THE DETROIT JEWISH: NEWS
Friday, September17, 1M2 21
Women's Equality in Judaism
By AVIVA CANTOR
(Copyright 1982, JTA, Inc.)
gious structures continue to
be lukewarm, at best, about
religious changes, a grow-
•ing do-it-yourself phenom-
enon has sprung up. The
Havura (alternative prayer
and study assemblies)
movement, begun in the
late 1960s, has been respon-
sive to Jewish feminism and
has encouraged innovation
in services and structure.
In the area-ofJewish edu-
cation, most of the texts
used in the schools as well
as Jewish children's litera-
ture generally continue to
promote- sexist stereotypes.
Men and their sons are
portrayed as participating
in the synagogue and in
study while women and
their daughters are de-
picted cleaning the house
and cooking in preparation
for the male's return from
the synagogue.
In the secular commu-
nity, surveys have revealed
little change in the unequal
position of paid female
communal workers.
A survey by the Confer-
ence of Jewish Communal
Service released in 1977
showed that one in 500
women earned over $30,000
a year compared to one in
four men; a follow-up sur-
vey in 1981 raised the
women's percentage to 3.5
percent.
The 1977 survey also re-
vealed that five percent of
the women employees were
executives, compared to 29
percent of the men; the 1981
(Editor's note: Aviva
Cantor is the managing
editor of Lilith, the hide-
• pendent Jewish women's
magazine.)
While the general
women's movement; in
existence just a few years
longer than the Jewish
feminist movement, has in-
spired and achieved sweep-
ing changes in American
society, real changes by and
for Jewish women have oc-
curr€ 3. very slowly and have
not moved very far along
the road to equality.
In the sphere of equaliz-
ing religious respon-
sibilities, there are three
major specific issues outside
the Orthodox community:
the inclusion of women in
the minyan (quorum of wor-
shippers) and in the grant-
ing of aliyot (calls to the To-
rah) and the ordination of
women rabbis.
While the Reform, Re-
constructionist and Conser-
vative movements all offi-
cially allow women's par-
ticipation in the minyan
and aliyot, the actual
changes in practice on the
local level have largely been
piecemeal.
The Reconstructionist
and Reform movements
began ordaining women
rabbis in 1972, with the
graduation of Rabbi
Sally Priesand; currently
there are 61 women rab-
bis in these movements.
Only a few are working
as congregational rabbis.
There is still considerable
resistance to hiring women
except as assistant rabbis or
educators, and the Reform
movement has a task force
dealing with the problem.
The Conservative move-
ment, after a "Great De-
bate" lasting several years,
decided late in 1979 ,against
ordaining women. Al-
though the idea had won ac-
ceptance by both the rabbin-
ical and congregational
bodies of the movement,
strong resistance came from
its most powerful institu-
tion, the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America, and
particularly, its Orthodox
contingent of scholars.
In the Orthodox commu-
nity, the only issue that has
concerned Orthodox women
is the disability they ex-
perience in Obtaining a
"get" (religious divorce),
which often involves extrac-
tion of huge sums of money
by the husband.
In 1981, Rabbi Saul Be-
rman, a leading • Or-
thodox scholar con-
cerned with this problem,
predicted that the rabbis
would work out a solu-
tion within "six months to
a year." Berman proved
to be naively optimistic,
underestimating the re-
sistance to change among
the Orthodox. "
Meanwhile, Orthodox
women have organized
mutual support and assis-
tance groups, known as
GET (Getting Equal
, Treatment); a sister organ-
ization exists in Israel.
As most organized reli-
sk #w !fibkLA. lb410tAbe1ktri.
t gr
a f.
survey upped this to eight
percent for women and 45
percent for men.
The lay leadership of
the community continues
to be dominated by a
handful of wealthy men
and their hired male pro-
fessionals. The major
fund-raising organiza-
tions, both on a national
and local level, continue
to run separate men's
and women's drives, with
priority given to the
men's campaigns. A
sprinkling of women
across the country have
succeeded to the
presidency of local fed-
erations, but have made
no changes for women.
arcitis
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No women have made it
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major American Jewish
organization (with the ex-
ception, of course, of the ex-
clusively female organiza-
tions). The one change in
the segregated organiza-
tional profile of American
Jewry is that the Women's
Division of the American
Jewish Congress has been
dissolved. The implications
of this change still remain
to be seen.
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