<span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse">Date: Fri, 28 May 2010 01:58:14 +1000<br>From: "SBA" <<a href="mailto:sba@sba2.com" style="color:rgb(6, 88, 181)" target="_blank">sba@sba2.com</a>><br>
I have still to hear an explanation by the Aguda Gedolim for - not only<br>allowing - but ordering that <span><span style="background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)">women</span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"> </span>vote in all Israeli elections.<br>
(Of course the same question goes to all those who consider themselves<br>followers of Rav Kook's hashkafa.)<br>SBA<br></span><div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse"><br>
</span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse">RD Aryeh Frimer just posted on the RCA blog <b>W</b></span><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:18px;border-collapse:collapse;font-weight:bold">omen in Communal Leadership Positions: Shul Presidents </span></div>
<div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;border-collapse:collapse"><a href="http://text.rcarabbis.org/?p=931" target="_blank">http://text.rcarabbis.org/?p=931</a></span></div><div><br>
</div><div>In the article it addresses the above point.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; "> Amongst the scholars maintaining that women should neither run for office, nor even vote – not get involved at all in the political process – was Rav Yehoshua Leib Diskin, and Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld of the<em> Eidah Haredit</em>, Rav Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky, who then was a leading <em>Rosh Yeshiva</em> and <em>posek</em> in Jerusalem, and considered slightly right of center, and last but not least, Rav Avraham Yitshak HaCohen Kook. There were many renowned scholars, most of them in Europe and the States, who were against women running for office, but had no problem with them voting. These include Rav David Tzvi Hoffman, and Rav Eliezer Priel in the United States. </span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; ">Something important happened in the 1920’s that changed the course of Jewish history. Most of you know that the <em>Eidah Haredit </em>broke off from Orthodox Judaism and started leading its life by itself. When and why did it do so? It did so over the issue of the women’s right to vote....</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; ">There was another group, led by Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, who said: “All right, we’re not gung-ho about this idea of women voting, but there are <em>poskim</em> who would tend to permit it <em>bi-she’at ha-dehak</em>.” And they became what’s called Agudas Yisrael, and the women would not run for office, but they would go to the polls and vote. </span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; ">The lenient school (those who allow women voting- S.G.)included such scholars as the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ben Tzion Hai Uziel, Rav Ya’akov Levinson, and Rav Chaim Hirshenzohn. In the modern period the lenient school has included former Chief Rabbi Yitshak Isaac Herzog, Rav Tibor Stern, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Rav Shaul Yisraeli, Dayan Aryeh Leib Grosness of London and Jerusalem, and Rav Elimelech Turk from the United States.</span></div>
<div><br></div><div>Read the rest of the article which deals mostly with serara and details his conversations with Rav Ahron Lichtenstein & Rav Nahum Rabinovitch about women as shul presidents. As with all of the RD Frimmer articles, they are well researched and written. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Saul</div>