Recently, I wrote that Christianity is bearing the brunt of a feminist assault. In that post, I also wrote that Orthodox Judaism appears to be free of this problem, but I was evidently wrong.
I recently came across an article on the excellent False Rape Society blog detailing the case of a couple of falsely accused IDF soldiers. After sending the link to the original Ynet article to a friend, I was directed to one of the comments, written by a “Rivkah,” who railed against men, suggesting that women should always be believed to avoid God’s wrath. Here are a few of her quotes:
Defiling the sanctity of a female body with no intention of providing support for the “prey” or marrying her is the best way I know for a curse to follow the male(s). The consequence, if the woman/women are in God’s camp and one or both ask the Lord to avenge them is that there will likely be an early death of someone the rapist(s)/fornicator(s) love if they do not die within a year. That judgment manifests itself with the early death of a child or a future loved wife. I encourage anyone who is in such a situation to ask the Lord for revenge [...] It is better to support a woman who is seduced or raped like King David did, to head off a curse.
Keep in mind that there was no physical evidence of the alleged rape.
Av 9 is July 30 this year. ELS Bible codes at www.arkcode.com say Av 9 is the day of some year that World War III starts. These seducers/rapists are on perilous ground if that happens this year and they have not compensated their “prey”/victims before Jerusalem is attacked.
If the previous quote didn’t make Rivkah’s point clear, the above makes it crystal: fork over the money, fellas! Echoes of Ben Roethlisberger?
This is NOT the time to get a woman angry at you. They are like elephants who do not forget. Don’t make war with women: they have too long memories was the advice of a sage long ago.
More threats, reminders that men are at a woman’s mercy.
This may look like the ranting of a lone kook*, and it probably is, but we all know that the world is full of lone kooks, and today those of the female gender are armed to the teeth with legal weapons — apparently in Israel as well as the US. However, whether she is alone in her thoughts or not, organized, feminist pressure on Orthodox Judaism is growing immensely.
After a little research sparked by Rivkah’s comment, I came across “JOFA,” a New York based Jewish Orthodox organization that is explicitly feminist, and despite some hedging and token support for halakha, makes no bones about its goal to batter down some of the pillars of tradition, including the exclusively male rabbinate.
JOFA also offers extensive information for Orthodox Jewish women seeking divorce, at times counseling women to avoid rabbis in favor of therapists for consultation in these matters. Besides the fact that JOFA is an ostensibly faith-based organization, it appears to serve the same purpose as secular American feminist organizations, and its angle and activities remind me of some of the goings on at “Catholic” organizations that undermined traditional faith while purporting to protect the fragile and innocent from the depredations of men — those universal villains of our time.
*[Note from editor: I have been advised that "Kook" was actually the name of the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi in Palestine, so to avoid confusion, I should unequivocally state that I was not attempting to make a pun or allusion by calling Rivkah a "kook." The meaning I intended to convey was more in line with "moonbat," "nutjob," "crank" or even "psychopath."
If a reader could offer a credible explanation of the etymology of "kook" as it relates to the above terms, it would be much appreciated.]
16 responses so far ↓
1 novaseeker // Jul 27, 2009 at 6:31 pm
A jewish organization that seeks to undermine the male rabbinate is not Orthodox.
We have blessedly little of that nonsense in the Orthodox Church, but every now and then it comes up. And we have other problems, as you have pointed out yourself. But suggesting women in the rabbinate is no longer Orthodox. There are versions of Judaism for that: reform, anyone?
But as you have seen in the RCC, people are not happy with being told: ‘Hey then go to a reform synagogue’. No. They want to corrupt and destroy Orthodoxy.
Good news is that Orthodox judaism will not succumb. They are salmon swimming upstream. Let them swim and make fools of themselves in the process.
2 sestamibi // Jul 27, 2009 at 8:41 pm
“Good news is that Orthodox judaism will not succumb. They are salmon swimming upstream. Let them swim and make fools of themselves in the process.”
Huh?!??
3 Lukobe // Jul 27, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I think he means JOFA are the salmon.
4 sestamibi // Jul 27, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Well, that makes a lot more sense.
As a member of The Tribe myself (although not currently affiliated with a synagogue, I would agree. Right now the Orthodox are the only ones among us still breeding in numbers significant enough to keep us from going extinct.
While I won’t miss the “Heeb” magazine version of Judaism and chickenshits like Sens. Al Franken and Babs Boxer, their failure to breed reflects their devotion to the editorial page of the NY Times rather than to the Torah. Their embrace of all of the latest fashions in radical feminism, Gaianism, and faggery reduce our gene pool. The Orthodox who marry in will then find higher incidences of genetic disorders.
