Women

Creating a safe space for minority students

Zoe Winograd — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:57:44 +0100

“Feminism is seen as a dirty word within the Jewish community and I want this to change.” That is the view of Melissa Leigh, co-chair of the new Union of Jewish Students Women’s Network.

Ms Leigh, 20, is clearly excited about the launch of three UJS projects which aim to improve university life for Jewish students who feel under-represented and marginalised: women; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, questioning (LGBTQ) students; and the disabled.

Ms Leigh, a student at Manchester University, said: “Despite the increase in the number of female Jewish

students, sexism still exists within individual JSocs and is disguised as ‘banter’.

“This includes jokes about rape culture and the belief that women should still be in the kitchen.”

She said she had personally found it “difficult to incorporate egalitarianism into an Orthodox Jewish life,” and believed the new networks would encourage Jewish women to “speak their minds”.

The Women’s Network will run socialising opportunities, motivational talks by inspirational speakers and career guidance sessions to help women at university feel empowered to take leadership roles.

Ms Leigh said: “For too long women have been ignored within the Jewish community and we want to ensure we have a place within the Jewish student movement.”

Emily Carp, also 20 and studying at Manchester University, sits on UJS National Council and is a co-founder of the LGBTQ Network alongside Yael Shafritz. She said the network had two main goals — to create a “safe space” for Jewish LGBTQ students who want to be involved in university life and to ensure that UJS is more inclusive overall.

“Some JSocs are not welcoming to people under the LGBTQ umbrella, but they should be. From the beginning of my university journey, I looked to UJS and I saw that it didn’t represent me — the president and national council were all straight men,” she said.

The second-year student said there were no official figures on how many Jewish members would identify in a LGBTQ group, but the network’s Facebook page has already attracted interest from around 65 students since it was launched in March.

“There must be more people who identify as LGBTQ and are Jewish who we simply don’t know about. We hope to gain a visible enough presence that they feel comfortable to come to us and engage,” said Ms Carp.

Founder of the Disabilities Network, Hannah Brady, 20, was diagnosed with a moderate-to-severe hearing impairment as a child and has had to rely on lip-reading to communicate for the past 14 years.

“I have had problems in the past with university events being held in places with bad acoustics, background noise or lighting which have made participation more tiring and difficult,” said Ms Brady.

The King’s College history student hopes the network will “provide an opportunity for disabled students to assert themselves more strongly within the Jewish community and take greater control over the services provided to them”.

Ms Brady is in the process of organising the network’s first event. She stressed that each individual student’s unique disability could have a hugely challenging affect on their daily university life.

“But we are ultimately seeking to remove any stigmas which may be present among Jewish students surrounding disabilities,” she said.

The Women of the Wall: should they be bothered?

Simon Rocker — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:04:00 +0100

The Western Wall has lately become a battleground in the struggle for egalitarianism. The arrest of women for praying in a tallit at the sacred site has sparked anger across the Jewish world and fuelled demands from non-Orthodox Jews in particular for equal religious rights.

It looks now as if Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky has brokered a deal which should be put an end to the unseemly squabbling. Under his compromise plan, the plaza at the Kotel would be extended to include the area known as Robinson’s Arch where egalitarian services are already allowed.

Some commentators, not unreasonably, have wondered why Progressive Jews have taken such an interest in the site when the restoration of the Temple has never been part of Reform theology. The Kotel has been embraced as a national shrine, whereas a more radical Progressive response might have viewed it with more critical distance on account of its origins.

We usually speak of there having been two Temples. But as Professor Simon Goldhill points out in his book The Temple of Jerusalem, there were actually three buildings: the Temple of Solomon, of Zerubbabel, who rebuilt it after the return of the exiles from Babylon, and Herod the Great in the latter end of the first century BCE.

Herod did more than the ancient equivalent of adding on a conservatory and loft extension: he completely rebuilt the Temple, enhancing its splendour. The Western Wall was one of the retaining walls built to support the platform on which Herod raised his brilliant edifice. According to Goldhill, “the construction of the Temple was the most grandiose act of self-promotion, the capstone of a building programme throughout the kingdom, designed to proclaim Herod a famous and popular man of power for future generations to admire.”

