But unlike the Promise Keepers, the proponents of this movement claim feminist sympathy. Particularly in the context of Judaism’s history, any activity that excludes females is inevitably fraught. Men-only affairs bring to mind snooty clubs, anti-feminist groups like the evangelical Christian Promise Keepers, or “men’s rights” advocates casting men as victims. So far, the main attempts to attract boys and men have taken the form of male-centric activities like the Haggadah. But if the former is in fact contributing to the latter, how can Judaism walk the fine line between male domination and male disengagement? Female participation is a cause for celebration, they say it’s male flight that is the problem. This year, an organization called Moving Traditions launched a curriculum for teenage boys called “ The Brotherhood,” focusing on the “journey to manhood.”Įven the Jews alarmed about “feminization” insist that they don’t want to roll back feminist gains. In 2009, a book titled The Modern Men’s Torah Commentary was released. The 2007 Reform biennial convention hosted a men-only prayer service. But the men’s Haggadah is one of several recent initiatives designed for men and boys alone. Egalitarianism is a defining characteristic of the religion’s more liberal wings (Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative, among others). In the introduction, the authors explain their motives for the enterprise: “Men need the company of men, to be men.”įor the most part, gender segregation in Judaism, like strict Shabbat observance and the renunciation of shellfish, is a practice left to the Orthodox. Instead of solemnly intoning the 10 plagues that struck ancient Egypt-frogs, boils, lice, and so on-participants are asked to recite the scourges of manhood: impotence, hair loss, prostate cancer. In 2007, an organization called the Men of Reform Judaism published a Haggadah intended for men-only Passover Seders.

Rebecca tuhus dubrow