One of these "Rabba's" [female "rabbi"] wrote an article in the Daily News. Why the Daily News? I guess she figured that if she is going to be מוציא שם רע - she might as well do it on a mass scale. Why suffice with the limited readership of the Jewish Week when you can go for the gold with the Daily News and every Hispanic in NYC will read your article.
She wrote:
Instances of harassment and misconduct aren’t confined to one community, industry or group. We’ve seen it in entertainment, media, politics and corporate America.
And though it hasn’t yet been subjected to the same white-hot spotlight, at least not yet, the Orthodox Jewish community is also a male-dominated “locker-room” where women are harassed, demeaned and marginalized*.
Isn't that disgusting. I have been around Orthodox Jews my entire life [for obvious reasons:-)] and I have never seen a woman harassed, demeaned or marginalized [although once I was a guest for a Shabbos meal at someone's house and I felt that he should have spoken with more respect to his wife. That was about 30 years ago]. But she makes it seem as if we are a community of foul mouthed, mysoginist, abusers of women. And she tells this to every Jose and Juanita, too. [Of course there are instances of harassment in our community but it is clearly not the norm].
Nobody should think for a second that "Orthodox" feminism is about serving Hashem. It is about fighting men, rabbis, the establishment, Torah and Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
May we respond to this חילול שם שמים by living lives where we are מקדשי שם שמים.
*Maybe she considers sitting behind the mechitza as demeaning? Probably. But it is really nothing againt women. We just .want to give ourselves a space where we can daven and not think about sex. That's holy. If she doesn't like it - she can go to any one of the thousands of "Temples" where women sit next to men. She could also get a job as an equal rabbi there and not feel discriminated against as she does in the Orthodox community. Free country.
