...After she began menstruating, her mother — a faithful though uneducated woman — insisted that she could no longer have this j o b . It would be a disgrace if the P r o p h e t came only to be greeted by an impure Jew...
...Abraham and Isaac are going up to Mount Moriah...
...Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine...
...and expected her to become a rebbetzin...
...She learned how to raise money, distribute posters, organize demonstrations...
...To my j o y , I d i s c o v e r e d that J e w i s h l y - i n c l i n ed women seemed to be absent from the larger feminist movement because t h e y were m e e t i n g e l s e w h e r e — needing to talk to each other separately, about matters of communal interest...
...B I N D ME T O O ! " And I really felt for that woman...
...Any feminist will tell you that the changes demanded in Jewish life and in Jews by the e a r ly Zionist theorists were all geared to rebuilding historically shattered Jewish machismo...
...her sister was carried off to Rome and sold into whoredom...
...My own instinct was always to find it a Puritanical concept, very un-Jewish really, and never to take it seriously for that reason...
...Davening alone at home, she wore the tallit...
...But to many observant feminists, there is no other mode for correcting the disparaged position of women in Jewish life, and they believe it should be used for all it is worth...
...whose folly at parading around with a genius wife had to be exposed lest innocent descendants think this was a good thing...
...Thus, a process which may be stymied for a long time yet in the Orthodox synagogue, which was inspired by the complaints of Orthodox women, begins to take hold in the rest of the community...
...This, explains Himmelfarb, is not a question of rac...
...Just like other Jews...
...These would include black and white elements...
...Much of the conservative argument traces Jewish contemporary liberalism to the Enlightenment period...
...JIJOYJ^I >> May Adonai bless you and keep you...
...pfVI " J ^ N "TN^ May Adonai show you kindness and give you peace...
...Therefore, on this Shabbat (date of Shabbat) we bring our daughter before this community that she may be linked into the Covenant of the people of Israel...
...At the second anniversary party of Ms...
...He doesn't have to be a rabbi, this man...
...She studied landscape architecture and the history and thought of the Jews...
...18) which became a basic text for seminars and consciousness raising (c.r...
...It also helped make the members of " E z r a t Nashim" into a kind of central rabbinate for Jewish feminism...
...In several incidents, her knowledge of the Bible appears to have been superior to that of her husband and his students...
...The Encyclopedist doesn't believe the story...
...Like Aviva Cantor Zuckoff of Hadassah Magazine and Joanne Jahr of the American Zionist Federation, Cheryl is among that large number of f e m i n i s t s who now work in the J e w i s h E s t a b l i s h m e n t who were trained in the Jewish student movements and whose skills are more political than religious...
...My impression that feminism was not for m e , n o r for t h e other privileged, educated Jewish women in my green suburb, was deepened thereafter by writers in Jewish publications...
...The second rabbi, while allowing the kids to come to camp, paid an awful homage to bigotry...
...also serve...
...He saved his sister-inlaw from dishonor in Rome by dressing up a s a wealthy Roman and buying her back from the brothel owner...
...The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: Your ancestors are not sufficient guarantors...
...nnwn tin...
...And if she fails in this wellnigh impossible task, she is blamed for the original emasculation...
...Or eat in a sukkah...
...Rachel Adler says that tumat niddah was distorted when "pathology entered Halachah...
...Her act was important because it broached the issue of discrimination against women in public prayer and Jewish assemblies — an issue about which feminists raise much bitter complaint...
...They labelled the intellectual feminist a narcissistic power grabber, setting up straw oppressors as an excuse for unwarranted aggression against a society which had been altogether too good to her...
...In this way, the a c h i e v i n g but powerless woman, whom our culture has produced to perfection, no longer blesses us but begins to burden our community with anger and frustration...
...These new opinion makers seek to redirect the liberal stance that has long been associated with Jewish social ethics in America...
...A drop of wine should also be given to the child...
...yichus to her lineage...
...Exodus 31: 16-17) As she has been brought into the Covenant of our people, so may she grow into a life of Torah, chupah, and good deeds.* * : o > i i u onyyja1...
...Every person born into this world represents .something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique...
...Indeed, he should be given credit for this by Jewish feminists, who are rather apt to revile him...
...she may derive no real self-esteem from it...
...Notable exceptions to the Council's position were Rabbi BenZion Bokser and Rabbi Usher Kirshblum...
