I am once again pleased to host the words of Shoshanna Jaskoll. Although we have some differences of opinion on certain issues, we tend to
agree on most issues affecting the world of Orthodox Jewry. We have both for example
protested the disappearance of women from the public square that is increasingly reflected
in Charedi publications.
Chochmat Nashim was founded to counteract that troubling
trend as well as dealing with other issues affecting Orthodox women in particular and Orthodoxy in general. It is an organization that I wholeheartedly support. Shoshanna is a co-founder.
Her words follow.
“The recent phenomenon of removing women’s images from the
public sphere is damaging to women and the entire community. When women are not
seen, their voices are not heard and their needs not met.”
I am a cofounder of Chochmat Nashim, together with Anne
Gordon and Rachel Stomel, and we are working to advocate for community
involvement, rich religious discourse, and policy-making that is just, all to
make a healthier Jewish world.
Towards this vision of improving the Orthodox world,
Chochmat Nashim advocates for women to be seen and heard, within the normative
bounds of halacha.
The “erasing women” that has taken place in so many Orthodox
publications began in the Hasidic world, and is becoming ever more normative
for those who are committed to halacha, and Chochmat Nashim understands the
practice to be a dangerous trend.
Inasmuch as there’s a logic to hiding women’s bodies from
view when the secular world displays too much, the notion that women who are
modestly dressed should not be seen at all fundamentally objectifies and
sexualizes women far beyond the halachic pale. Moreover, when frum women and
girls are removed from the visible sphere, the community suffers, not only
because of the impact on Jewish females, but also because of the distancing of
men and boys from the humanity, nay, the tzelem Elokim, that is in them.
When the community at large does not see women as equal
participants in society (regardless of whether the roles they play are
identical to those of men), society misses out on women’s strengths, talents,
and voices; men and boys are at risk of not relating well to the women and
girls in their lives; and the needs of women are often shunted aside, whether
in the realm of education, policy-making, or health.
One dramatic example of the detriment that hypermodesty and
hiding of women can yield with regard to women’s health: in the most sheltered
elements of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel, those women who contract
breast cancer -- at a lower rate than that of the general population, as it
happens -- are more likely to die from it.
Beyond the fact that women do not necessarily focus on their
own health, and so on, the taboo of mentioning women’s body parts means that
certain segments of the Haredi world do not advocate for the regular screening
that allows for early detection, and life-saving treatment.
One researcher told Chochmat Nashim that the higher
mortality may be at as high a rate as 50%. It is shocking to the point of
almost not being believable -- so many ultra-Orthodox women DO get screened at
the recommended intervals. Yet over the years of campaigning (in partnership
with an Israeli Haredi organization, Ubezchutan) for the more sheltered women,
Chochmat Nashim has fielded hundreds of questions from women -- and men --
asking what it’s all about, and what women should do. By giving voice to this
need for this community, Chochmat Nashim highlights the effect -- in this case,
life-saving -- that women’s participation can have.
Further examples of Chochmat Nashim’s advocacy include:
promotion of the halachic prenuptial and postnuptial agreements (together with
the organizations that sponsor each version), for the sake of preventing
halachic agunot (really, mesarvei get -- victims of get-refusal, when a Jewish
divorce is not issued); promotion of women’s voice in Torah, including the
weekly parsha post by select women scholars and teachers of Torah, under the
auspices of Chochmat Nashim-OLP (Orthodox Leadership Project) joint parsha
initiative, hosted on The Blogs of The Times of Israel; The
Chochmat Nashim Podcast, wherein Chochmat Nashim, and the occasional guest,
offers discussion on topics of contemporary interest, adding our women’s voices
to the discussion at large; social gatherings that render tangible the
healthier Orthodoxy we envision, bringing the community together for shiurim,
public education, and advocacy; and more.
Chochmat Nashim can achieve even more success by working
together with communities in Israel and across the world, for these issues
pertain to every Jew everywhere. Education is the key to the future. Unless we
change the views of those who erase and hypersexualize women, what future is
there for our daughters and granddaughters? Unless we can convince engaged
couples to sign a prenup, how will we protect the future so no other women will
be kept in chains? Unless we call on communities to heal their ills, who will
protect our children?
UJA Federation of New York has dedicated $150,000 to advance
one major “idea” to connect New Yorkers to Israel. Chochmat Nashim has already
worked with the Orthodox Leadership Project (OLP), based out of New York, on
several projects in the past (including the parsha initiative described above),
so it was a logical next step to partner with OLP to bring together halachic,
communal, and social leaders, men and women in a conference for the Orthodox
public (from all over) to sit and consider and confront these issues together,
for the sake of a better global Orthodox Jewish community.
You don’t need to be a New Yorker or an Israeli to vote! Please
cast your vote for "Orthodoxy Includes Women" (we didn’t chose
the name) -- together, we can make this conference happen and get the ball
rolling for some real improvement in our beloved society. (The deadline for voting is Sunday night, May 19th – HM)
Thank you.
