Orthodox Feminists: What Do Our Numbers Mean?

Orthodox Feminists: What Do Our Numbers Mean? Orthodox Feminists: What Do Our Numbers Mean? BIu Greenberg [The folIowing is a slightly edited version of the opening address given at the Second International Conference on Judaism and Feminism which took place in February 1998 in New York. Over 2000 people were in attendance. -Ed.] 71 As I look out on this scene, the feeling is one of appreciation-and wonderment. We are now 1800 strong and growing every minute. What do our numbers mean? And why now? And what is the message that we take and that we give? First, I believe this great outpouring means that Orthodox feminists and their sympathizers are no longer at the fringes of our community. We are in and of the mainstream. Although we do not yet occupy the seats ofpower or hold the interpretive keys in our hands-yet, we do have great leverage and influence and we have been and will continue to be a force for good in the Orthodox community. But why now, 25 years after feminism first began to take root in the Jewish community-and next week there will be an event commemorating the 25th anniversary of the frrst National Jewish Women's conference that powerfully influenced so many of us even though we proceeded in different ways -, why now do we have these numbers and this support, including that of so many individual rabbis whose presence we treasure, some of whom have been our partners on these issues for two or three decades, and some who are joining us for the first time? Because we have proven ourselves! During these past 25 years we have taken in from the host culture the new values for women, and have passed these values onto our daughters and our sons and our grandchildren, and all the while we have remained faithful to halakhah, not compromising an orthodox way of life. The critique that we were undermining the Jewish family, destroying Yiddishkeit, have proven to be noncredible . On the contrary, we now know more, daaven more, learn more, teach more, give more, celebrate more. We have built wonderful Jewish families and have enhanced and revitalized all of the communities and institutions that our lives touch and have stayed very close to the core of our communities. We have proven that feminism and Orthodoxy can live happily together. What else does it mean, this outpouring and enthusiasm? It means that we celebrate together many ofthe gains ofthe past two decades: the explosion ofwomen's learning, women ofall ages, the study ofTalmud, the many institutions for women that have been 72 SHOFAR Summer 1998 Vol. 16, No.4 created when three decades ago there were barely any; the growth ofwomen's tejilaheven during the course ofthis past year, 40 new tejilah [prayer] groups-women taking daavening seriously; the religious leadership roles, the new congregational interns, the toanot [legal advocates], the poskot [legal decisors] and the training programs for them, women on religious councils, women who are presidents ofOrthodox synagogues when one generation ago women were not even allowed to be members; women celebrating rites of passage-Bat mitzvah, birth ceremonies, new wedding rituals; and women saying Kaddish. We are living in a time when we experience a profound transformation of the understanding of a woman's place, no longer "the glory of the daughter of the king" exclusively as an inside person, i.e., inside the home, but also inside the synagogue, the courts of law, the houses of study. What else do our numbers here mean? They mean that we have a task ahead, that an agenda remains before us, waiting for us to take up the issues, one by one. Not all of us agree on all of the issues-and I hasten to add that each person on the program speaks here as an individual, representing him or herself-but at the very least we come to the discussion with an open mind and are prepared to listen to each other with respect. For some ofus the issues include expansion ofa woman's role in the mechitzah minyan, so that she not feel as if she is at the periphery of...