...Very ironic a l l y , the lack of this q u a l i t y in Jewish men was what gave Jewish women like me the idea, originally, that we were not quite as oppressed as, say, Spanish women, or Syrian women...
...What might be called a Lilith Complex is the first hallmark of Jewish prejudice against women — a deeprooted fear of the aggressive female who has to be kept busy-busy-busy lest she ruin your good name by adultery and sap your strength with her insane sexual (financial, psychic) demands...
...In shul on Rosh Hashanah, listening to a sermon about the akedah, I had a vision...
...He does not object to the other fellow's having a desirable place to live, he just doesn't want him, by moving in, to make his own neighborhood less of a home...
...The Israeli Establishment, with t w o , maybe three e x c e p t i o n s , is m o s t l y male, and w h a t ' s worse, mostly macho...
...She became a counselor at Jewish summer camps...
...She is 37 years old...
...The preamble to the interim constitution of the new Jewish Feminist Organization goes like this: We, Jewish feminists, have joined together here in strength and joy to struggle for the liberation of the Jewish woman...
...o^y1...
...The Holy One...
...He said to them: The prophets are not sufficient guarantors...
...They said: Our ancestors are our guarantors...
...It is the duty of every person in Israel to know and consider that she is unique in the world in her particular character and that there has never been someone like her in the world, for if there had been someone like her there would have been no need for her to be in the world...
...If her marriage falls apart, she has to wait for her husband to give her a get — a bill of divorcement...
...The kids did some research and came up with a s i t u a t i o n , T a l m u d i c a l l y cited, in which a slave was freed to complete a minyan (Gittin 38b...
...Now, the ranks of Jewish feminism are swelled with women recriminating b e c a u s e the Lilith Complex has blighted their lives...
...The first rabbi never gave in...
...And her sobs fill the tent of her husband, and her husband cannot sleep either...
...Magazine, e n t e r t a i n m e n t was p r o v i d e d by a country rock group called "Deadly Night S h a d e . " One can imagine a Nachal troupe called " L i l i t h and Her H o s t s " causing a riot at the next Chassidic Song Festival...
...She developed the vague feeling that she wasn't really a supporter of Al Fatah...
...the o r g a n i z a t i o n could fold tomorrow and the feeling would remain...
...After repeated efforts, she yielded and then shame drove her to commit suicide...
...And perhaps most important, the professor sat down with the housewife, and the housewife was not made to feel inferior...
...She has brought nachas to her parents...
...The men of Israel might be shamed by the sight of so many historic servants of man becoming, in Rachel Adler's words, " m o r e perfect servants of G o d . " And it might be less and less clear to e v e r y o n e why women are not counted in the minyan...
...I had grown to hate Jewish liturgical singing...
...Blessed be He, said: They are certainly good guarantors...
...or^\y -\1> o\y>i y^H vx* » my> * Alternative: Some may wish to say . . . a life of Torah, service, joy, and good deeds...
...nN^n b>m . r i pm .m'vo o>n'^N tm'\y> May God bless you as He blessed r" '• " r * • T* • •'• " ' '• Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah...
...To feminists, it is now clear that what may originally have been a way to get women off the hook is n ow practiced as a way to keep them out of the swim...
...Take me too...
...There are five questions to this song, said the writer, standing a little back...
...As much parental andfamily participation as possible is encouraged...
...Therefore, we give this child the name hat (father's name) v' (mother's name) !?N*w>.ji now ar\p^ rnnNtn rpiNt> rm'vn rnb>n t i n o>i...
...To work toward these goals, we have founded, on this 28th day of the month of April in the year 1974 (6 Iyyar 5734), the Jewish Feminist Organization...
...The e n c o u n t e r with " E z r a t N a s h i m" helped persuade the Rabbinical Assembly to give its congregations the o p t i o n of c o u n t i n g women in t he minyan...
...It has published articles which are highly sympathetic to Generalissimo Franco, and justify Ian Smith's racist policy in Rhodesia — the rule of 225,000 whites over four million blacks...
...Feminists say Halachah places two types of disadvantages upon women: d i s a d v a n t a g e s r e g a r d i n g personal status (the marriage and divorce laws of Israel and of O r t h o d o x Jews everywhere) and disadvantages regarding religious status...