Maybe we ought to think about missionary work and start encouraging conversions.
5 Lukobe // Jul 28, 2009 at 9:03 am
Fortunately, Franken and Boxer (I think) are in the minority.
As for missionary work, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Being more open to conversions, sure. And how about recognizing children of Jewish fathers as Jews, as is currently done for children of Jewish mothers? But missionary work… there’s already enough antisemitism out there, even to this day — I can only see missionary work encouraging that.
6 Lukobe // Jul 28, 2009 at 9:45 am
Rabbi Kook: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Isaac_Kook
As for “kook” meaning “nutjob,” the standard dictionary etymology is basically “probably derived from cuckoo. I don’t have access to the OED here, but if anyone has further details, it’d be them.
7 Justin // Jul 28, 2009 at 11:41 am
American Christianity has proved far more resistant to the inroads of feminism than Judaism. Considering that the two largest single denominations (Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist) do not allow woman priests/pastors, that by itself accounts for an absolute majority of American Christians.
Considering also that those conservative groups, along with others such as the Mormons, have higher birthrates, one might conclude that we have seen the zenith of feminst power and influence in Christian religion.
The problem for Judaism is that Orthodox is just a small fraction of the total Jews in America.
Because Orthodox represents a much smaller percent of Jews in America, their conservative tipping point is much farther away after a much larger shrinkage period.
8 sestamibi // Jul 28, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Justin–
Actually Orthodoxy is not so small a share of American Jewry, but what’s more important is that it is growing faster than you think. Cf. Philip Longman’s 2006 article “The Return of Patriarchy” for a discussion of the trends of which you speak.
Lukobe–
Unfortunately, Franken and Boxer represent by far the majority opinion among American Jews. Consider this: where once Congress hosted Jewish conservative Republicans such as Rudy Boschwitz and Chic Hecht in the Senate and Steve Schiff and Sam Steiger in the House, today there is NOT ONE left in the Senate and only Eric Cantor in the House.
I do agree with you, however, about the futility of missionary work (except among secular Jews to encourage them to come back to their roots and resist intermarriage), and the need to make the conversion process a lot easier.
9 MASCULINIST // Jul 28, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Hey Welmer – the following is a good comment you might enjoy: http://www.occidentaldissent.com/2009/07/28/cornpone-nazism/#comment-15871
10 Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Tech // Jul 28, 2009 at 7:03 pm
@Justin
You’re wrong about the RCC. You’re falling victim to the frontman fallacy (a logical fallacy) and assuming that since the RCC leadership is exclusively male that it somehow represents male interests. The RCC is feminized just like other churches. Since RCC priests can’t get married, over the last few decades seminarians (guys studying to be a priest) have been becoming more and more gay. As a Catholic I have heard plenty of stories about straight men who thought that they wanted to be priests, but when they got to the seminary they eventually left since everyone else was gay. With an increasingly gay priesthood, the RCC is getting more and more feminized.
Lots of men are leaving the RCC. The only reason this isn’t obvious in terms of numbers or birthrates is that the pews are being refilled by (illegal) Mexican immigrants (who are mostly Catholic).
I can’t speak about the Southern Baptists, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a similar problem.
11 Lukobe // Jul 28, 2009 at 10:52 pm
sestamibi —
Do you really think “Franken and Boxer represent by far the majority opinion among American Jews”? Yes, there’s only one conservative Republican Jew left in all of Congress, but Congress is notoriously unrepresentative of the way Americans really feel.
I do agree with you, however, about the futility of missionary work (except among secular Jews to encourage them to come back to their roots and resist intermarriage)
Now, if it weren’t for intermarriage, I wouldn’t be here!
What’s more important: purity of blood (there really isn’t such a thing), of practice, or of identification? It actually turns out that my Family Tree DNA test traces my Y chromosome back to the Middle East, meaning I really am part Jewish, but my father stopped practicing after he left home, and I was raised with no religion. I still identify as Jewish, though. Wouldn’t you rather have intermarriage in which the kids honored and identified with their Jewish heritage, rather than no intermarriage, but offspring growing more and more apathetic?
12 Justin // Jul 29, 2009 at 9:00 am
sestamibi – Orthodox represents less than 10% of American Jews. That is indeed a small percentage.
13 sestamibi // Jul 29, 2009 at 9:03 am
Yes, unfortunately, Franken and Boxer DO represent the majority opinion among American Jews. You know that as well as I do, even if neither one of us is happy about it.
