Puah and women

Sir, – Menachem Burstein (“Puah conference pushes medical, halachic advancement,” Comment & Features, January 11) completely misses the point.

First, the number of women practicing medicine has exploded in recent years. Second, the issue of women in the public forum is now front and center. One has to wonder where Burstein is living.

I’ve never seen a member of the haredi community reject medical care or treatment because the attending physician is a member of the opposite sex. It’s time for Puah to find a way to include women speakers at its conference. MATTIAS ROTENBERG

Petah Tikva

Sir, – The director of Puah belies a misunderstanding – or perhaps a deliberate distortion – of Judaism when he argues that “inviting women to address the rabbis would cause many rabbis to avoid the sessions, thus negating the purpose of the conference.”

It is a guiding principal in Jewish law that preserving life and health takes precedence over most other considerations, and certainly over the dubious proposition that Jewish law forbids men to listen to women lecture about medical issues.

The notion that you can promote “unity of the Jewish people” by excluding half of them from participation in Israeli public life is absurd. DAVID ROSENN

New York The writer is a rabbi and the chief operating officer of the New Israel Fund

Sir, – Regarding “IMA bars physicians from attending Puah conference” (January 10), before they begin to practice, doctors take an oath not to withhold medical aid to anyone. It is thus incomprehensible that they would violate their oaths due to political or social pressure and cancel their appearance at the Puah conference.

By having done so, they withheld a contribution to solve serious fertility problems. TUVIA MUSKIN

Rehovot