I was forwarded an article in The Times of Israel today about the 9th Annual Kolech Conference in Israel. Kolech is the Israeli equivalent of JOFA (Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance), based in the United States and the UK. Both organizations are known for promoting larger leadership roles for women within Orthodoxy, bringing awareness to women’s issues within the community, rejecting limitations on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, and fighting against discrimination and abuse against women and children.
The Times of Israel article on the Kolech Conference stated –
“The lives of Orthodox Jewish women have changed dramatically in a relatively short period of time. Just six years ago, no Orthodox women had received rabbinic ordination, only a handful of “partnership minyanim” (Orthodox synagogues that promote women’s inclusion) existed in Israel, sexual abuse was still largely swept under the rug, and Jewish lesbians were still a small and mostly unseen community….Today, some dozen women have been ordained as rabbis and quasi-rabbis, with untold numbers in the ranks of the various institutions that are now offering this opportunity. There are programs underway for women rabbinic judges as well.”
Interestingly, the article uses two words that come up frequently in Orthodox circles when the topic of expanding roles for women comes up – evolution and revolution. People firmly entrenched in more centrist Orthodox circles (modern enough to even discuss the growing need to further women’s educational and leadership opportunities) are quick to point out that what has to take place is an evolution and not a revolution. Slow and steady wins the race. People committed to Open Orthodoxy and its creator and leader, Rabbi Avi Weiss, are more about the revolution.
There is definitely a revolution happening, but based on my observations, I think it might actually be a setback for Orthodox women instead of an advancement. What do I mean by that? A lot of the extremism that we see in Orthodox society today is the result of a reactionary backlash against break off liberal movements in Judaism.
For example, Reform Judaism and Orthodox Judaism are the two largest denominations of Judaism in America today:
“[I]n terms of actual membership Reform Judaism with an estimated 670,000 members was roughly the same size as Orthodox Judaism in 2013.”
Faced with an increasingly popular Jewish movement whose appeal was the idea that halacha is a set of suggested guidelines rather than a code of absolute mandates, it’s no wonder that 20th century Orthodoxy felt the need to emphasize the opposite and promote even more scrupulous observance.
One of the mainstay philosophies of Reform Judaism was that religious observance is for the private realm. In public, Jews should and could blend in with their host communities. Outward signs of religion (such as wearing tzitzit or a kippah) were not necessary to being Jewish. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that, particularly concerning outward signs of Torah observance, Orthodoxy became so stringent about wearing Judaism “on its sleeve,” so to speak. In opposition to the Reform view, Orthodox leaders promoted even more obvious outer signs of allegiance to halacha, particularly in terms of clothing and modesty stringencies for women.
Conservative Judaism, which has proved a failure in the United States with declining membership numbers, seems to be the forerunner to the Open Orthodox movement. Conservative Judaism, which came to a point in 1883 at the “Trefa Banquet,” a celebration honoring the first graduating class of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati at which shellfish and other non-kosher dishes were served, had begun on the premise that halacha is binding and non-negotiable. Therefore, they vehemently opposed the non kosher dinner, and rejected the Reform movement to remain a more traditional movement. However, unlike the Orthodox, they felt that halachic interpretation should evolve according to modern times. Considering that eventually, the laws of kashrut also went by the wayside for most Conservative followers, going from the concept of modern interpretations of halacha to eating shellfish is a slippery slope that many fear Open Orthodoxy likewise could be heading towards.
Rabbi Lopatin, Rabbi Avi Weiss’s successor as President of YCT, is one of a newer generation of Open Orthodox leadership that attempts to straddle both sides of the fence. Meaning, he is valiantly trying to place Open Orthodoxy firmly under the umbrella of universally accepted Orthodox movements, despite the fact that those movements are marginalizing Open Orthodoxy as being, well, unorthodox. In fact, Rabbi Avi Weiss, who has been a thorn in the side of the RCA for many years, seen as delegitimizing the RCA’s own standing among other right wing Orthodox rabbinic organizations, finally resolved the issue by resigning from the RCA this June.
Weiss resigned when the RCA refused to admit membership to rabbinic graduates whose sole ordination came from his yeshiva, YCT. Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, leader of the Ohev Shalom synagogue in Washington and a former assistant rabbi to Weiss at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, announced that he, too, was quitting the RCA.
To me, the RCA’s break with Weiss and YCT indicates the break of Open Orthodoxy from being a recognized and accepted Orthodox movement. YCT and Weiss have been quietly delegitimized for years among Centrist Orthodox elements, particularly those affiliated with Yeshiva University, Weiss’s alma mater.
Because Weiss is a pioneer in Orthodox Feminism, ordaining the first Orthodox female rabbi, he is inextricably linked to the cause of Orthodox women’s rights. The fact that he is being marginalized among Orthodox leadership, means that, in terms of women’s issues, his platform of female rabbinic ordination and partnership minyans is also suspect among those who oppose them – and that suspicion and dismissal gets passed down to their congregants and students.
The need for RCA rabbis themselves to be seen as legitimate by Haredi elements is also taken into consideration in deciding how far their membership can go in modern interpretations of halacha. For example, in recent years, there was a growing concern that the Haredi Israeli Chief Rabbinate was not recognizing conversions by some RCA rabbis (some of those rabbis being part of the Open Orthodox movement). Last year, the RCA reached an agreement with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel that it will automatically accept conversions of American Israeli immigrants based on a voucher letter from the RCA.
Although that crisis was resolved, what does all of this mean for those of us who are living in communities where Rabbi Weiss, YCT, Rabbas, partnership minyans, Kolech, and JOFA are spoken of with disdain and dismissal? It means the potential for even more backlash restrictions to counteract the liberalism of the Open Orthodox movement.
Lest we mistakenly think that there is any legitimacy behind the notion of Orthodox Feminism or any place for growing female leadership beyond the vaginal purview (Yoatzot Halacha graduates are being welcomed more warmly by Modern Orthodox congregations, as long as they stick to their lane), we should be prepared that with every future progressive action, there will be an equal and opposite reaction by those movements and individuals who wish to clearly separate themselves from Open Orthodoxy.
