RE: separate services

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

>It's almost like the women are sitting at the back of the bus.

High school gym classes are not a good analogy to synagogue services, but 
people sitting on the bus comes a bit closer.  For women in an Orthodox 
shul, it is like sitting in the back of the bus.  Actually, on private 
Hasidic buses, which many Hasidim use to travel around NYC, the women 
literally sit in the back of the bus while the men sit in the front.  (Boy 
is this telling tales out of school.)  However, some years ago (late 
1970's?), many Hasidic women got upset at this setup, so they arranged for 
some routes during rush hour to have separate buses for women to sit 
wherever they liked.  (Who said that current events in the regular world 
don't effect Hasidim?)  But on the off-hours, this is exactly how it is. 
 And ain't no Freedom riders or protest marches gonna change this.   They 
don't mind if women walk through the men's section, but they don't want the 
men to walk through the women's section to the back.  (Yesterday was the 
48th anniversary of the Freedom Riders who changes those laws in the 
South.)

BTW, Glenn, unlike my kids (14 & 20), I know nothing about ska.  But I 
listened to your music on the web a few weeks and I thought it was 
terrific.  What a great fresh sound for Jewish music!  Keep it up!  I hope 
you guys get invited to by a lot of Jewish communities.


Reyzl from Brooklyn


----------
From:  glenn tamir [SMTP:klezska (at) yahoo(dot)com]
Sent:  Friday, May 11, 2001 11:36 PM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant
Subject:  Re: separate services

If there was ever an example of how separate IS NOT
equal it's a shul with a Mehitza.  Perhaps there are
some where the torah is read in the middle and not on
the "men's" side, or where the women are "allowed" to
dance around the Torah like the men do.  When I attend
a shul with an uneven separation, I get very
uncomfortable.  It's almost like the women are sitting
at the back of the bus.

Oh, and by the way, why shouldn't a woman/girl be able
to wrestle?

Just my opinion...

--- "Yakov (Koby)" <kchodosh (at) suffolk(dot)lib(dot)ny(dot)us> wrote:
>
> To use an unfortuate expression, I think services
> should be separate but equal. Like gym class.
> Everyone goes to phys ed. Everyone plays tennis,
> everyone plays soccer, everyone plays badminton, but
> just separately. When gym class is combined, for
> various reasons the overall level of the activity is
> somewhat lowered. I know I have enjoyed going to
> services and not having to sit with my mother or
> sister. On the men's side at least, there's a very
> heymish atmosphere, very friendly, that you just
> don't get in mixed services. What I DON'T agree with
> in ortholand is the women just standing there. I
> think they could be praying somewhere else or
> something.
>
> (btw: analogy notwithstanding certain cases... like
> in my school, the guys do wrestling, and the girls
> do step aerobics :P )
>
> YAKOV.
> http://www.geocities.com/pdestructo
> http://klezkadets.cjb.net
> "You have one amazing appendage, Professor
> Hamilton."
> - John Henry Irons, Superman: The Man of Steel #109
>
> ---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
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