Whatever its motivation, the Herodian enterprise was rather different in spirit from the biblical Temple. Unlike the Tabernacle, the First Temple was not commanded. King David, having built himself a “house of cedar”, is troubled that the ark of God dwells only “within curtains” and thinks it should be housed in something grander.

After a seemingly lukewarm reception to the idea, God promises that David’s son will build a “house for My name”. When Solomon gets down to the task, he notes that his father could not “because of the wars which were about him on every side” (I Kings 5:3). One possible interpretation is that David was simply too busy with the conquest of his kingdom to have time for such an ambitious project.

Only in the First Book of Chronicles comes the now familiar, and more spiritually elevated, reason for David being denied the honour of building the Temple. “But the word of the Lord came to me, saying… ‘You shall not build a house to My name because you have shed much blood on the earth in My sight’” (22:7).

The purity and spiritual integrity of the Temple is emphasised elsewhere. When the prophet Ezekiel later imagines its reconstruction, the divine message is that the house of Israel shall no more defile it, “neither they, nor their kings”.

When King Cyrus allows the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem to build the Second Temple, he attributes it to divine inspiration (Ezra 1-2). The leaders of the Jews, Ezra, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, were all religious heroes who variously sought to institute the regular reading of the Torah or protect Shabbat observance.

Under no stretch of the imagination could Herod be thought a spiritual role model. He seized the throne by force with the aid of Rome in 37 BCE and in the course of his 40 year-reign, put to death most of the Sanhedrin (the rabbinic court), his wife, two of his sons and his mother-in-law. His substantial building work also included a Greek theatre and a hippodrome — not exactly the rabbis’ favourite places.

If David was unable to erect the Temple because of blood on his hands, that did not stop Herod.

According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, Herod “destroyed in the full eastern hellensistic tradition, all members of the Hasmonean House whose existence seemed to him to endanger his position”. While the Temple may have been an attempt to win the hearts of his subjects, he was nonetheless regarded as “the destroyer of their traditional institutions, the murderer of their kings and leaders and the agent of a foreign government”.

As Goldhill notes, the Western Wall had “no religious significance” in Herod’s own day: it was an outer supporting wall of the Temple compound, not part of the religious structure.

Over time the Kotel has become hallowed as a focus of Jewish messianic yearnings. But as the forthcoming festival of Shavuot reminds us, revelation did not take place in the city or the gilded monuments of kings but in the barren, empty space of the wilderness.

One small step, not a giant leap

Geoffrey Alderman — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:56:21 +0100

The election of Mrs Karen Appleby as the first female chair of a United Synagogue shul (St Albans) is certainly a landmark. The question is, precisely what sort of a landmark is it?

The role of women within Orthodox synagogal structures has been a matter of debate and contention for an exceedingly long time. The apparent prohibition on women holding positions of authority within the synagogue is of purely rabbinic origin, and can be traced back to a particular rabbinic interpretation (the Sifrei) of Devarim 15:17, which speaks of kingship but not queenship.

From this interpretation, the dictum was inferred that women should not wield any authority over men. We might object that the chairmanship of a shul board is a far cry from the right to sit on a throne, and we might ask whether, in any sense, the office of synagogue "chair" can be equated with that of a head of state.

We might also note that simply because the verse addresses kingship, that does not mean that the Almighty has necessarily vetoed queenship, and that, indeed, some later rabbinical commentators argued the verse this way. Be all that as it may, until recently the precise wording of the relevant text in the Sifrei - "A man may be appointed leader over the community, but a woman may not" - has remained one of the cornerstones of normative Jewish Orthodoxy.

But what does this text mean? The book of Kings refers to the rule of Queen Athalia and, more famously (Judges 4:4) we are told that the prophetess Deborah "judged Israel."

