evolution of women

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TRACING THE EVOLUTION OF WOMAN’S ROLE AT AGUDATH ACHIM

Take a cyber-tour through our collection to examine the changing role of Agudath Achim’s women over the course of the 20th century. You’ll find that sometimes the language is comical with its first-generation Americanize. Sometimes the sentiments expressed are infuriatingly short-sighted. But running throughout these documents is a lilting melody tracing the slow but steady progression toward equal rights for the women of the shul. The song is ultimately triumphal. Echoes of it can be heard at many other American congregations. Here are excerpts from Agudath Achim’s record: Board meeting minutes, December 7, 1919. Propositions of committee’s report, in regards to the ladies sitting on ground floor, as accepted by the committee, except Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, carried.

^{1921 Constitution}
^{The widow or surviving
minor children of any deceased Israelite who at the time of his death
was a member of this Congregation, may purchase a family lot on the same
terms and conditions as the deceased could have done while living.}

^{Annual report by
Chairman of the Board Dave Gallant, October 1924}
^{We recommend to the congregation
that during the next holidays that seats be assigned the women as well
as the men, because the last two years wives of old members of this congregation
had to stand up, having no place to sit down, because outsiders came and
took their seats. We believe that the membership should be taken care
of first and then what is left should go to the outsiders. We recommend
that in case there is not enough seats upstairs for the women, ways and
means must be found to accommodate them. Additions must be made or seats
must be provided downstairs for them.}

^{Rabbi Leo Brener,
Shul bulletin, April 1949}
^{Unfortunately the modern
pattern of living does not tend towards group activities for the family.
The father is tied down to his job, the mother to her household duties
and her club and social affairs. The children go their separate ways in
their school work and in their recreation. Instead of being a compact
unit the family very often becomes a mere collection of separate individuals.}
^{The Passover holiday
can very readily become a fine occasion for family activity. There is
work and fun for everybody. If properly interested, children will find
it very enjoyable to take part in the preparations for the holiday. The
cleaning of the house, the change over from Chometz dishes to Pesach dishes,
the stocking of the Pesach food, the search for Chometz on the night before
Pesach--all this can be made very exciting to the young mind. The setting
of the Seder table and the ceremony of the Seder with its emphasis on
children participation have great appeal for our sons and daughters.
All these things
should be done by the family working together. If only one or two people
in the family do the work and the rest are merely spectators, it is unfair.
Even worse, it is passing up a golden opportunity for weaving closer the
magic web of family living.}
^{Shul bulletin,
February 1950}
^{The [Ladies] Auxiliary
held its annual services on Friday, February 3. Prayers were read by Mrs.
Abram Ginsburg, Mrs. Meyer Schwartzberg and Mrs. Gerson Solomon. A panel
discussion was held on the topic "Our Responsibilities to Our Children."
Mrs. Henry Zatzkis spoke on the responsibilities in the home, Mrs. Ida
Glovin on the Hebrew school and Sunday school, Mrs. Milford Permison on
social and recreational programs and Mrs. Louis Altshuler on the community.
Following the talks there was a question and answer period.}

