Comments on: Reform convention offers separate services

By: mominisrael

mominisrael — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:47:44 +0000

Interesting point. I want to think about it.

By: ora

ora — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:18:58 +0000

Mother in Israel–
I don’t think it’s a major tenet of Reform ideology, but I do think it’s a widespread mindset in the movement that was (unintentionally) reflected in the article. It leads to disrespect for Chazal, who are seen as chauvanist, and leaves young men with few positive Jewish role models.
I know many women who feel comfortable in reform and conservative (mostly because they like leading prayers), but all of the young men I know became either religious or secular (even if they keep some holidays, they don’t do synagogue). IMO the movement is sending a negative message to men. It could also be that men naturally need a more consistent ideology than reform provides, I don’t know.

By: MizEllie

MizEllie — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 01:29:30 +0000

Happy New Year!

By: Ariella

Ariella — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:38:33 +0000

Actually, in its early days, some Reform congregations moved Shabbath observance to Sunday — to be in sync with what the Gentiles did. I don’t know how long tht prevailed.
But the mikvah is appealing to some because of various positive spiritual associations with it. There are nonOrthodox women who use a mikvah.

By: mominisrael

mominisrael — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 15:38:03 +0000

AR, the Reform movement never had anything against observing Shabbat (I don’t think). But separating men and women is a different story altogether.
Ora, re your first paragraph, I think you are reading too much into the article. I don’t know that this is a major tenet of Reform ideology. As for your second point, that is why I like the idea of separate classes for boys and girls from an early age.

By: ora

ora — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 10:06:52 +0000

I thought it was interesting that about halfway through the article they mentioned that men are “the gender that has controlled Judaism for thousands of years.” I might be wrong (and any men here can feel free to correct me if I am), but wouldn’t teaching men that their role throughout history has been to control and oppress women have a tendency to drive them away? IMO the ridiculously simplistic and wrong approach according to which men were living it up throughout history while women suffered is naturally going to alienate men (and many women), separate prayer services or no.
Also, this trend of trying to renew male participation after pushing feminism for decades isn’t only limited to reform. I’ve seen a few articles recently about similar efforts in schools, where many teachers have focused on getting girls to speak up and participate while boys are actually more likely to fail and to drop out. There’s also a push in a few countries, including Israel, to start making custody laws fair to men. IMO this is another example of the same general idea.

By: AR

AR — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:44:19 +0000

I thought you meant the politically incorrect practice of keeping shabbat; R Yoffie called for “increased shabbat observance”: http://urj.org/pr/2007/shabbatobservance/

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 17:53:56 +0000

This is a good step in the right direction. Maybe soon they will force women to wear burkas, like Allah commanded.

By: Abbi

Abbi — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 09:38:35 +0000

Wow, re: the paragraph you quoted: I don’t think I’ve ever read such a long paragraph that says absolutely nothing in a long time.