A succession of medieval rabbis drew a distinction between a king being imposed (or imposing himself) upon a people and a community voluntarily accepting the authority of a queen - or, if you prefer - a female synagogue "chair". As Rabbi Gideon Sylvester remarked in the JC last year, this was indeed the thinking adopted - controversially - by Ben Zion Uziel, Sephardi chief rabbi of Palestine/Israel between 1939 and 1954; Rabbi Uziel added that the laws of modesty were not infringed by this. And since Mrs Appleby was clearly voted into office, the halachah would appear to be satisfied.

But the interpretation and reinterpretation of halachah has never taken place in a political vacuum. Important sections of the Orthodox world never accepted the arguments advanced by Rabbi Uziel. Perhaps for this reason, the gradual entry of women into the shul boardroom, and, by stages, into the chair normally reserved for its president, has (to be blunt) been comprehensively fudged.

It seems likely that the success of Karen Appleby at St Albans - and Rosalind Goulden at Cockfosters - will be followed by others, and that before very long the incidence of a woman "chair" of a US affiliate will be nothing out of the ordinary.

The abominable no-men of Stamford Hill, Golders Green and Gateshead will doubtless wag their fingers and solemnly shake their heads. The US will be able to answer, truthfully, that the status quo is alive and well. The argument will be put that no synagogue in membership of the US is truly independent: at best (the argument will go), women can be elected to preside over subsets of a monolith, the headship of which is reserved to a male of the species.

The same fudge can be observed at work in the Federation of Synagogues which, as I reported last year, is changing its constitution to permit women to become full members of (as opposed to observers at) its governing council. But ultimate power within the Federation is being removed from that council to a much smaller, male-dominated body.

Don't get me wrong. Fudges have an honourable part to play in any socio-political system, since they enable all sides to claim a victory. Nor do I wish to be thought at all disparaging. I offer my congratulations to Mrs Appleby and to all the other women who may be elected chairs of synagogues within the family of the US.

But we need to be realistic. A citadel has been stormed and, for a time, Jewish women may be satisfied with this victory. Then, one day, one of them will surely ask why women can't be trustees or presidents of synagogues, or president of the United Synagogue itself. The fudge will be seen for what it is. The battle for true gender equality will then begin in earnest.

Orthodox teens throw rocks at Women of Wall

Zoe Winograd — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:55:33 +0100

Thousands of strictly Orthodox teenagers have attempted to stop the Women of the Wall from holding a service at the Western Wall.

Early on Friday morning, a police barricade stopped protesters from attacking the women who were given the legal right to pray at the wall in April. According to sources, the men were throwing rocks, water bottles and other items.

“They’re doing this to provoke us, and it’s an insult to Judaism,” said one protester.

Knesset members from Meretz, Tamar Zandberg and Michal Rozin, joined the Women of the Wall, while Likud MK Miri Regev stood in support of the protesters.

Ms Regev told reporters, “We must respect all strains of religion in Israel, but we must maintain traditional norms at the Western Wall.”

Three Charedi men were arrested for disturbing the peace with police reporting that more arrests may be made.

A statement made by the Rabbinical Assembly said: "We are shocked and horrified to see the desecration of a Jewish holy site by Jewish religious extremists. We call for a full investigation by the Israeli government."

The Women of the Wall gather monthly at the women’s section of the Western Wall to pray.

Poem by celebrated Victorian feminist sold at auction

Jennifer Lipman — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:32:10 +0100

One of the final writings of a Victorian Jew who Oscar Wilde praised as a "girl of genius" has been auctioned for £3,500.

The poem by Amy Levy, At Dawn, was sold at Bonhams on Wednesday for £500 more than anticipated.

Written around 1889, shortly before Levy's suicide, it is the first time any of her work had been made for sale.

A feminist who had a relationship with the novelist Vernon Lee, Levy defied the expectations of her middle-class Jewish upbringing, becoming Newnham College Cambridge's first Jewish woman student.

Despite her premature death at 27, she was a prolific writer, publishing books and essays and attracting praise from Wilde.

"When you think of the prejudices women of the time faced, and for her to face them as a Jew, then [her story] is even more extraordinary," said Roy Davids, who sold the poem.