^{Rabbi Leo Brener,
Shul bulletin, May 1957}
^{I had a dream lately.
Perhaps you would like to peek in on it. Come with me and I will take
you into this dreamland.... The dream was so beautiful that I just could
not break away. I carried over to Monday afternoon and visited the Hebrew
School. I rubbed my eyes with amazement when I noticed that not only were
the boys present, but also the girls were on hand. Apparently at long
last the idea had finally taken hold that girls as well as boys should
have a thorough Jewish education. This pleasure of a Hebrew School visit
was heightened by the wonderful atmosphere in the classroom--an atmosphere
of a keen desire for acquiring knowledge. Most wonderful of all was the
thrill of listening to the lesson conducted entirely in Hebrew with the
boys and girls fluently speaking the old-new language of our Prophets
and Sages.}
^{There were a few
other chapters in the dream but I think I told you enough to let you fill
in the remainder. Any comments? I have one. In the words of a well known
saying, "If you will it, it is no dream."}
^{Shul bulletin, February
1958}
^{Darlene Yellen, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Yellen, will celebrate her Bas Mitzvah at the
Friday evening services on February 7, 1958. Following the services Mr.
and Mrs. Yellen will be hosts at the social hour in honor of the occasion.}
^{This is the first
Bas Mitzvah which is being observed in our Congregation. We hope there
will be a very large attendance on hand to witness the ceremony. We expect
the Bas Mitzvah ritual to become a regular part of our Congregational
traditions, and we want to get off to a fine start with this first celebration.}
^{Rabbi Leo Brener,
Shul bulletin, February 1958}
^{This coming month we
are going to have a Bas Mitzvah ceremony at our Friday evening services....
I consider it an important occasion in the history of our Congregation.}
^{It might be in place
to point out that the Bas Mitzvah ceremony is well established on the
American scene and is being increasingly observed in many congregations
throughout the land. For some time now I have been eager to introduce
this ceremony to our congregation, and I am delighted that at long last
we are going to have this celebration.
The Bas Mitzvah ceremony
in itself should be an inspiring ritual. It should be very pleasing and
encouraging to see a young girl stand before the Congregation and take
upon herself the duties and responsibilities of young Jewish adulthood.
Our Congregation is a traditional Congregation, and we feel enriched by
adding a new tradition to our beautiful and meaningful rituals.
Of greater significance
than the ceremony itself is the fact that the Bas Mitzvah ritual should
stimulate our Jewish educational program as far as the girls are concerned.
In the past the Jewish education of our girls has been sorely neglected.
Our parents have felt that the boys must attend Hebrew School. But as
far as the girls were concerned, they were not too much interested. Our
Hebrew School records show that almost all the boys of the Congregation
attend Hebrew School at one time or another, but only a fraction of the
girls attend.
This has been a serious
mistake. Girls are just as important as boys. At the risk of offending
masculine vanity, I might go so far as to say that in the present setup
of Jewish life, girls may be even more important than boys. A candid analysis
of American Jewish life reveals the fact that our Jewish women make many
of the vital decisions regarding the Jewish life in the home, in the synagogue
and other Jewish organizations, and in other aspects of Judaism. Accordingly
it is necessary that our girls have a thorough Jewish education so that
they can effectively discharge the responsibility of policy making in
Jewish life.
Above and beyond
these other considerations is the fundamental fact that the Jewish mother
must train her children in the way of Jewishness. Fathers are busy making
a living and as a rule they put the training of the children in the hands
of the mother. An ignorant Jewish mother cannot be a good Jewish mother.
She must know the meaning of our faith and our customs and traditions
in order to pass on this heritage to her children. She must be able to
participate in the traditional services of the Synagogue in order to guide
our sons and daughters along the same lines. Accordingly, she must attend
Hebrew School as well as Sunday School so as to deepen and enlarge her
fund of Jewish knowledge.
I sincerely hope
that the Bas Mitzvah idea will take hold in our Congregation. It should
serve as a find reward to the girls who have been going to our Hebrew
School in the past. It should serve as a good incentive to those girls
who have not yet enrolled in Hebrew School. Our aim should be to bring
the blessings of a Jewish education to all our children, the girls as
well as the boys. I hope, and I expect, that the Bas Mitzvah idea will
help us in this great undertaking.}
^{Shul bulletin,
February 1960}
^{President Arthur Arnold announces that a special meeting of the
general membership will be held Tuesday evening, February 9, at 7:30 p.m.
to discuss and vote on a constitutional amendment. The purpose of this
amendment is to provide three places on the Board of Trustees for women.
The wives as well as husbands are cordially invited to attend this meeting.}
^{[The measure was defeated]}
^{Shul bulletin,
February 1964}
^{Cantor Arthur Rosenwasser announces that he is now organizing
a choral group for men and women. It is planned to have the choral group
participate in the Friday evening services. All men and women of the Congregation
interested in becoming members of the group are asked to contact the Cantor
as soon as possible.}
^{[Previously, the
choir had been composed of boys, and then boys and girls, but never adult
women. This was probably because of the traditional Jewish stricture against
hearing a woman's voice during worship services. As with the bat mitzvah
ceremony, women were first given a foothold on Friday while leaving Saturday
morning to the traditionalists.]}
^{Rabbi Harold
Kamsler, visiting rabbi, 1968}
^{There should be a place for women as full, elected Board members.
Many of the tasks and responsibilities of a full congregational activity
program can be excellently administered by feminine Board members.}

^{Carol Ginsburg,
taped interview, recalling her election to the Board in 1968}
^{In those days
the Sisterhood president attended shul board meetings as a Sisterhood
representative with voice but no vote. There were no other women on the
Board. I accepted that during my presidency because I said, well, if I
can speak up and influence people's votes I don’t mind having the voice
even if I don’t vote. When my term was over for Sisterhood president,
Bernard Rosenfeld was shul president in those days. He asked if I would
be chairman of the Religious School Committee. I said I don’t mind doing
it and I will, on one condition, and that is that it has Board status
with a vote. "Oh!" he said, "there are lots of people who
are chairman of committees who are not board members. You don’t have to
be." I said, "That’s fine. Get somebody else to do it who doesn’t
care about it." But I said I felt like the Religious School was a
very important part of the congregation. Whatever concerned them or was
their business deserved Board recognition. That was my condition. No hard
feelings if you choose somebody else. Well, that’s how I became the first
woman Board member. He wanted me to do that job, and I did it.}

