Michelle's Inauguration Post

Gil Troy, for whom I used to work, put a post on his blog Center Field two weeks ago entitled "Thank you, George W. Bush". For those who aren't inclined to click on the link and actually read the post, the gist was that the Jewish community should show its appreciation for President Bush's strong and steadfast support for Israel now that he's out of office, in a way that we failed to do when he was in office. If anyone is as moved by Professor Troy's words as I was, consider visiting the George W. Bush Foundation and donating to his presidential library.

Local Politics

I went to an event at Hebrew College last night, the first in a discussion series called "Jewish & American: Confronting the 21st Century." The event was entitled "Red, Blue and Jewish: Changing the Way We Talk About Politics," and it featured Steve Grossman and Jeff Jacoby in conversation. I love Jeff Jacoby's columns in the Globe -- he's a Midwestern transplant to Boston, politically conservative and Jewishly educated and committed, like me. Last night only increased my good opinion of him.

Of course, as often happens at these events, most of the questions from the audience consisted of mini-political diatribes thinly disguised as questions. Most of them had to do with Israel and the Middle East, and all but one came from middle-aged men. The one that wasn't asked by a middle-aged man was asked by yours truly -- I decided to represent my gender and age group (and place of employment) by taking the microphone towards the end of the evening.

I said that I work at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, and that our research consistently shows the strong, positive impact of Jewish day school education on future Jewish identity. How would the two candidates' positions on the economy and taxes, as well as education, impact our community's ability to educate our youth?

The question went over very well, as it tied together Jewish concerns and political positions, not to mention eliciting responses that showed real differences between the candidates. Afterward, I went to introduce myself to Jeff Jacoby. He was happy to meet another Midwesterner and hear a little bit about Milwaukee's voucher program, and he said that we should have a whole evening devoted to audience questions like mine! I totally agree. Bring it on!

Feminist Woes

In my office, everyone is on a first-name basis. So it wasn't until last Friday, when I was inserting a brief bio into a proposal for a new project, that I was hit with the title conundrum. While the other two bios in the proposal used "Dr. This" and "Professor That," I don't have a PhD. The default for me would be "Ms. Shain," as per the current position of the Emily Post Institute on the form of address to women in the business world:

Ms. is the default form of address, unless you know positively that a woman wishes to be addressed as Mrs.

Incidentally, this is a far cry from Chapter X ("Cards and Visits") of Emily Post's 1922 book Etiquette, in which she laments the necessity of any derivation from the Mrs. His Name format:

She is Mrs. John Hunter Titherington Smith, or, to compromise, Mrs. J. H. Titherington Smith, but she is never Mrs. Sarah Smith; at least not anywhere in good society. In business and in legal matters a woman is necessarily addressed by her own Christian name, because she uses it in her signature. But no one should ever address an envelope, except from a bank or a lawyer’s office, “Mrs. Sarah Smith.”

But I digress.

I very much prefer Mrs. Shain, because the use of Ms. as the default form of address for a woman was, if not invented, certainly pushed into the mainstream by the feminist movement. And I reject the label "feminist," because -- and I say this with all due respect to the very real accomplishments of the first- and second-wave feminist movements -- the (third-wave) feminists of my generation spend most of their time promoting a post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality, which I utterly reject, and advocating for issues more and more marginal to modern women's lives.

So, as part of my rejection of this trend and affirmation of gender, marriage and other tools of the Patriarchy*, when the time came to refer to myself in the third person in this proposal, I...boldly typed in Mrs. Shain, you ask? Nope. I avoided the issue and used my first name, which was eventually replaced with pronouns in the final draft.

Oh, well. At least it didn't read "Ms. Shain."

*This is a joke.

Jewish Republicans

Yesterday, I read an article for my class "The Jewish World Today: U.S. Jewry" that really agitated me. It was called "The Jewish Social Welfare Lobby in the United States," by Joel M. Carp, from a book called Jewish Polity and American Civil Society. The article was basically celebrating the organized Jewish community, and the Federations in particular, for successfully lobbying on the side of various social welfare issues -- against the tax cuts of the evil Reagan administration and the "draconian provisions" of later pieces of Republican legislation.

As my green highlighter whipped furiously across the pages, I kept thinking to myself, who decided that government social welfare programs are the realization of the imperative of tikkun olam? Moreover, who elected the Federation spokesperson for all American Jews? What about those of us who believe in limited government, free enterprise and personal responsibility -- do we have a voice (as Jews, that is) in Washington?

Not having the time for more than a token protest, I added a new link to this blog, right. (J, thinking of you!)

Voice of (a Handful of) the People

I went to a rally last night! It was organized by Ne’emanei Torah vaAvodah to protest the Supreme Rabbinical Court's ruling from the end of April, which invalidated thousands of conversions carried out in Israel over the past few years by Rabbi Haim Druckman, head of the Israeli Conversion Court. Some background:

Rabbi Druckman is a prominent religious Zionist rabbi who was called upon by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon back in 2004 to form and modernize the Israeli Conversion Court. The goal, at that time, was for Rabbi Druckman to facilitate the conversion of the approximately 300,000 non-Jews who have come to Israel from the former Soviet Union over the past decade and a half.

According to the Court's latest ruling, all conversions that were conducted by Rabbi Druckman -- before and after his appointment to the Conversion Court -- will no longer be recognized by the Chief Rabbinate. They're apparently not kosher enough for the ultra-Orthodox rabbis who make up the Supreme Rabbinical Court. Adding insult to injury, about two weeks ago, Rabbi Druckman was summarily dismissed from his position as head of the Conversion Court. The whole debacle signifies not only the capitulation of the Israeli government to pressure from the ultra-Orthodox community, but also the total failure of the religious Zionist community to stand up for its halakhic integrity and address the desperate need to find creative halakhic solutions to the problems of conversion and, among others, agunot and mesuravot get.

Tonight, a group of converts and religious Israelis who oppose the delegitimization of Rabbi Druckman -- and, more broadly, the delegitimization of those who are seeking solutions to serious religious-social problems in this country -- staged a rally across from Jerusalem's Rabbinical Court. Adam and I went to add our voices to the mix. We were disappointed by the relatively low turnout and lackluster atmosphere. I was also unhappy when one speaker, berating the ultra-Orthodox for "inventing" their own Torah, said derisively, "There's one type of Reformim and the other type of Reformim." I thought the rally was meant to stress the openness of the Jewish people, not move the line of hatred a millimeter to the left.

Still, I'm glad that we went. And I'm proud of Jerusalem's Anglo community for being so well-represented at the event.

My teacher Esther looks on as my friends Sarah and Alexandra sign a petition.

Rabbi Riskin of Efrat speaks against the ruling.

The small crowd at the rally.