...Now, hers is one address where women may apply when seeking new liturgical ways to deepen their j oy in Jewish ritual and to deepen the meaning of their Jewish acts...
...Rabbi Meir, tortured by remorse, fled from his home...
...In it, she said that women should have more power in Jewish life...
...She is more Halachic and kindly than a lady I heard last Simchat Torah...
...As the Shabbat has been the sign of the Covenant for generations, so we bring hat v' into the Covenant of the people of Israel on (Hebrew date) . :ot>iy n n i orh'f...
...Nixon as one of the "chasidei umot ha'olam" (one of the righteous gentiles of the world) along with Cyrus, King of PerTHE NEW JEWISH RIGHT HAROIJTSCHUIAA/I^ Harold Schulweis is rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California...
...And in announcing her engagement from the pulpit, a rabbi who is often thought of as a liberal said, "Baruch HaShem, Judy Hauptman is finally getting married...
...They said: Master of the universe, our prophets are our guarantors...
...They pay suitable homage to history, our communal guru, and wonderful attention to joy, which most of us only dimly remember, reviving posit i v e e m o t i o n a l c o n n e c t i o n s with Jewish living...
...p e o p l e generally from lower socioeconomic strata than the residents of Forest Hills...
...the temptation to dismiss it as a passing fad is shortsighted...
...All this would have had no impact were it not for the cumulative effect of c o n s c i o u s n e s s raising, for c . r . helped people identify with others who might have remained strangers...
...groups across the country...
...However, their rabbi forbade them to participate in a minyan with black Jews who may or may not have b e e n c o n v e r t e d or reared in a " p r o p e r " manner...
...iw...
...Bind me too...
...One young woman railed about the successive tyrannies of father, p r i e s t , b r o t h e r s , p r i e s t , husband, priest and now her five children...
...The stated p u r p o s e s of the o r g a n i z a t i o n are threefold: to raise the level of political and social consciousness of Jews in A m e r i c a ; to protect and preserve Jewish communities...
...Her father and mother met violent deaths in the persecutions of Hadrian...
...mrj imb> u y ^ r n «n>i?i "Ui.pvy o^iyn tj^to w r i ^K >> n i m ryna Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler ot the universe, who has kept us in life, sustained us, and brought us to this time...
...Jewish women of all ages, political, cultural and religious outlooks and sexual preferences, are all sisters...
...A friend of hers arrived, and she did too...
...This ceremony was written by Rabbis Sandy and Dennis Sasso, based upon a shorter version originally worked out together with Rebecca and Joel Alpert...
...She lived on a kibbutz...
...It is suggested that it be performed in the home on the first Shabbat after the birth of the baby when the mother is capable of attending and participating...
...In fact, Frieda had broken only with tradition, not with Halachah...
...I ' m not gonna stand around and watch while you guys d a n c e ." What separates women from direct enjoyment of much Jewish ritual is the idea of tumat niddah — the mens t r u a t i n g woman as a temporarily impure person...
...Thus, if a Jewish woman figures history into her life-mix (which she is likely to do, being Jewish), she often feels herself to be a blocked force, a powerful wheel spinning in place...
...One morning, Frieda Birnbaum said to herself: "Dammit...
...The ritual should take place before a community offamily andfriends in a ceremony which contains richness of symbolism andfestivity...
...There is, for example, the formation of a Jewish Rights Council based in New York, and the publication of a journal on contemporary Jewish thought, Ideas, first published in August, 1968...
...Some Orthodox y o u n g people wanted to j o i n the staff...
...The Zionist organizational establishment is mostly male, punctuated by the power of a few women and operated almost entirely by a female rank and file...
...But she can't sleep...
...Many of the same editors and writers appearing in Ideas organized the Jewish Rights Council...
...Drawing inspiration from the strength of our sisters throughout history, we call on Jewish women everywhere to join in this struggle...
...This, agreed another rabbi, was sufficient basis to allow black and white Jews to pray together...
...We shall be a force for such creative change in the Jewish community...
...The growth of this new chevrah does not depend on the growth of the Jewish Feminist Organization...
...2THE QUESTION OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR JOY Sandy Eisenberg Sasso got married after her first year of rabbinical school at the R e c o n s t r u c t i o n i st S e m i n a r y and e v e r y b o d y said, " A h a ! That's why she went to rabbinical school...
