c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Orthodox Judaism is viewed by most as a male-dominated faith in which women are constrained by the dictates of traditional Jewish law. Given that, the term Orthodox feminist would seem to be an oxymoron.

But not to Blu Greenberg. To her, Orthodox feminist is a term whose time has come.”An Orthodox feminist is someone faithful to tradition, who functions within the community, who lives within the parameters of halacha (traditional Jewish law), but who is also informed by such values as equal potential and equal access.”She’s about equality within distinctive roles for men and women,”said Greenberg, author of a groundbreaking book on Orthodox feminism,”On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition.” In recent years, Greenberg and other pioneering Orthodox feminists have sought to redefine the roles assigned to Orthodox women both at home and in synagogue.

They’ve formed women’s prayer groups and women’s advanced Torah study classes and have pushed for greater acceptance within the Orthodox community of bat mitzvah ceremonies for girls, similar to those now popular in Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Jewish circles.

They’ve also agitated for community recognition of the plight of Orthodox women who’s husbands refuse to give them a religious divorce known as a”get,”without which they cannot remarry. According to Jewish law, husbands alone have the power to grant a divorce.

Some women have even pushed for the ordination of female Orthodox rabbis _ a concept that remains anathema to much of Orthodoxy, the only branch of Judaism that does not ordain women.”There’s a lot of emotional resistance to (Orthodox women rabbis), but I believe support will slowly grow as Orthodox women continue to learn the texts that men have always studied,”Greenberg said.”While I do not foresee Orthodox women rabbis leading pulpits for a long time, I do believe they may be accepted as teachers, chaplains and organizational rabbis within the foreseeable future,”she said.

The number of Orthodox feminists has grown to the point where later this month several hundred such women will gather in New York to take stock of their movement. The International Conference on Feminism and Orthodoxy _ the first such gathering of its kind _ will draw women from across the United States and Canada, as well as Israel, Europe, Australia and South Africa.”The idea for this has been brewing for some years,”said Esther Farber, who is coordinating the conference scheduled for Feb. 16-17 at Manhattan’s Grand Hyatt Hotel.”It’s time to assess the changes that have occurred and where we’re headed.” Within Orthodox Judaism, women are viewed as having their own set of rights and obligations that set them apart from men. While excluded from participation in many synagogue activities, they are assigned religious duties within the home that men do not generally perform, such as lighting Sabbath candles.

In agitating for change, Orthodox feminists generally are not so much challenging Jewish law as they are fighting for wider acceptance of more liberal interpretations of those laws that govern the religious rights and obligations of Orthodox women.

Over the years, Orthodox feminists have gained the support of some male Orthodox rabbis. About a dozen such male rabbis will take part in the discussions at the upcoming conference, Farber noted.”For some of them and for many of the women as well, this will be the first time they are participating in something that has feminism in its title,”she said.

However, traditionalists continue to oppose the Orthodox feminist movement.

Recently, a rabbinic council in the New York borough of Queens issued a much publicized ruling invalidating women’s prayer groups, one of the more visible manifestations of Orthodox feminism. Because Orthodox Jews do not count women as part of the”minyan”_ the quorum of ten Jewish men required to recite key public prayers _ Orthodox women have begun to form their own prayer groups while being careful not to recite prayers that traditional Jewish law says are only for men.

The rabbinic council _ who’s jurisdiction is limited only to those who choose to follow it _ concluded that women’s prayer groups do not necessarily violate Jewish law but are”prohibited”because they represent a break with tradition.

Rabbi Manfred Gans of Forest Hills, N.Y., one of those who signed the decision against women’s prayer groups, said a prime reason for the ruling was concern that prayer groups are just the tip of the feminist iceberg.”The greatest fear was not for what is now, but for what this could lead to,”Gans told the New York Jewish Week.

New York Rabbi Avi Weiss, a staunch supporter of the prayer groups, said Gans’ comments prove”there are no real halachic barriers to fuller participation of women in Orthodox religious life.” Moreover, Weiss said, the rabbinic council’s emphasis on what he termed”social concerns”is”an indication of how powerful women’s prayer groups have become. They’re becoming more mainstream, and that scares those that cannot adjust to rightly change and equity.” Despite such expressions of support, Orthodox feminists are generally loath to push too hard to secure acceptance.

Orthodox women, said Greenberg, live in communities that are slow to accept change. For that reason, no resolutions of any kind will be considered at the International Conference on Feminism and Orthodoxy.”There’s enough for us to do,”said Greenberg.”Why cause friction and confrontation by issuing a resolution about some controversial issue. It’s best to just go about changing things with a minimum of backlash.”

MJP END RIFKIN