^{Constitutional
amendments, approved 1969}
^{1. Wives of members of the Congregation will be considered as
full members and will have the right to vote at general meetings.}
^{2. Three members
of the Board of Trustees will be elected from among the women of the Congregation.}
^{President Pinchas
Gardsbane, May 1970}
^{I am proud to have had the privilege of making it possible during
my term of office for Ladies of our Congregation to be elected to serve
on our Board of Trustees. God bless them, they deserve to be on our Board
equally as well as men. Many of them are more sincere and do more than
their share of the work.}

^{Letter to
the membership, May 16, 1973}
^{We are hoping
to be able to add representatives from the feminine side of the Congregation
to our Board of Trustees. We hope that our women members will see fit
to participate more fully in all phases of the Congregation activities.}

^{Letter to the
shul treasurer, July 1975}
^{All right I will still be a member at the rate of $30.00.
Mr. K... left me very little and I am living on Social Security. Please
let me know if this arrangement meets with the shul approval. I always
thought the man was the member and his wife is just the go along.}

^{Shul bulletin,
November 1976}
^{Friday Evening
Services, November 12, 1976, 8 p.m.... Study Sabbath: The Women in Judaism.
Is Jewish Women’s Lib a passing fad or a real dilemma? Rabbi Stanley Greenstein
will lead the discussion.}

^{Letter, Rabbi
Stanley Greenstein, November 1976}
^{It is obvious that we are living through a storm of social change
in which women are demanding and receiving rights and privileges which
they claim may well have been due them for the past 4000 years. Our task,
in discussing this issue with our own congregation, is to discover and
to decide to what extent this claim is justified. If I may speak personally,
I would like to add that the issue is complex and not at all clear or
one-sided, and I would not want to see our congregation change merely
in order to follow the majority without serious deliberation. It is the
process of deliberation upon which we must embark at this time.}

^{Isaac Roubein,
Ritual Committee Chairman, December 1976}
^{The Ritual Committee
recommends a plan to be implemented over a period of time, to allow Women
a greater participation in Synagogue rituals. The committee specifies
the following steps:}
^{1. Women may read
from the Torah, without reciting the blessings.
2. Women may say
the Torah blessings, thus receiving an Aliyah, on special occasions. They
may also dress and carry the Torah on these occasions.
3. Women may be given
the opportunity to open the Ark.
4. A new ceremony
of Adult Bat Mitzvah will be instituted after which those women who have
successfully completed the requirements will be counted for a minyan.
It is to be understood
that the Board has the discretion to decide when to implement these steps
upon the recommendation of the Ritual Committee, Rabbi or Board, to modify
their order, or to terminate the entire program--in order to provide for
general Congregational understanding and sympathy for the high place we
want women to occupy in our Congregation.
At the present moment,
the Ritual Committee desires to recommend the implementation of Step One,
as follows:
A woman may read
from the Torah as a public service, without reciting the blessings.
It is understood
that this is a natural addition to the Bat Mitzvah ritual and training,
and that such a reading is primarily aimed at the Bat Mitzvah girls, in
order to permit their ceremony to be identical with the Bar Mitzvah for
boys. Technically, of course, the girl’s father or other male adult, in
reciting the blessing, actually accepts the Aliyah.
The Ritual Committee
desires to record an affirmative vote of 6-4 on this recommendation, and
therefore recommends it affirmatively to the Board.}
^{Blanche Roubein,
Board Secretary, December 13, 1976}
^{The Ritual Committee expressed the desire to recommend the implementation
of Step One. The Board passed the general program as proposed by the ritual
committee. Following a lengthy discussion, then Larry Yago proposed a
substitute implementation for step one: "Women will be granted an
Aliyah at any time and without restriction." Shirley Silberman, on
behalf of the Ritual Committee, withdrew her motion to implement the first
step and the motion was changed to that of Mr. Yago’s proposal. The motion
was seconded and passed by a vote of 7 yes, 5 no, 1 abstention.}

^{Board resolution,
passed December 1976}
^{A girl may be called on her Bat Mitzvah day to read from the
Torah and may receive an aliyah, provided she has met the full religious
and educational requirements of Congregation Agudath Achim and has the
approval of the Rabbi.}
^{From this day onward,
she may be called to the Torah for special occasions such as birthdays,
marriage, Mother's Day, naming of a child, anniversaries, Simchat Torah
and other festivals, yahrzeit, and other important occasions in her life.
Furthermore, subject
to the approval of the Rabbi, any adult woman who has had a proper religious
education may be called to the Torah for an aliyah on similar special
occasions, effective February 1977.}
^{Shul bulletin,
January 1977}
^{Saturday morning, January 15, 1977.... Nancy Rosenfeld will receive
the first women’s Aliyah, in honor of her birthday and because she meets
all requirements which the Board has set.}