...story is told that a certain woman came to hear Meir's lectures — and one of these lasted very late — so that when she came home, her furious husband threw her out of the house and told her not to come back until she had spat in the eye of Rabbi Meir...
...Nixon, he asserted, " i s a victim of the licentiousness of the liberal press, the victim of the shameless orgy of the Ervin committee...
...She's had a few kids, paid a few debts and done some fair coping in her day...
...nayjri tin...
...it shall be a sign for all time between Me and the people of Israel...
...For example: Rabbi S t e v e n Riskin of L i n c o ln Square, who has never been known t o permit any infraction of Halachah, gets himself a reputation as a r a g i n g liberal by a l l o w i ng women to behave in shul in ways they are nowhere forbidden to behave...
...Will Herberg, in one recent issue of Ideas, dismissed Watergate as a political donnybrook of minor consequence...
...If I can daven in my tallit at home, I can sure as hell daven in my tallit in s h u l !" And she did...
...Even though she wasn't me...
...I was refusing steadfastly to join any Jewish women's organization...
...Perhaps the fabalistic shame of Bruria was created not to ruin her in the eyes of history, but to ruin Rabbi Meir, a great man who might have been emulated...
...In recent years, Jewish political conservatism has been crystallized into identifiable, organizational structures...
...A Jewish woman cannot initiate a divorce...
...Opposition to this incursion of low-income housing into Forest Hills has been variously defended, disavowing racism...
...Instead she went ahead and became the first female Reconstructionist rabbi, and her congregation — t h e M a n h a t t a n R e c o n s t r u c t i o n i st Havura — is living without a rebbetzin...
...I ' v e heard people s a y , " comm e n t e d Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, "that once the women take over in shul, the men will have nothing to d o " — an implicit recognition that the continuation of the faith does not even now depend on the faithfulness of men...
...A current Chicago feminist newsletter is called Lilith's Rib...
...It has become increasingly clear that in the rise of Jewish conserv a t i sm we are d e a l i n g with a phenomenon which has gained considerable popular momentum in recent years...
...We dedicate ourselves to the creation of an exciting and meaningful Jewish home and to a life of compassion for others, hoping that our daughter will grow to cherish and emulate these ideals...
...In the fall of 1974, she was married to a scientist...
...T h i s meant that a J e w i s h girl didn't have to learn much Torah or any T a l m u d ; her e d u c a t i o n succeeded when it helped her " e n a b l e" everyone else to reach God...
...And Frieda Birnbaum, who started as an uninformed, uncommitted Jew and grew into an observant, educated Jew who walks from Washington Heights to 68th Street on Shabbat, gets herself a reputation as a revolutionary...
...Thousands of Jewish women have investigated these matters in the last c o u p l e of y e a r s , a d e v e l o p m e nt sparked by several events...
...in fact, it is probably only the urgency of the issue that keeps the discussion creative, even though the participants are forever annoying each other...
...To put her virtue to the test, he charged one of his disciples to endeavor to seduce her...
...I d e c i d e d to support various feminist causes, like the right to a safe, legal abortion, but to repress my feminist feelings, convinced that t h e s e posed serious dangers to sholem bayis and to my own daily productivity and should not be a l - Susan Dworkin, a playwright and freelance author, is a contributing editor of this magazine...
...They are the secular theorists of Jewish feminism...
...Bruria, writes Judy Hauptman, " w a s singled out in the Talmud for her s c h o l a r s h i p . " ( " I m a g e s of Women in the T a l m u d , " in Religion and Sexism, Simon and Schuster, 1974) It is reported that Bruria learned three hundred new laws every day and that legal decisions were reached that accepted her opinion over the opinion of a rabbi...
...To Rabbi Sasso, a Reconstructionist, this was a circuitous route to nowhere...
...1 ns...
...The raised consciousness views these prohibitions as ghostly leftovers that continue only because of the groundless fear and plain laziness of men and women...
...In fact, she is crying...
...Meanwhile, I had stopped going to shul...
...For in six days did Adonai make the heavens and the earth, and on the seventhday He ceased from work and rested...
...For the sake of a meshugas, the faith was lost...
...She doesn't have to hear the shofar blown on Rosh Hashanah...
...For the exclusion of women from Jewish j oy is a major feminist complaint...
...33 n^wi t i n >> n\yyr d>o> n\y\y...
