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November 7, 2008
Women have more power
At Choices, author talks about reinventing the Jewish world.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
This is really the first time in Jewish history that women's voices – and not just the lone, extraordinary character here and there, but an entire generation of voices – have been added to the public discourse about just about everything: about God and halachah, about the governance of our synagogues, about how we marry and how we educate our children, about the substance and fire of our lives. And, in all of these matters and more, our voices and our choices matter."
This was the main message of Anita Diamant's keynote address at the fourth annual Choices event, which is sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver's Women's Philanthropy Division. Diamant is the author of several works of fiction and many books on living a Jewish life. She is also a lyricist, having written words to the music of jazz pianist and composer Bert Seager, which appear on the CD Requited.
"Choices began in 2005 with 249 women, and has grown each year. Tonight, we celebrate with just under 500 in attendance. Kol hakavod to all of you," said event co-chair Patti Aknin in her opening remarks to the women in attendance at the Hellenic Centre Oct. 29. "It is a thrill to have such a powerful gathering of women from across the Lower Mainland to show support for our Jewish community and communities of the world. Whether you are a first-time attendee to Choices or a veteran of community events, we need to take this opportunity to consider how each one of us can step up and play a role in changing lives. We should all feel empowered about the giving of tzedekah in our own names and be proud that we have made a choice to make a difference.
"As in Anita Diamant's book The Red Tent, we see ourselves as the women in biblical times did, with challenges, compassion, empathy and hope. They gathered in the red tent, as we do tonight, to share in personal and intimate experiences. As Jewish women now, and those who came before us, we continue to pass on traditions, perpetuate the building of kehilah and be caregivers."
Aknin had good news for the crowd: "This year, there are 55 new gifts towards women's philanthropy and, with each of you raising your gift by a minimum of $36, we have raised over $600,000." The goal of the women's division is to raise $2 million, while the Federation campaign as a whole has a target of $8 million, of which more than $4.5 million has been raised to date.
Women's philanthropy chair Lana Marks Pulver took to the stage after a brief video about "Color Red," a song written by Shachar Bar, an art therapist who teaches in Sderot, for schoolchildren to sing whenever there is a rocket-attack alert. The song touches upon the emotions and physical reactions people have when the alert is sounded and it encourages kids to take deep breaths and laugh – transforming a terrifying experience into one that's almost fun.
Pulver spoke about Sderot in the context of a mission she took to Poland and Israel this summer. "I met with people in this town who've lost loved ones, been physically injured or are suffering economically," she said. Later, she stressed, "After the Holocaust, we said, 'Never again,' but it's not enough. We must promise to consistently and continuously take action to ensure the safety and the dignity of the Jewish people ... and this is what Federation is all about. It's not an organization raising money for itself, but simply a place to donate money through, to all the incredible beneficiary agencies that help Jews in Vancouver, in Israel and around the world live their lives with dignity."
According to Federation's website, gifts to the annual campaign help fund 27 local service agencies, six Canadian organizations and two international agencies. Pulver said that donations to the campaign are especially crucial in difficult economic times and she concluded, "If we don't have each other to lean on, who do we have?"
After being introduced by Stacey Kape, who co-chaired the event with Aknin, Alisa Charach and Myriam Freedman, the guest of honor, Diamant, picked up on both the theme of choices and on the importance of community.
"This is a such great title for me, Choices, I resonate to it a lot," she said. "And, ladies, we have to acknowledge that we are blessed beyond measure because we are living in a time when we, as Jewish women, really can talk about our choices. This is not something we can take for granted. This is, in fact, the golden age for Jewish women. And I choose the article in that very carefully. It is not 'a' golden age for Jewish women, that would suggest that there has been more than one. Now, the Jewish people have certainly experienced many periods and glorious moments in our past but there is no precedent for us, for us as women. There is no other time that I, as a Jewish woman, could claim a golden age for me or for my daughter, or for you and for your daughters."
Diamant described feminism as "a profound expression of the Jewish mission and of the Torah's mandate for justice and the sanctification of all human life." While she acknowledged that, historically, Jewish women have had a voice – directing from the kitchen table, so to speak – and that, for centuries, because of Jewish tradition, Jewish women have tended to be more literate and independent that their non-Jewish sisters, she said she was addressing something different. It has been a whole generation that women's voices have been heard on the broader stage of Jewish life, she said, pointing to the 2006 retirement of Sally Priesand, the first woman rabbi, after 34 years on the pulpit.
Diamant noted that the changes with regard to women's roles in Jewish life were taking place very quickly, and that there were now Jewish women leaders and teachers, that now "Jewish women hold up half of the sky." She also said that she was acutely aware of how much of her success has to do with the generation into which she was born. She has written articles for Jewish and non-Jewish publications and she said that the openness with which she could cover Jewish topics in both venues was one of the things that allowed her to write The Red Tent, which creates a story for Dinah, an obscure character in Genesis (Chapter 34).
Downplaying the midrashic, Torah-commentary qualities of The Red Tent, Diamant said she does not believe that the Bible had a single, divine author. "I locate the sanctity of the Bible in the ongoing human debate it has engendered throughout history," she explained, "a debate that actually transcends time because, if you're studying the Torah, you're going to have a debate not only with the people across the table from you, but also with Rashi and Naomi Leibowitz and your granddaughter's bat mitzvah drash – all of that is at the table with you at the same time and time disappears."
Diamant discussed some of the inspiration for her popular first novel and held up its broad, worldwide success – including that it was published by a mainstream publisher – as further evidence that this was the golden age for Jewish women. She then segued into what she called her "three-dimensional midrash," the mikvah (ritual bath) that she founded near her Boston-area home.
In 2001, Mayyim Hayyim was incorporated as a nonprofit organization and, in 2004, it opened its doors for the first time. "A generation ago, the idea that someone like me, a Reform Jew, a feminist, would utter the words, 'my mikvah,' would make your head explode," said Diamant. "It would be unthinkable. Actually, it would be impossible. But, today, because we live in the golden age of Jewish women, nothing is impossible, everything is open, because everything is open to making choices."
While immersion in the mikvah is one of the oldest Jewish traditions, Diamant said it is one that has really not played much of a part in the lives of North American Jewish women.
Diamant pointed to Mayyim Hayyim as "an example of women reinventing the Jewish world. Not only of dreaming about changing things but of funding and building an institution that was literally unthinkable a generation ago."
To the many roles that Jewish women have had throughout history, Diamant added visionary, risk-taker, trailblazer and philanthropist. "Part of the task ahead of us," she said, "is to stop apologizing for our own wisdom and our own power. We have to own it."
In contemplating the ways in which women could use their power and money, Diamant noted that programs for women and girls are under-funded by as much as 90 per cent in some cases.
"Remaking the world is kind of a risky business, but this is our moment and our responsibility to take those risks," said Diamant. To do this is to be partners in the ongoing story of creation, she continued. Using the age-old comparison of the Torah as a tree, she said that both deep roots and new growth are needed for a tree to survive. "Ancient roots are no more authentic than new growth," she said. "Both are crucial, both are sacred. In this golden age for us as Jews and as women, the old has become new again and it's up to us to make sure that what is new becomes holy."
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