Progress for women at Federation synagogues

Simon Rocker — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:30:00 +0100

Women in the Federation of Synagogues have for the first time been elected to the management board of a congregation.

Yeshurun Synagogue in Edgware took the historic step on Tuesday, voting five women to its 12-person board.

Five years had elapsed since the head of the Federation’s Beth Din, Dayan Yisroel Lichtenstein, issued a ruling to permit women to be elected but no congregation until now had gone for change.

Yeshurun leaders argued that the perceived treatment of women was deterring potential new members from joining it.

Unlike in the United Synagogue — where the first female congregational chairmen were elected this month — women cannot be synagogue officers in the Federation and the board must retain a male majority.

Dayan Lichtenstein said as long as the congregations adhered to the “clear halachic parameters I have given, it’s ok.”

Belmont United is latest synagogue to elect a woman chair

Sandy Rashty — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:57:36 +0100

The United Synagogue has elected its fourth shul chairwoman

Frances Grossman, a former vice-chair, was voted in as chair of Belmont United Synagogue in Stanmore on Wednesday night.

Ms Grossman, who stood unopposed, said: “I'm delighted to have been elected as the first female chair of Belmont and send congratulations to all ladies who have been elected to this position in their shuls."

Karen Appleby was elected as the first woman chairperson last Sunday. She was elected unanimously and unopposed at St Albans Synagogue’s annual general meeting.

Ros Goulden was elected at Cockfosters and North Southgate earlier this week.

Hilary Stone became chairwoman of Staines - an affiliated United Synagogue.

‘Long time coming’ but United Synagogue finally has a chairwoman

Jay Grenby — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:00:13 +0100

The woman who has made history by becoming the first chairwoman of a United Synagogue shul says she has no great desire for power and is simply looking forward to doing the job.

Karen Appleby was elected unanimously and unopposed at St Albans Synagogue’s AGM on Sunday.

The move came as a result of last December’s landmark ruling by the Chief Rabbi permitting women to take the role for the first time.

In standing for office, Mrs Appleby said she had no particular thought of breaking new ground. “I had been vice-chair for several years and once our former chairman said he was standing down, it was a natural progression. I have no great personal desire for power within the community. There was simply a job to do, and people seem to think I’m the one to do it.”

She recognised the election of women chairwomen was “a big issue” for the US, but said she preferred to focus on the concerns facing St Albans, “the most pressing of these, is, of course, finding a rabbi”.

Professing herself to be thrilled that women were starting to be represented at the higher levels of synagogue communities, she added: “This has been a long time coming. It is a great honour to become the first woman to be elected as chair of a US shul, but I have no doubt that, over the coming month and years, many more women will start to rise within the ranks of the lay leadership.

“In the end, it is nothing to do with gender but rather with competence, and whether or not you can do the required job well.”

She noted that many women had felt increasingly disenfranchised within the US. “So while this is a big step forward, we are not quite there yet, and we need to ensure that women have a stronger voice,” she said.

However, Mrs Appleby insisted that she had no desire to take a role in running the synagogue’s services.

“There are some women who want to take a more prominent part not just in running the shul but also in shul services. I am definitely not among their number. This would change the whole ethos of the United Synagogue, and is not something I feel that US women should want to do.”

Born in London and brought up in Westcliff, Essex, Mrs Appleby is currently the administrator of a small computer company. She is married and has two grown-up sons and one grandchild.

She has always been involved with Jewish organisations, either socially or professionally, having worked for both Maccabi and the Hebrew University, as well as for World Jewish Relief as an event organiser.

At least four other women are standing as chairs at US synagogues in elections that are scheduled to take place throughout the month.

St Albans woman in breakthrough United Synagogue election

Jay Grenby — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:56:13 +0100

One of the United Synagogue's smallest communities has made history by becoming the first US congregation to elect a woman chair.

At St Albans Synagogue’s AGM on Sunday, Karen Appleby was voted unanimously and unopposed into the top job. The groundbreaking move followed last December’s ruling by the chief rabbi and other US leaders permitting women for the first time to become synagogue chairmen.

