SPEAKING UP FOR CHAREDI WOMEN
V THERE MIGHT seem nothing exceptional about the weekly Torah class Pnina Pfeuffer hosts in her Jerusalem home.
Yet many rabbis would withhold their approval as the women are studying Talmud — and in her religious circles that largely remains off-limits.
While down the years Limmud has given a platform to many feminist activists, Ms Pfeuffer is unusual in that she is Charedi.
The founder of the group New Haredim has become one of the leading advocates for change within Israel’s strictly Orthodox community.
Although there might be “strong sentiments” within the rabbinic tradition against women studying Torah as men are able to, “it is never not allowed”, she said.
When she started the group, “people tried to talk me out of it” and some women who wanted to come were not allowed to. But she has persevered.
From an early age, she had been “bothered” as to why women were excluded from the prized study of the Talmud. In the Beis Yaakov school system she attended, “you get a lot of knowledge but you are very much removed from the text”.
Finding herself still in a minority, she recognised her desire to learn Talmud was not “something that concerns a lot of Charedi women”.
Even so, “we have definitely come a long way,” she said, noting that “30 years ago there was no Charedi women’s movement”.
One positive development in Israel she highlighted had been a recent ruling that women should be allowed to take the state rabbinate’s qualifying exams. While it didn’t mean the women would be ordained, she believed, they would be able to take leadership roles recognised by the Israeli government.
Aside from education, she has also campaigned for greater representation of Charedi women in politics and contested a city election a couple of years ago.
Her wish to see women selected to stand for Charedi parties remains to be fulfilled. “I don’t think it is going to change without legislation.”