THE RAINBOW SWASTIKA - Scattered Seed Ministries

etracted, or just irrelevant. But to his credit, Reisman notes that any orthodox traditions
which tend to "diminish" women are not in keeping with true halachah (Jewish law); he
urges, "We need to communicate this message not only to our women but to our men as well."
He also agrees with the feminist charge that minyanim (quorums for public prayer) are not
easily available to women, and criticizes women's sections in orthodox synagogues as "too
often cramped, uncomfortable and totally isolated". [I add to this my own discovery that some
synagogues in Israel have no women's section.] He cites with approval two haredi
synagogues which responded to the feminist challenge by prompting finding creative
solutions for their own women. [If enough orthodox leaders would follow suit, as well as
crack down on abusive husbands and other Torah-breakers in matters relating to women, the
"orthodox feminist" cause would lose much of its appeal for Torah-observant women.]
Having gotten the message that change was not forthcoming from the Torah sages, observant
Jewish women came flocking to Greenberg's call to initiate change themselves. The first
Feminist Conference expected 300-400 participants and were overwhelmed by over 1000; a
year later, Feb. 1998, the second Conference planned for 1400 and over 2000 women showed
up. Moreover, the original backing by a handful of orthodox leaders was supplemented the
second year by prominent names like Dr. Mandell Ganchrow (President of the Orthodox
Union kashrut authority), Rabbis Haskel Lookstein (Cong. Kehilath Jeshurun), Adam Mintz
(Lincoln Square) and Shlomo Riskin (Efrat, Israel). Their support seemed only to confirm
Blu Greenberg's comment, "We're part of the mainstream now." ("Orthodox Feminists Move
From Fringes", _JTA_, Feb. 17, 1998) The formation of a new "Jewish Orthodox Feminist
Alliance" was a direct result, and response has been strong and multi-national. So far,
rabbinic leaders in the opposition have failed to offer an alternative, and in some cases have
further betrayed the trust placed in them, compounding the dilemma for women who want to
remain submitted to rabbinic authority. A case in point is the open letter to haredi criminal
Rabbi Aryeh Deri, written by influential orthodox writer Naomi Ragen: "The noted rabbis
who stood beside you at the prison gates, blessing you and comparing you to [Biblical]
Joseph, undermined any reason for women to continue honoring a partriarchy whose male
leadership behaves so disgracefully." ("Hiding Behind the Torah", _Jerusalem Post_, Sep.8,
2000) [How sad that this writer, whose novels always portray both the negative and the
positive of haredi life, is so provoked by rabbinic whitewashing of a convicted Torah-breaker
that she plays right into feminist hands, actually supporting the NA agenda to dismantle
orthodox Judaism. How sad that no response was published to answer her reasonable
challenge. The NA missionaries win this round by default.]
In the midst of all the smoke and noise over whether women have adequate opportunity
within today's Orthodox Judaism to express their (feminine) Jewishness, nearly all of the
community is missing the more covert [and far more destructive] "orthodox feminist"
agenda. Blu Greenberg only hints at this larger program, commenting that the Jewish
Orthodox Feminist Alliance "plans to network with women from Judaism's other
denominations", from whom she says "I learn a tremendous amount." ("Successful
Conference Spawns New Orthodox Feminist Alliance", Jewish Telegraph Agency, Jul. 3,
1997) Blu does not elaborate on how she deals the goals of those other Jewish feminists
which are militantly hostile to orthodox Judaism. But the organization founded and still
guided by husband Yitz Greenberg, CLAL, promotes these anti-Torah goals in their "Encore"
archival collection. An example is "Feminism: Giving Birth to a New Judaism", a 1981 essay
published in the 1990s by CLAL and promoted in 2000 on their website. In it, feminist
Martha Ackelsberg shares a "new vision" of a "Judaism" purged from the "patriarchal" and
"sexist" language of "traditional Jewish liturgy" [Since nearly all traditional Jewish liturgy
quotes directly from the Torah, Prophets or Writings, the offensive Bible will have to go