The Wisdom of Women

“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 19^th – HM)

Thank you.