The Women’s Balcony, a movie which captures a beautiful
slice of Israeli life, is a huge upper at a time when many
people are feeling depressed and saddened by the state of our world.
The movie captures the way that Jewish women have been
marginalized in parts of the Israeli Orthodox religious world,
and how they mobilize themselves to achieve power in the face
of rabbinic authority that is dismissive of their concerns. Yet this is
not another of those “religion is evil” or “men are jerks” kind of
dismissals, but rather a sensitive portrayal of how men and
women find a way, even within the boundaries of orthodoxy, to
recapture each other’s humanity, to stand up against irrational
rules, and find a path that is at once affirming of women and
affirming of parts of the Jewish tradition that these Israeli women
wish to retain in their lives. It is, in its own caring and complex way,
a celebration of the actual and potential power of Jewish women, and
it’s highly enjoyable to watch.–Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor, Tikkun Magazine
Dear Rabbi, May I say as a non-Jewish son that there is nothing more powerful than than a Jewish mother? It just so happens that our Presbyterian sermon this Sunday is about Naomi, Ruth and Orpah. I used to believe that G-d worked in mysterious ways. Now I’m not so sure it is mysterious. I had a power outage but I came back to my previous sentence. Divine intervention, or coincidence? Take your pick. Or both? I’m not dualistic. Mostly. I’m adding this movie to my Netflix list. I just finished a documentary about the Greenwich Village folk movement of the 60’s and my next movie is I Am Not Your Negro. Just A Small Circle of Friends was always one of my favorite songs.