Senior National Religious rabbi: Educated women are ‘crippled’
Sadan is seen on video belittling working women, homosexuals
Heavy criticism has been directed at co-dean of the Bnei David pre-military academy in Eli, Rabbi Eli Sadan, after a video emerged of a lesson he gave four years ago in which he said that an educated, independent woman is “crippled” and described homosexuality as a disease.
Sadan’s comments are just the latest in a long series of incidents involving rabbis from the institution who have condemned homosexuality and the advancement of women in modern society.
“The crime which modern feminism creates is to educate a women to be independent, to not be dependent on her husband, to ensure she will have sufficient income, [which] neuters her ability to be a good woman and a good mother,” said Sadan during the lesson, in the video first published by Channel 10 News.
“This is a catastrophe, a tragedy – her husband loses and generations to come loose.”
The rabbi went on to say that “Women are educated from an early age to be independent and they neuter her most important capability – her ability and wisdom to build a home... Afterward, poor thing, she gets married and she is already handicapped.”
Sadan also railed at the advancement of women in the workforce, saying that societal tasks should be allocated according to what men and women excel at. “The relative advantages of a man is to stand with bravery and courage against very hard situations, be it with a machine gun in war or against money launderers in the Finance Ministry,” he said. “The talent of a woman is to build happiness, light and completeness in the home.”
Sadan also segued to the issue of homosexuality, which he and other rabbis at the academy have frequently denounced.
Referencing a children’s book that he was told about regarding children of single-parent families or homosexual parents, Sadan said that “in order for these unfortunate children, who don’t have a normative family, to feel good we will destroy the education of other children.”
Following the publication of Sadan’s lesson, Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel requested that the rabbi be called for a disciplinary hearing in front of “relevant authorities” for the lesson.
Gamliel described his comments as “benighted” and noted that this is the latest in a series of such comments by Bnei David rabbis.
In February, in a video of a lesson given by another educator at the academy, Rabbi Yosef Kalner claimed that women have weak minds, can only achieve mediocre levels of spirituality, and have been confused by modern thinking on the role of women, saying that “today they are nothing.”
In 2017, Bnei David founder and co-dean, Rabbi Yigal Levenstein, disparaged religious women soldiers and in 2016 described LGBTs as “perverts.”
Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon also criticized Sadan’s comments and said that Bnei David military academy had become “extremist” and part of the hard-line, conservative wing of the National Religious sector.
Bnei David issued a response to the video, showing a section not broadcast by Channel 10 in which he says that “I am in favor of feminism, in the sense of protecting women whose husbands and society behave unlawfully towards them. We reject any injustice that is done and we are commanded to love every woman and help her.”