...however, this trend quickly goes from the dead serious to the ironic...
...The J e w i s h feminist is the only feminist who is told, by mentors who are feminists too, that the abortion option is not for her...
...Esther Ticktin, a member of the Fabrengen group in Washington, an observant Jew and a feminist, has created rules, w i t h T a l m u d i c u n d e r p i n n i n g , by which sensitive men can avoid inflicting pain on women who are excluded from joyous celebrations...
...She slept on the beach in Spain...
...yy\ >?>i :v)?0>i niv) ^ y n ^ n o ^ i i Y?Nn tin...
...The trouble with the "woman of v a l o r " role type is that it has been so brilliantly maligned in popular literat u r e that fewer and fewer Jewish women want to play it, let alone be it...
...She was so miserable, I felt guilty sitting in the same circle with her...
...Those sancta, it is contended, are no longer viable...
...She experimented with terrifying drugs...
...They have taken the suggested road to greatness by trying to be wonderful housekeepers, brilliant arbiters of familial unity, skilled businesswomen and energetic charity givers...
...On that, there is unanimity...
...They are egalitarian, they accept Jews uncritically, off the street...
...A Jewish woman is not bound to perform the same mitzvot as men — she is exempted, like a child or a Canaanite slave, from all positive commandm e n t s that have an a p p r o p r i a t ed time...
...The Ideas endorsement of Nixon extended far beyond his benevolent posture towards the State of Israel...
...By the way in which we live, we hope to teach our daughter to become a caring and loving person with a sense of her own worth and a respect for that of others...
...She joined a radical left Jewish group called The Brooklyn Bridge, so named to symbolize the return of its members to their Jewish roots...
...The woman of valor, having once again broken all records for sheer productivity, should be dead tired...
...One older lady, wringing pale gloves, had not dared even to tell her husband she was coming to the meeting...
...This contradiction of intent produces strange results...
...o>n\yn The people of Israel shall keep the Shabbat, observing the Shabbat throughout the generations as a Covenant for all time...
...However much fun feminists have with the new Lilith, the old one was a real enough horror for Jewish men...
...F a t h e r ! " she calls after Abraham...
...Behind them, tearing off her apron, fixing her hair, or her wig, comes a breathless woman...
...Sam the Husband is blamed for what Irving the Father did, and Irving the Father is blamed for what Maimonides thought...
...Her work is seen in magazines of note and in books which anthologize the best contemporary thought of women on problems of religion...
...The exorcism of Lilith is sloppy and emotional and absolutely necessary if we are ever to see the day when " L i l i t h and Her H o s t s " cease to haunt Jews and become a rock group...
...N>n n iN bN*V\p...
...Parents drink the wine...
...O n c e an Orthodox woman becomes a feminist," said Cheryl, " t o any degree, on any issue, she has reached the psychological position where she can accept other J e w s . " ) Incredibly, for the first time in any Jewish program, the homosexual was welcomed outright as a desirable member of the Jewish community...
...F o r my n e p h e w , " she mumbled to the salesman...
...and all the apologetics in the Bible will not comfort her...
...Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf...
...t h e i r talents complement those of women like Adler, Hauptman, Sasso and Ticktin, and give to the movement a scope, an impact, a political viability it would never have otherwise...
...T h e r e comes a time in your l i f e , " said Chaverat Ha-Knesset Marsha Friedman, head of Israel's nascent feminist movement, "that y o u ' r e doing everything perfectly, and everyone is saying, look at that marvelous woman, a fine career, a lovely family, good looking, a good cook, and it's all true, and you're going out of your m i n d ." Knowing how little power she gets for her success, the Jewish woman may scorn her success...
...Officially, nothing...
...no marriage at all begins to look good...
...she became Director of the Youth Commission of the American Jewish Congress...
...These are fighting words mostly because they are so democratic, and Jewish organizational life today is b a s i c a l l y elitist...
...A Song for Women in Five Questions Susan Dworkin The very first feminist consciousness raising meeting I attended was noteworthy for one thing: the nonJews had the worst problems...
...She had a l w a y s been expected to play bridge...
...He teaches at the University of Judaism and at Hebrew Union College...
...She is part of the Jewish Establishment today, in her own small way, and a member of the New York Board of the Jewish Feminist Organization...
...They said: Here, our children are our guarantors...