“Wouldn’t you rather have intermarriage in which the kids honored and identified with their Jewish heritage, rather than no intermarriage, but offspring growing more and more apathetic?”
Yes, that’s a nice thought, but most children of intermarriages DON’T identify with their Jewish heritage–in fact they most likely don’t identify with ANY heritage. Subsequent generations are even more diluted until the notion of Judaism fades away completely.
You say you “identify” as Jewish. Do you observe any rituals? Do you fast on Yom Kippur? Do you ever attend services or keep kosher?
I’m not going to pull rank and say that I do those things, but I’m not going to claim I’m closely adhering to the faith either. I used to belong to a synagogue and went regularly, but now I live in a fairly remote area with few Jews around.
14 novaseeker // Jul 29, 2009 at 11:08 am
I would echo PMAFT on the RCC. It’s also losing a lot of members, both men and women, really. The men are leaving for the same reasons that they are leaving mainline protestant churches: feminized liturgies, felt banners, the feminized priesthood that has been described and so on. Women, though, are also leaving, as there is much less of a difference, in feel at least, between the current RCC and several of the mainline churches and much less dissonance (that is, they can go to a mainline church and have it openly endorse divorce, contraception, abortion and so on, whereas the RCC teaches against these things on paper).
The men are not generally decamping for the mainline churches, though. They seem to typically end up in very conservative evangelical or “bible” churches or, to a much lesser extent, the Orthodox Church, or, probably in at least half the cases, no church or other religion at all.
As PMAFT points out, this is often kind of invisible in some parts of the country due to the huge influx of mostly Catholic latino immigrants. It really does vary very much by region. There are parts of the country where Catholic churches and schools are being closed and consolidated, and others where new ones are being built — the latter tends to happen around the southern tier of the country, where there is a greater % of latino immigrants. If you go to the classic old-school Catholic states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts and so on, you’ll see more a case of consolidation and closure, rather than the boom in Catholicism you see happening in, say, Texas, Florida and California.
15 Lukobe // Jul 29, 2009 at 12:53 pm
sestamibi wrote
Yes, unfortunately, Franken and Boxer DO represent the majority opinion among American Jews. You know that as well as I do, even if neither one of us is happy about it.
Ah, well, you probably are right. They don’t represent the opinion of, for example, my East Coast family, but all that means is they’re in the minority too, I fear.
“Wouldn’t you rather have intermarriage in which the kids honored and identified with their Jewish heritage, rather than no intermarriage, but offspring growing more and more apathetic?” Yes, that’s a nice thought, but most children of intermarriages DON’T identify with their Jewish heritage–in fact they most likely don’t identify with ANY heritage. Subsequent generations are even more diluted until the notion of Judaism fades away completely.
Do you have figures on that assertion, or have you observed it in practice?
You say you “identify” as Jewish. Do you observe any rituals? Do you fast on Yom Kippur? Do you ever attend services or keep kosher?
Passover at my cousins’, and the Hanukkah menorah. No fasting on Yom Kippur, but at least the token apples and honey on Rosh Hashanah. No keeping kosher, either, and no services. (Kasha varnishkes regularly, though.)
OK, so maybe that doesn’t sound particularly Jewish, but most of my “fully” Jewish cousins fail to keep kosher. Some go to services, some don’t. I’d be surprised if the ones who don’t keep kosher fast on Yom Kippur.
OK, so maybe they don’t sound particularly Jewish either (the ones who don’t keep kosher, go to services, etc.), but they consider themselves Jews — one even lived in Israel for a time, though she has since returned.
I mean, my father, as I think I have mentioned, who grew up in an Orthodox household, stopped going to services altogether after he joined the army, never kept kosher after that, never fasted, never did any of the above except Hanukkah and the apples on Rosh Hashanah, mostly for his kids’ benefit. But you would be hard-pressed to find a more Jewish (American) Jew, and Welmer can testify to that.
I mean, there are many Israelis who are completely secular — are they not Jewish?
If you’re worried about the practice of the religion, OK then, I don’t know what to tell you — but I don’t foresee the Jews going away as a people anytime soon. (Neither did Frank Herbert, incidentally, if you’ve ever read Dune — I just re-read some of the later books.) And for survival as a people, self-identification is important.
I had a run-in with an anti-semitic signature gatherer for a divestment initiative last year — the first personal interaction I’d ever had with someone like that — and I felt it viscerally. That’s good enough for me.
16 sestamibi // Jul 30, 2009 at 8:57 am
Justin–
Even if I accept your figure of 10% Orthodox (which sounds about right), their share is growing while everyone else’s is shrinking.
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