If worrying about intermarriage, dwindling birthrates and "the singles crisis" isn't providing enough neurosis for American Jews, we can always look to our dual identity--being Jewish and American--to provide us with ample conflict and agita. Americans believe in equality, but while traditional
Jewish life may tolerate difference, that doesn't mean that halakhah treats everyone equally. The Conservative movement is mid-struggle, on the heels of the recent decision (or "
incoherent ruling" or "
compromise, not a victory" depending on who you ask) to increase roles for gay Jews, and the
resultant survey that went out to "Conservative leaders and interested parties" to assess how the issue was being received. Their challenge remains: endorse a non-halakhic position in the name of equality, or maintain a more conservative (small c) adherence to tradition, at equality's expense. And then there's the issue of
the mechitzah, perhaps the most literal example of separation between groups of Jews: male and female.
Feminists struggle with the reasons behind the concept. But in some cases,
New Voices magazine reports, there's always room for more division:
- The new three-part mechitza making appearances all across the country, is conveniently known as a "trichitza" by those in the know. [...] The trichitza creates separate prayer spaces for men and women, but also makes available an intermediary third, mixed-gender space, which is available to everyone.
On Jewlicious, which often takes a satirical approach to news and culture,
one writer imagines a fictional shul where a mechitzah has even more sides:
- [...] to solve the conflict between tradition and modern demands for egalitarianism in worship: the dodecachitza. [T]he rabbi (a rotating role filled by a different minyan member every week) stands on a rotating bima in the middle of the room, so he faces each section of the dodecachitza. There's a section each for the men, the women, the Gs, the Ls, the Bs, the Ts, the straight people who identify queer, considering-op transsexuals, lipstick lesbians, NYU students, interested gentiles, and homeless guys who came in for kiddush. It's just really inspiring to see Jews of all different kinds getting together to praise God, or whichever deity or deities their personal beliefs lead them to worship.
The dodecachitza remains a myth, but the trichitzah was seen in action at
Leading Up North. While this solution seems eminently sensible, it's also clear that it could provide a gateway for other separation breakdowns, perhaps even leading to "dancing" and "non-dancing" sections at parties. Which might be a good thing for the singles crisis.