...We gather together on this Shabbat with family and friends to bring our daughter into the Covenant of the Jewish people...
...Y ou must be k i d d i n g ! " they shrieked...
...Nixon for his emphasis on Law and Order, and found Mayor D a l e y ' s order to shoot or cripple looters in Chicago p r a i s e w o r t h y . They supported Mr...
...BRIT B' NOT YISRA EL is one such ceremony...
...So the Jewish feminists have it easy...
...For millennia the Shabbat has been a sign of covenantal commitment which has inspired generations of our people with the drive to creativity and the values of human dignity...
...Prior to t h e Nixon resignation...
...That's Buddy Hackett's s h u l ." If only the rabbi who announced Judy Hauptman's engagement had been Myron Cohen telling that joke, we could all have a good laugh and go home and forget it...
...On the issue of divorce and marr i a g e laws, the difference in m e t h o d o l o g i c a l a p p r o a c h among feminists is acute...
...The killer bitch woman of some contemporary Jewish writing is an expression of the Lilith Complex in our time...
...To the chagrin of feminists, this continues to be the rule...
...Or pray with the lulav, or at three daily services, or wear a tallit, or put on t'fillin, or say the Sh'ma...
...Every single person is a new thing in the world and is called upon to fulfill her particularity in the world...
...There was some lobbying by a group called " E z r a t Nashim" — o b servant intellectual women who came to the Conservative Rabbinical Ass e m b l y in 1972 to d e m a n d that women be granted membership in s y n a g o g u e s , be c o u n t e d in t he minyan, be allowed full participation in religious services and be bound to execute all mitzvot equally with men, be recognized as w i t n e s s e s under Jewish law, be allowed to initiate divorce, be admitted to rabbinical and cantorial schools, be welcomed into full leadership roles in the synagogue and in the general community...
...Present to Me good guarantors that you will guard it, and I shall give it to you...
...it is t h e feeling, the product of consciousness raising, the experience of b e i n g t o g e t h e r for once without bigotry, that poses the greatest threat to the Jewish establishment and constitutes the great power of Jewish feminism...
...Thus, coming late into feminism, Jewish women were advantaged by the fact that many Jewish men had already achieved a raised consciousness, had returned to a Jewish ethnic base and had become interested in the spiritual side of life, even insofar as they might be willing to alter a form for the sake of a more perfect substance...
...All of which is rather like that old j o k e about the rabbi who goes to rabbinical school, gets two doctorates, scales the heights of scholarship and brings glory and pride to all Jews everywhere...
...niwy1...
...He expected her to be playing bridge...
...I t i s , " he says, "totally at v a r i a n c e with what is known of Bruria's character and that of Rabbi M e i r ." But few people read the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1904, and so over the years, Bruria's story has become the case in point to prove that excessive learning never overcomes the basic lasciviousness of women and that men who teach their daughters Talmud are letting themselves in for disgrace...
...18) Whereas tumat niddah had been a way for women to experience death and rebirth through the cycle of their own bodies, it became distorted into a method of controlling the fearsome power of sexual desire, of disciplining a mistrusted physical drive . . . The state of niddah became a monthly exile from the human race . . . women were taught disgust and shame for their own bodies . . . the mikveh, instead of being the primal sea in which all were made new, became the pool at which women were cleansed of their filth and thus became acceptable sexual partners once more...
...She had been scared to buy it...
...Instead, she was ruined by one powerful zetz from rabbinic comment a t o r s , embodied in a legend...
...Song of Songs Rabbah I, 24) The parents continue: We have been blessed with the gift of new life...
...They extolled the (supposedly) anti-feminist lady g o s s i p i n g on her side of t he m chitzah and d o i n g her e t e r n a l, life-giving work of volunteering for good causes...
...An o r g a n i z a t i o n might stir the waters...
...The Queens Jewish Community Council opposed the project with unparalled rage and threat...
...The J ew Who W a s n ' t There: Halachah and the Jewish W o m a n , " Response, Summer 1973, No...
...Hearing of her p l i g h t , the good Rabbi pretended to have some ocular malady that could only be cured if this particular woman spat in his eye...
...The break-ins and other shennanigans are part of " l i b i d i n e d o m i n a n d i , " the natural lust for ruling inherent in politics...
Vol. 1 • May 1975 • No. 1