^{Questionnaire
circulated by Rabbi Uriel Smith, April 1980}
^{What should women’s status in Jewish ritual be? Should women
count in a minyan and lead services? Should such honors be based upon
how frequently she performs such mitzvot as attending seders, lighting
candles, keeping kosher, and giving charity?}

^{Shul bulletin,
October 1980}
^{Living Room
Learning Group will meet Sunday evening, October 19, 1980 at 7:30 p.m....
This will be the first of a series of talks of the Jewish Woman’s Roles
in History. Rabbi Uriel Smith will give the presentation.}

^{Title of adult
education lecture by Rabbi Emanuel Kumin, October 1980}
^{Esther and Ruth: ERA in the Bible?}

^{Minutes of
Congregational Meeting, May 25, 1981}
^{Mr. Alex Rubenstein made the following motion as recommended
by the Ritual Committee and the Board: that a minyan consist of 10 adult
Jews, at least 6 being men. Mr. Arnold Lincove seconded the motion. After
a lengthy discussion the motion passed on a secret ballot by a vote of
31 yes, 9 no, and 2 abstentions.}

^{Diane Lincove,
Sisterhood President, February 17, 1982}
^{This past year we have become increasingly aware of a problem for
which it is most necessary that we find a good, workable solution.}
^{The problem is simply
this: the number of women members of our Congregation who regularly attend
Saturday morning Sabbath services is extremely small. At times we do not
even have four women, who, as you know, can now be counted to help form
the minyan necessary to properly conduct these services.
Without a minyan,
the Rabbi cannot say Kaddish, the Ark cannot be opened and there cannot
be a Torah service.
In these changing
times and in Conservative Judaism, Jewish women are increasingly sharing
with Jewish men the responsibility for preserving Judaism, and setting
the example for our children of what practices are most important in truly
living a Jewish life. Coming to our beautiful Synagogue on Sabbath morning,
and making it a "House of Prayer and Learning" is certainly
one of these.
We are aware that
some of our members have small children, some have to work, and that other
circumstances may interfere with regular Sabbath attendance. We fully
understand this. We realize that those who work cannot participate in
Saturday morning services, except perhaps occasionally, if a holiday permits.
But we still feel it is possible to work toward a good solution of this
problem. Those of us who do not work [sic] can share this responsibility
and each take turns to bring our Saturday morning attendance up to where
it is truly representative of a committed Conservative Sisterhood. Perhaps
mothers of young children could take turns as sitters at Synagogue while
other mothers are participating in services, or other sitter arrangements
could be made.
We are therefore
asking our members to commit themselves voluntarily to attend one Saturday
morning service each month, coming in time for the minyan needed by 9:45
a.m. This kind of support will truly enhance our services and we will
be benefiting from our participation, also.
We are earnestly
requesting your cooperation in resolving this problem. If you have any
thoughts or further suggestions to offer, we shall be glad to hear from
you.}
^{Board meeting
minutes, February 1982}
^{The [Ritual] Committee has met and agreed that women who are
called to the Torah for an aliyah should wear a headcovering, and the
wearing of Talith will be optional for women.}

^{Constitutional
revision, April 1990}
^{If a spouse is a member of this congregation, then the other
spouse, providing both are of the Jewish faith, and all members of their
immediate family who reside with them and/or who are financially dependent
on them, and who meet all other membership requirements, shall be members
of this congregation.}
^{[Formerly, the constitution
referred to a "member" and "his" spouse.]}
^{Notice for
Annual Meeting, May 11, 1993}
^{The following
officers’ and board members’ names have been placed in nomination: Sue
Muslow, President; Lynne Sour, First Vice-President....}
^{[These were the first
women to hold these positions. Immediately following Muslow’s term, Sour
ascended to the presidency.]}
^{Board meeting
minutes, October 11, 1993}
^{Recommendation
from [Ritual] Committee: A minyan consists of 10 Jewish adults. The recommendation
carried unanimously.}

^{Henry Zatzkis,
taped interview, November 9, 1994}
^{We hardly could do anything today if we wouldn't count ladies.}

^{Leon Abramson,
taped interview, December 7, 1994}
^{I grew up in
an Orthodox household, and I love the traditional service. However, I
have a daughter. And I've seen how women have been discriminated against.
I'm all for women's participation. At first it wasn’t very pleasant to
see that. It was breaking with tradition. But when you get to thinking
about it, why not? There's no difference; there really isn’t.}