RaggedyMom showed me this CNN story about developing children’s social maturity. In a fourteen-year study, the preschool children of mothers who described a picture using emotional language showed more empathy and better social skills when they got older.
Read more on Empathy, Mother-Guilt, Shabbat, Career Skills, Anger, and Idleness…
Last night, after a noisy reading in our synagogue (but with only a few caps), I asked my daughter if she wanted to come to the women’s reading of Megillat (Scroll of) Esther this morning. She didn’t say no right away, which is almost a yes for a teen, so we went. I don’t believe I’ve ever been to a women’s reading before.
Read more on Women’s Megillah Reading, Fake Fur Hats, and Purim Humor…
The secular newspapers like to report on the weekly talks of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the leading rabbinic arbiter of the Sephardi/Mizrachi community in Israel. Occasionally he says outrageous things, but this time he made a ruling likely to please a more liberal readership.
Read more on Rabbi Ovadia’s Surprising Ruling: Women Can Read Megillah for Men…
See below for background information and glossary.
Commenter Abbi sent me her response to a discussion about prayer for girls in a
mixed school. Should girls pray in the minyan alongside the boys, or as a separate group? What should be our goals for educating girls about tefilla and minyan, given that most grown Orthodox women will not attend a minyan, especially during the early childbearing years?
“Autumn” left the following comment on the “Burka Wedding” post, in response to a comment by Ora:
Ora wrote:
“I think there’s a big problem with covering the face. It’s dehumanizing. I don’t know what research, if any, has been done on the subject, but I would think that not seeing a someone’s face would make it easier to beat or otherwise abuse them.”Autumn:
I agree with this, also it allows those with covered face to get away with rude behavior as well. I live in a Gulf Arab Country and a lot of women choose to cover their face with either a niqab (which can also be called a burqa – or ninja style as others like to call it) or a full veil. I have noticed that many (but of course not all) of these women are some of the rudest when it comes to things like waiting politely in line for something, they push in front of others etc. I am guessing that this is because of the anonymity that having their face lends them – they can’t be held accountable as a person for their actions. They can do something rude to someone, and if they seem them the next day, can walk by them without even being recognized and therefore held to account for their actions. Anyway, this is just my observation and these are women who probably did not choose the veil, it just is the norm for their families. So this is a danger to watch out for if it becomes the norm for certain communities – that it creates a detachment of a person from their own actions. Kind of like if one is invisible.I think that people who choose to impose this on themselves (don’t grow up with it as a norm) have a whole other set of problems.
One thing that struck me from the interviews with these women was how one of them talked about how she feels like a princess when she goes out completely covered. This is identical to how converts (or “reverts” as they like to call themselves) to Islam who embrace the niqab or the full face veil speak about how they feel. There is one convert who who talks about how she wishes she could live in Saudi Arabia so she could be completely separated from men, (have separate elevators, etc.) she also refrains from speaking to men. She feels she is more respected by men, etc., and she feels good that her friend’s husband will not try to speak to her because of the way she dresses but will talk to her other friends who only wear the normal hijab (headscarf). This woman will not allow men to comment on her blog because she feels that even communicating with them that way (though they can’t see her or even hear her voice) is wrong. Another interesting thing that I noted about these converts is that most of them have had some traumatic experience or suffered from abuse – often sexual in nature – (which is known to result in a hate of one’s self or one’s own body.) I think there are always some sort of psychological issues when people choose / embrace extreme restrictions to the point of hampering their own ability to function. Not being able to see clearly, or not being able to talk to people including one’s own family, encumbering oneself with too many articles of clothing can all be quite problematic.
By the way I am not Jewish, but I found this article and discussion very interesting and I hope you don’t mind me commenting..
You also might be interested to know that I came across your blog because one of the muslim women’s blogs posted a link to it – not this article but the one about the Jewish soldiers helping the Palestinian smugglers..
Autumn | 01.07.09 – 12:39 pm | #
Autumn, thank you for your thought-provoking comments. I didn’t realize that a Muslim blog had linked here–it didn’t show up in my statistics.
Read more on Thoughts on Face-Covering from Resident of Arab Emirates…
Yesterday I did three things that I almost never do: Drive to Jerusalem, take my teenage daughter alone on an outing, and watch a movie from beginning to end. But this was a special occasion–we went to see “A Light for Greytowers” produced by Robin Garbose.
The Israeli screenings received extra publicity because the actresses and singers are Orthodox Jewish women, who will not allow the film to be screened to mixed audiences. The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival accepted the film on its artistic merit but later retracted the invitation, deciding that women-only screenings were discriminatory.
Garbose’s response appeared in Haaretz:
Leah and her mother won the contest! See the Yaldah Magazine site for details.
A female movie producer refusedto let the Jerusalem Film Festival broadcast her film to mixed or male-only audiences. Hat tip: Leora
A very lovely edition of Haveil Havalim, the Jewish Blog Carnival, is now up over at Ima on and off the Bima.
Baila hosts the newest Kosher Cooking Carnival–the procrastinator’s version. I procrastinated sending in my Rosh Hashanah cooking post so it only appeared now.
But please don’t procrastinate about sending posts to jpixcarnival@gmail.com, for the next carnival of Jewish and Israel-related photographs. The deadline is Friday, December 5.
I just received this comment about the Jerusalem tourism clip:
hi,
My name is Michal, and I promote the video clip on behalf of the Israeli Ministry of tourism.
I was the one who contacted mominisrael and asked her to embed the clip here.
I have brought your remarks, and others like yours to the attention of the ministry, and they decided to change the clip to have a more appropriate end.
A new version will be ready later on this week, and I will keep you posted when it goes on youtube.
Thank you for your time and attention,
and whoever found this to be insulting – please accept our apology. that was not the meaning of the clip.
And who says bloggers don’t have influence?
A new carnival called Parents Helping Parents is being hosted at Modern Parent.
Don’t have time for the soccer game or to explain the facts of life? Help is available. “You worry about yourselves, we’ll worry about your kids.”Kidsourcing. (Hebrew)
Hat tip: Gila
Update: This morning, when you click on the video a message appears:
Coming soon to this blog, bli neder: (Mis)adventures in International Travel.
In the meantime:
Have you ever felt untzniusdik when wearing a stunning Shabbat or Yom Tov outfit on the street? Wolfish Musings and Parsha Blog have the solution.
Follow-up (Hebrew) to the Modiin Azrieli Mall “nursing in public” fiasco. The management changed its policy and claims to be reeducating staff on the subject. I don’t know why the article mentions that the mother making the complaint was religious. Hat tip: Nursing in the Negev.
Can you spot a nursing mother in this picture?
Lion of Zion refers to my post on the jailed teenagers, in the context of early marriage among Jews. He writes, “As an aside, I would like to know where all the Israeli/Jewish human rights advocates were while the (minor) settlerettes sat in jail.” I believe that Yitzchak Kadman, Israel’s best-known child advocate, did speak out on the subject at the time.
Read more on Links on tzniut, teenage maturity, nursing in public…
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