OU is mmm mmm good

After reviewing the OU website and reading the articles posted, I was
stumped. I really couldn't think of that much to comment on. But
Rabbi Sarna's lecture and question and answer session helped me relate
a few observations I'd made about the site to larger questions
concerning Orthodox Jewish identity as a whole.

One thing that struck me about the site was the fact that the vast
majority of the people in charge are men. It seems like something of a
boys club, and I wonder whether this influences positions taken by the
group as a whole (although there doesn't seem to be one SET group of
correct interpretations). I've known Michelle Sarna for three and a
half years now, and before Rabbi Sarna brought it up, it never occured
to me that she might feel unsatisfied with the role of women in the
Modern Orthodox movement. She was always a symbol of the movement to
me since she and Rabbi Sarna were the first Orthodox rabbinic couple
I'd really met. Furthermore, since she seems so independent when it
comes to knowledge of religious and academic fields, I never thought of
her has stuck in a certain preordained female role. For the past couple
years, I've been attending Orthodox services at NYU and a lot of the
gender assignments haven't bothered me. I think the mechitzah (?) can
be useful as long as girls can see and my Hebrew is awful, so I wouldn't
be venturing up to read from the Torah anyways. In some ways, I think
the fact that women don't HAVE to pray three times a day and follow
certain obligations is actually flattering to women. However, I've been
able to feel this way as someone who is something of an outsider, not
completely immersed in Orthodox culture. I think my personal identity
as a woman is rather separate from my identity as a Jew (probably a lot
more influenced by secular forces and the feminist movement). But when
a religious identity also defines your gender identity, it takes on a
much more important role and gives you less wiggle room to decide what
you want your future goals to be.

Another thing I noticed is that the more traditional the movements
became, the more and more conservative their political leanings became.
I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps because far left political
ideologies are often associated with lifestyles that are frowned upon by
more Orthodox movements. I disagree with something Rabbi Sarna said,
however. Although I believe that many Orthodox Jews voted for President
Bush in the past election because they thought he was best for Israel
and put Israel first, I think that many Jews placed Israel high on their
priority list when it came to whom they voted for. Personally, I voted
Democrat because I believe Kerry would have been better for Israel AND
for Jews in the United States. I think many politically active Jews of
all sects took Israel into high consideration when voted, but just
arrived at a different conclusion.

Another statement made in class that struck a chord with me was the
story about the Reform Jewish boy enrolled in Orthodox Jewish school and
the identity issues he thus suffered. Although many people who call
themselves Orthodox or attend Orthodox services may not follow all the
Jewish laws, I think that when you believe the Orthodox philosophy is
the correct one, but don't live up to its standards, it does leave you
with something of an identity crisis. You are less on the "inside" of
the group, as you said in class. For example, if you come from a public
school and have not had the same immersion in Orthodox-only culture,
then it's easy to feel alienated when no one else in the community
shares your childhood experiences and you don't share theirs. There's
also a whole hierarchy of how kosher you keep. It's easy to feel like
you're on the "outside" when you're eating at Chickpea, but everyone
else is at Bagel Bites. And I think keeping Shabbat is a whole cultural
ritual onto itself. A lot of people feel pressure to appear like they
keep Shabbat when they attend services even though they actually don't
in order to stay on the inside of the group. And at a certain point,
how do you continue to maintain that you're Orthodox, when few of your
practices live up to the ideal model of an Orthodox Jew. You're left
somewhere in the middle...ideologically incompatible with the
Conservative or Reform movements, but not really a full member of the
Orthodox one.