The War for the Souls of Orthodox Jewish Women (and Men) and Why It Matters


The young woman who wrote and recorded this song (watch it if you haven’t; it’s wonderful) is a “Singer/songwriter, vlogger, Orthodox Jew, and English major on the verge of ‘real life.'”  Her name is Talia Lakritz.

The young woman who wrote and published this piece, which begins with the word “Hineni” (Here I am – a response to God’s call several times in the Torah) is a Maharat and a pioneer in ritual Orthodox Judaism. Her name is Rachel Kohl Finegold.

The young woman who was my best teacher of all things Jewish (and many other things) is a model for many.  Her name is Aliza Sperling.

The young woman who helped to support traumatized victims of the “mikvah rabbi scandal” is a Maharat at The National Synagogue.  Her name is Ruth Balinsky Friedman.

The young women who ranked highest among my other great teachers offered wise, knowledgeable, exciting education both in theory and practice.  Their names are Laura Shaw Frank (JD and almost PhD), Rachel Weintraub (JD), Brooke Pollack (JD), and Aliza Levine (MD).  There were more, too.

They are all treasures in my life; I wish every Jewish seeker could have so stunning an educational-religious posse.

So what’s going on?  Why has The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) stuck a stick in the eye of every Jewish woman, especially women like these – passionate Jews; learners and teachers – by issuing a kind of fatwa against the rabbinic ordination of Orthodox Jewish women.  This is just the most recent episode in the soap opera that their effort to keep women from formal religious leadership.  Predictably, outrage ensued.

From New York’s towering Modern Orthodox leader Avi Weiss  LA’s Rav Yosef Kanevsky, word emerged that this blow was unacceptable.

Why does it matter?  RCA claims that there are plenty of ways for women to participate and even lead, they just can’t be ordained.  Why the uproar from college women and teachers and rabbis and parents and – generally – people who really like being Jewish?   

Because it’s terrible to continue, with even more emphasis than usual, to shut half your community off — by fiat — from the privilege of spiritual leadership. Remember the slogan “If  you can see it, you can be it.”  Sounds right doesn’t it?  But if you’re set apart, part of your soul is set apart too.

The Jewish people lose way too much, kept from 50% of the talent and strength and smarts and love in our own communities.

Read this story by the renowned feminist Letty Cottin Pogrebin, on the death of her mother:*

“One night about twenty people are milling about the house but by Jewish computation there are only nine Jews in our living room.  This is because only nine men have shown up for the memorial service.  A minyan, the quorum required for Jewish communal prayer, calls for ten men.

“I know the Hebrew.” I say.  “You can count me, Daddy.”

I meant I want to count.  I meant, don’t count me out just because I am a girl.

“You know it’s not allowed, he replies, frowning.”

“For my own mother’s Kaddish I can be counted in the minyan.  For God’s sake, it’s your house!  It’s your minyan Daddy.”

“Not allowed!” says my father.

Later she wrote:

“The turning point in my spiritual life….I could point to the shivah experience in my living room, say that my father sent me into the arms of feminism, and leave it at that….No woman who has faced the anguish and insult of exclusion on top of the tragedy of her bereavement forgets that her humiliation was inflicted by Jewish men.”

It’s heartbreaking, isn’t it?  Such a loss for those who wish to serve and all of us who need them.  Besides, as my friend Chana reminded me, in last week’s parsha God told Abraham “Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you.”  If only He’d get in touch with the RCA and remind them, too.

*Deborah, Golda and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America

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Cynthia Samuels

Cynthia Samuels is a long-time blogger, writer, producer and Managing Editor. She has an extensive background online, on television and in print, with particular experience developing content for women, parents and families. For the past nine years, that experience has been largely with bloggers, twitter and other social media, most recently at Care2's Causes Channels, which serve 20 million members (13 million when she joined) and cover 16 subject areas. In her three years at Care2 monthly page views grew tenfold, from 450,000 to 4 million. She has been part a member of BlogHer since 2006 years and has spoken at several BlogHer conferences. Among her many other speaking appearances is Politics Online, Fem 2.0 Conference and several other Internet gatherings. She’s also run blogger outreach for clients ranging from EchoDitto to To the Contrary. Earlier, she spent nearly four years with iVillage, the leading Internet site for women; her assignments included the design and supervision of the hugely popular Education Central, a sub-site of Parent Soup that was a soup-to-nuts parent toolkit on K-12 education, designed to support parents as advocates and supporters of their school-age kids. She also served as the iVillage partner for America Links Up, a major corporate Internet safety initiative for parents, ran Click! – the computer channel - and had a long stint as iVillage's Washington editor. In addition, she has developed parent content for Jim Henson Interactive and served as Children’s Book Editor for both Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com. Before moving online, she had a long and distinguished career as a broadcast journalist, as senior national editor of National Public Radio, political and planning producer of NBC's Today Show (whose audience is 75% women) where she worked for nine years (and was also the primary producer on issues relating to child care, education, learning disabilities and child development), and as the first executive producer of Channel One, a daily news broadcast seen in 12,000 U.S. high schools. She has published a children’s book: It’s A Free Country, a Young Person’s Guide to Politics and Elections (Atheneum, 1988) and numerous children’s book reviews in the New York Times Book Review and Washington Post Book World. A creator of online content since 1994, Samuels is a partner at The Cobblestone Team, LLC, is married to a doctor and recent law school graduate and has two grown sons who make video games, two amazing daughters-in-law and three adorable grandsons.

3 thoughts on “The War for the Souls of Orthodox Jewish Women (and Men) and Why It Matters”

  1. Shabbat Shalom Cindy. How kind of you to include me in a piece that mentions Jewish luminaries (who happen to be women). I don’t hold a candle to them.

    Reading your piece, I had a different thought. The word rabbi means I believe “teacher “. Some rabbis are great and for some it is a profession – whether handed down or chosen – but they may be less than stellar. Perhaps we put the title too much on a pedestal. My grandfather loved a clipping he had from somewhere that a college education doesn’t necessarily make an educated man. This “cuts” both ways. If the RCA thinks we shouldn’t be offended then they should perhaps remember that ordination doesn’t guarantee the wisdom of a man or woman – only that the person has passed through a learning experience that might equip the person to become wise.

    How beautifully humble the men in the RCA would show themselves to be if they would come down to the earth of Adam rishon – who He “created male and female.”

  2. Thanks for this wonderful post….so inspiring and yet so infuriating. Feminism is the final frontier in our society.
    Jackie Fishman

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