“We are in uncharted waters,” Mrs Appleby said after her election, “but we will learn as we go along.”

A member of St Albans, with husband Keith, for the past 15 years, she has been vice-chair for the past three years, and was largely responsible for steering the 65-year-old 130-member community from its original affiliated status to full membership of the US in 2011.

In recent months she has been overseeing the selection procedure for the recruitment of the community’s first minister in 50 years. One of her first tasks as chair will be to renew the recruitment process after the recent withdrawal of the appointed candidate on the eve of taking up the post.

She said: “In the past, I have been happy to work in the background to get things done, but I do agree it is time now for women to step forward and lead our shuls from the front rather than being confined to a supporting role. For far too long, the majority of women have been relegated to the task of organising kiddushim or fund-raising events. I am pleased that the US has recognised that we are capable of more than just this.”

Women are stuck in the comfort zone

Sandy Rashty — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:00:14 +0100

Banking is an aggressive, competitive and challenging industry dominated by men. Women — especially Orthodox women — are noticeably absent from top positions in the financial industry. But it is not the workplace environment that is holding them back, says leading financier Judy Heicklen.

Ms Heicklen, who is Orthodox, is managing director at Credit Suisse and has sustained a successful career in finance for more than 25 years. Since the Los Angeles-born chartered accountant joined the international banking giant in 1986, she has had the opportunity to oversee decisions, travel the world and leave the office before Shabbat comes in each week.

But Ms Heicklen’s path is not typical of your average career woman, let alone the religious women who she says “are reluctant to break out of their comfort zones.

In general they are choosing a certain type of career that is more culturally acceptable, because of more flexible times and emotional needs.”

But Ms Heicklen insists that “it’s not harder in the workplace for Orthodox women.” She says “the cultural conditions are different. The general social pressure, from Golders Green to Stamford Hill, is to stay at home. That’s actually what makes it harder for women.”

She insists there is no longer any debate about women taking senior positions in financial organisations. “I don’t think the ability of women to lead is even a conversation any more. There are so many examples of women as lay leaders in their community and they are predominant on the board of schools — we just need to take that model and apply it to industries.”

Ms Heicklen, who grew up in an observant home, made her way up the career ladder because she “had to work. I was not very ambitious growing up, but I was financially independent and reliant on myself — that’s why I worked hard and focused on career building throughout my twenties. It was my only option. I would then get a reward, and so I worked harder. It’s a cycle and I sort of fell into accountancy — it wasn’t my passion, not by a long shot.”

But the 50-year-old now finds waking up at 5 30 every morning to work a 17-hour day easier because “I love my work. I love solving problems and get a lot of job satisfaction from managing people. I especially love that part of my job.”

Her passion is clear as she is determined to defend her industry even if “banks are not popular right now.

“We’re giving back a lot. Banks still have an important role to play and are critical to the smooth functioning of the economy,” she says.

Ms Heicklen has been posted across the globe, from Tokyo to Singapore and London to New York — where she is currently based.

During her four-year stay in London, she lived in Hendon where she attended the Ner Yisrael Synagogue.

This week, in her capacity as president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (Jofa), which recently launched in the UK, she spoke about the role of women and leadership at a United Synagogue event at the Norrice Lea synagogue in Hampstead Garden Suburb.

“I do sometimes speak to girls in the religious community about pursuing jobs in finance. I would absolutely encourage them to pursue it if that’s what they want,” she says.

Having had the opportunity to travel the world, the divorced mother-of-three would “recommend it to anyone. Travelling is absolutely fabulous. My eldest child was born in Hong Kong, my second in London and youngest in New York.

“Not a lot of Orthodox women would volunteer to go to Japan, but I did. I looked into it and saw that it was possible to keep kashrut, and so I went for two years and also learned Japanese. I guess that I did have the feeling of: ‘I’m not going to do what everyone else does’.”

So can you have it all? “I don’t think you can have it all, but you can have a lot of it,” says Ms Heicklen. “I wish I had more time to breathe, more time for myself and my children — but I do love my job. And let’s be honest, the money’s good.”

www.jofa.org