tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2096776708897685863.post7778357689192319039..comments2024-02-23T04:39:49.329-05:00Comments on Conversations in Klal: Chochmas NoshimProfKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17954446826821665314noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2096776708897685863.post-15308760941824113802010-08-02T17:49:16.300-04:002010-08-02T17:49:16.300-04:00The problem is that our society is very much based...The problem is that our society is very much based on what my neighbor will think. <br /><br />It's a miracle that orthodox Jewish girls even won the right to have a basic Bais Yaakov education in the early 20th century. I guess that "oversight" was so egregious, that it became indefensible when attention was focused on the problem.<br /><br />"All" it takes is for a highly regarded segment of the orthodox community to begin shifting its attitudes, and like-minded communities will begin doing so as well.<br /><br />The challenge with giving women a more visible place in communal Jewish life, is that there isn't a problem perceived in its absence, as girls' education was. <br /><br />I would say that women are still making baby steps, but it's very, very incremental. I was heartened to say the Star K's stamp of approval on female mashgichim, for instance. <br /><br />Again, perhaps the solution is to position the lack of women in positions of authority as a problem, not an optional indulgence. Perhaps, for example, we need to suggest that women would feel more comfortable asking shailos to women rather than men.<br /><br />If we continue giving women better Jewish educations, we will probably reach a point where the status quo will be increasingly unacceptable. Who knows? Fifty years from now, we might wonder what all the fuss was about.<br /><br />Women won the right to vote and hold property only recently in American history, so it should surprise no one that orthodox Jewish society is slow to change.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2096776708897685863.post-58961914221844432722010-08-02T09:03:26.760-04:002010-08-02T09:03:26.760-04:00The problem with the points made is that if you al...The problem with the points made is that if you already believe them to be true then this is nothing new. And if you don't believe they are true you aren't going to be persuaded differently. <br /><br />My young niece once gave a little dvar Torah that she had learned in school on just this posuk. Only thing is that her morah interpreted it to mean that the ONLY place where a woman's knowledge is useful is inside the house, that the house is a woman's only domain. Thought my sil would bust a gut when she heard that. But then that's what you get when you have teachers in an MO school who come from a hashkafa community waaaay to the right of MO.Trudynoreply@blogger.com