THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, June 24, 1983
11
The Continuing Debate on Judaism and Women's Rights
By TRUDE
WEISS-ROSMARIN
LOS ANGELES — The
controversy over admitting
women as students for the
Conservative rabbinate
and/or members of the Con-
servative Rabbinical As-
sembly pales in importance
as long as Jewish women
are being denied basic civil
rights on the authority of
Halakha — talmudic-
rabbinic law.
According to Halakha,
women can neither vote nor
be voted for, although there
is no objection if they choose
to form their own women's
groups and/or a women's
minyan. This has been an
issue in many Orthodox
synagogues where women
ask to be represented on the
board of directors and as-
pire, as do women in Con-
servative and Reform con-
gregations, to serve as offi-
cers.
In England, Chief Rabbi
Immanuel Jakobovits de-
creed, some years ago, that
women can neither vote for
officers nor be elected as
officers of Orthodox congre-
gations.
Another basic civil
right denied to Jewish
women by Halakha is to
serve as witnesses in
court trials and/or to
affix their signatures to
legal documents, such as
ketubot (marriage cer-
tificates), certificates of
conversion to Judaism,
and other documents
pertaining to,,personal
law, such as a get (di-
vorce). This is the real
issue why two recent
conventions of the Rab-
binical Assembly de-
voted so much time de-
bating whether to admit
women to the Conserva-
five rabbinate.
Even those Conservative
rabbis who spearhead the
movement for the admis-
sion of women to the Rab-
binical Department of the
Jewish Theological Semi-
nary hem and haw with re-
spect to enfranchising
women as valid legal wit-
nesses. They are not ready
to set aside and ignore isha
pasool l'edaot — "a woman
is unfit to serve as a wit-
ness."
They suggest that in the
eventuality of women serv-
ing as Conservative rabbis,
they should call upon a male
colleague to stand in\ for
them as a "signer" of docu-
ments.
The extent to which
Jewish women are deprived
of the civil right of taking
legal charge of their own
persons is also evident from
the fact that the bride does
not affix her signature to
the ketuba. And under the
hupa (marriage canopy)
she • is silent. The groom
places the ring on her finger
and declares, harey at_
mekudeshet li — "You are
being set aside (medudeshet
means this, and not
`sanctified') for me.
This, of course ; is in
consonance with the
legal definition of Jewish
marriage as an act ofac-
quisition, in accordance
with the text of the Mis-
hna, isha nikneit (a wife is
acquired . . . by three ac-
tions).
What bothers and angers
me is not that-women are
being barred from serving
as Conservative rabbis but
that we are still dis-
enfranchised. At the same
time, I am mindful of the
fact that the 'civil rights
women have in most
civilized countries are very
recent innovations. For
example, in our United
•
U.S. Urged to Act in Concert
With Israel on Lebanon
MONTICELLO, N.Y.
(JTA) — Naphtali Lavie,
the Israeli consul general in
New York, challenged the
Reagan Administration
here to undertake initia-
tives in concert with Israel
to achieve a binding peace
in Lebanon.
He also said the United
States must "act rather
than react" to developments
in the Middle East.
Addressing some 500
delegates attending the
opening session of the
diamond jubilee convention
of Bnai Zion last week,
Lavie underscored the "cost
effectiveness" of U.S.
foreign aid to Israel by cit-
ing Israel's role as a "deter-
rent force" to Soviet expan-
sion in the Middle East.
Addressing some 500
delegates attending the
opening session of the
diamond jubilee conven-
tion of Bnai Zion last
week, Lavie underscored
the "cost effectiveness"
of U.S. foreign aid to Is-
rael by citing Israel's role
as a "deterrent force" to
Soviet expansion in the
Middle East.
He contrasted this to
the unwillingness of any
of the so-called "moder-
ate" Arab states to pro-
vide bases for the de-
ployment of American
forces after they had re-
ceived large quantities of
sophisticated American
weaponry.
Lavie termed the "in-
transigence" of extreme
elements of the Palestine
Liberation Organization
and the radical Arab states
as the "chief obstacle to
peace."
He called on the Adminis-
tration to spurn Saudi Ara-
bian attempts at "petro dol-
lar blackmail" and to focus
efforts on removing Syrian
and PLO forces from Leba-
non so that the Israel-
Lebanon accord, signed
May 17, could be im-
plemented.
States the 19th Amendment
giving the women the right
to vote was adopted only 63
years ago, in 1920. As for
the Equal Rights Amend-
ment (ERA), it did not mus-
ter enough support.
When all has been said for
the progress women have
made as persons in their
own right, we are still "The
Second Sex," as Simone de
Beauvoir put it about 40
years ago. Also, many of our
American customs are still
in conformance with the
age-old notion that women
cannot be legal agents.
For example, at weddings
it is customary for the
father "to give the bride
away," that is, to deliver her
from the custody of one male
into that of another male. Of
course, this is a "symbolic"
act but, then, we do live by
symbols and symbols are at
the root of our actions.
But what to do so as to
enfranchise Jewish
women in the context of
Halakha? I think there
are many passages in the
Torah that speak of
Ha-am (the people) and
which lend themselves to
the exegesis that women
are part of the people of
Israel. At Sinai, kol
ha-am -- (the entire
people, Exodus 20:18)
witnessed the Revelation
and the Ten Command-
ments were enjoined
upon all who stood at the
foot of the mountain, and
upon all their descen-
dants. -
Zelophehad's
When
daughters complained to
Moses, Eleazer the priest
and the heads of the corn-
munity at the entrance of
the Tent of Meeting that the
laws of inheritance were un-
fair because only sons could
inherit and thus a man who
died- 'without leaving sons
lost his, land and "his
name," God's decision was:
"The plea of Zelophehad's
daughters is just . . . trans-
fer their father's share to
them" (Numbers 27:1).
The plea of today's Jewish treme
stretching of may serve as Halakhic wit-
women for basic civil rights Halakha to enfranchise nesses and vote and be voted
is just. It requires no ex- Jewish women so that they for in Orthodox synagogues.
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Role for Media?
AMSTERDAM (JTA) —
Nazi-hunter Simon Wei-
senthal believes that the
mass media could help
bring war criminals to jus-
tice despite the fact that
many of them are now na-
tionals of countries far from
the scene of their crimes.
_
June Weinberg, Executive DirectOr
Rabbi Robert Abramson, Headmaster
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