THE RAINBOW SWASTIKA - Scattered Seed Ministries

Torah: for her, the Flood "story is not about the accountability of human beings." Rather,
"God was a perfectionist. In desperation, God would rather destroy His creation than accept it
as less than perfect." (The entire statement is quoted with approval by an obscure
Episcopalian vicar, but is not found at the _Genesis_ website where Blu's quotes on that
episode are recorded.) Another example is her following statement in a BBC radio interview
which was apparently never transcribed.
5b. The "Orthodox Feminist" movement: BBC's World Service radio program, "Focus on
Faith" (Feb. 20, 1997), featured Blu Greenberg in an interview [this was the first time I heard
of her or her husband]. She was already known as a prolific writer, guest speaker and
prominent spokesperson for orthodox women, but she was identified here only as "the wife of
an orthodox rabbi" [which was all I knew about her when writing my original article,
"Masters of the Blinding Light"]. The topic was an upcoming International Conference on
Feminism and Orthodoxy, a forum on "women's equality in the context of Jewish law."
Greenberg was advocating wider participation in synagogue prayers, a greater teaching role
and other modest reforms. A minute later she was heard to say that because the Torah
contains laws that "foster male domination and portray a masculine God... it's time to ask if
the Torah is divine after all." [It's hard to imagine why someone who doubts this central pillar
of orthodox Judaism would remain in it, except to enlist support from those inside to remove
the offending pillar.] As it turned out, Greenberg's Feminist Conference itself drew more fire
from the mainstream orthodox community than her anti-Torah statement on the BBC. [Either
that, or none heard that broadcast except myself. Unfortunately, I was told by the BBC's
Religious Programming Department that a transcript was not available. After a survey of
Greenberg's public statements, I have concluded that this was a rare occurrence for her, and
was possibly a comment to the reporter not even meant for inclusion in the broadcast.]
A sampling of the Jewish press covering the Feminist Conference indicates that Jewish
leaders who sensed something was wrong did not dig deep enough to discover the NA roots.
Controversy remained at the surface, revolving around the various proposals tabled for female
community leadership (some halachically prohibited and some not). Even at that level,
rebuttals from the orthodox leadership were hasty, contradictory, and appeared to be less
concerned with Jewish women's needs than with justifying the status quo, right or wrong. [A
condition I noted earlier - perfect for the agenda of NA "change agents". I would suggest that
NA missionaries noted this achilles heel in orthodox Judaism years ago, and planned how to
exploit the standard defensive reaction which fears to acknowledge any shortcomings.]
Through articles bearing titles like "Seeking to Silence Women" (_The Jewish Week_, Mar.
7, 1997) and "Ban on Women's Prayer Groups" (_Daily News Bulletin_, Feb. 5, 1997), the
orthodox feminists were portrayed as a second-class group challenging an inflexible power
clique which is too threatened to even implement reforms permitted by Jewish law. The
Rabbinical Council of Queens made matters even worse when they issued a hasty ruling only
to change it a few months later, and then justified the "mistake" of their earlier ruling by
pleading ignorance concerning the discontent among orthodox women: "We looked at this as
a local issue. We never dreamt it would be an international cause." ("Queens Rabbis Affirm
Ban", _The Jewish Week_, Mar. 7, 1997)
Closer to the heart of the matter, haredi (ultra-orthodox) writer Levi Reisman ("Feminism - A
Force That Will Split Orthodoxy?", _The Jewish Observer_, May 1998, p.37) astutely
recognized the potential danger in this movement to erase vital Torah boundaries. Yet he
gives similarly mixed signals by trying to blacklist feminism across the board: denying any
halachic support for various proposals to expand female leadership, while dismissing each
[non-existent] halachic support as either a minority opinion, or a temporary endorsement later