JOFA reaffirms our support of the individual women who have been the invisible center of the recent controversy over the conferral of religious leadership status on Orthodox women. We applaud these brave women who have stood fast with dignity. Daily they make us proud of their religious learning, halakhic commitment, and generous service to the community. We appreciate their patience with the long, slow march towards full halakhic participation in all aspects of communal life and Torah leadership.
We are encouraged by the RCA’s recent statement asserting “its commitment to women’s Torah education and scholarship at the highest levels, and to the assumption of appropriate leadership roles within the Jewish community.” At the same time, we are saddened that so many leaders remain unsupportive of a title commensurate with the critical roles that women perform in the synagogue and greater Orthodox community.
JOFA believes that dialogue across the Orthodox community must be conducted with the respect embodied in the principle of “kol mahloket she’hi le’shem shamayim…,” any argument for the sake of Heaven…. It is the wide variety of opinions, voices and practices within both halakha and our community that creates its richness and depth. We invite all to add their voices and “Join the Conversation” at the JOFA Conference this weekend, Saturday evening – Sunday March 13-14.
To read as PDF, click here: JOFA Statement 3 9 10
why can women not have titles? They are clearly educated enough to warrant a conversation about a title, so why not give them “rabba”? I plan on continuing my education for social work and i plan on learning enough to earn at least an MSW and if someone took that away from me, I would be so upset. Why go through the learning to not be appreciated for my work?
I agree with the sentiment that the RCA of “women’s Torah education and scholarship at the highest levels” but the idea of “appropriate leadership roles” bothers me slightly. “appropriate” reminds me of tzanua (modest) as if what women are doing when they learn and are called “rabba” isn’t tzanua (modest). I guess I am just a little confused.
Comment by Tali on March 10, 2010 6:09 PM
Tali, You are not confused – you are right! Titles matter and “appropriate” is meant to keep women as second class leaders. This RCA mess has just made me feel stronger that we don’t need male Rabbis to change the world – we need to organize at the grassroots level and ensure that women start serving in leadership positions. The rest will follow.
Comment by Hannah on March 10, 2010 8:41 PM
I want to highly commend Sarah Hurwitz on her accomplishments and how she’s weathering this political storm. I went to Drisha with her, and it’s exciting to see the strides women graduating from Drisha have taken in all aspects of Jewish life. In light of the maelstrom about her change of title of Maharat vs. Rabba (though her actual job hasn’t changed a bit) iti’s clear what’s at issue isn’t halachic, but political. However, I must respectfully disagree with something Sara said at the JOFA conference. Unless I misunderstood her, she had a more top down approach, and somewhat of an affirmative action one, where efforts should be made to put women in leadership positions. I think a better approach would be bottom up, especially since we’re bringing such big change into a very traditional community. If we continue to have very educated women, communities will recognize them as such and bestow upon them authority and leadership. I think if people think things are happening too fast, or feel that something is being thrust upon them (I’m not saying that’s the case here, I’m now generalizing), backlashing can occur, which I hope won’t happen now with the RCA, it’s a very difficult decision, whether to move gradually or push the envelope…both are necessary, but we need to figure out when to push and when not to, and unfortunatley, this can only be known for sure with 20/20 hindsight. It’s a very good thing that this issue is front and center with the RCA–let’s hope their decision is one that is beneficial to women and to the greater orthodox community in general.
Comment by Jennifer Selgman on April 27, 2010 4:27 PM