My 89-year-old Jewish mother is an outlier, and one of her lifelong causes is battling the strains of misogyny that sometimes runs through the frum or Orthodox/Hasidic practitioners of our religion.
And that certainly was the case this week on the story I wrote involving two Orthodox or [Frum] Jewish entities – The Flatbush Jewish Journal (FJJ) newspaper and the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition (FJCC) – and their endorsement of Farah Louis for the upcoming 45th District City Council race.
Nothing against Louis. a Haitian-American woman, or the endorsement. Haitians and Jews have a lot in common and a long history of helping each other out. The district, although largely Caribbean-American, does have a sizable frum Jewish minority – about 18 percent – so it makes sense that they would endorse an individual from the Caribbean-American community, who they think will best represent their issues.
It is also why a large number of Frum women are also endorsing Louis.
But the issue I had and continue to have with the Flatbush Jewish Journal is they did not print a photo of Louis along with the endorsement because they do not print photos of women. Additionally, the ad endorsing Louis had a listing of 46 prominent Jewish members of the community, but not one of them was a woman.
This issue of hostility towards women, and in particular frum women within their community, plays itself out time and again. And I wouldn’t be my mother’s son if I didn’t address this.
Consider this. The relationship between religious men and women in the Muslim and Jewish community is very similar. Women in both communities, for example, both keep their hair covered, and Jews and Muslims have similar dietary laws.
Yet when Brooklyn Muslims recently instituted a volunteer Muslim Community Patrol fashioned after the Jewish Shomrim patrol they allowed and embrace female membership to join the patrol – something the Shomrim don’t allow.
Or consider Rachel “Ruchie” Freier, the first Hasidic woman Civil Court Judge. She faced tremendous hostility from many in the frum community when she ran, in part because in 2011 she established Ezras Nashim, an all-female Orthodox Jewish volunteer EMT ambulance service with the goal of preserving women’s modesty in emergency medical situations, especially childbirth.
It also should be noted that the Esras Nashim ambulance corps was only formed after requests to add female corps to the all-male and volunteer EMT organization Hatzalah was rejected.
And to think, when frum men visit Israel, women physically help defend them because both women and men are conscripted and drafted into the Israeli Defense Forces (military), and it has been this way since the nation gained its independence in 1948.
Stifling frum Jewish women and making them feel as if they are second-class citizens is denying some of this community’s brightest and best minds. This is an error in thinking for both the Jewish people and the world at large. Frum Jewish women deserve a very real, equal and visual seat at the table when it comes to political matters, whether in making endorsements or running for office themselves.
And once again, I wouldn’t be my mother’s son if I didn’t venture these observations and opinion.
So to all the women – and especially the Jewish women reading this – have a happy and blessed Mother’s day.
And a special shout out to my mother. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. Thank you for all you’ve done for me. Love you forever and a day!
