To the Editor:
Your editorial about the subtle influences on English-
speaking Torah Jews in the Yated of parshas Ki
Sovo was very much appreciated. These issues weigh
especially heavily on working Jews in the large metropolitan
areas of the United States.
There was one portion of the essay which, hard as I tried, I
could not fully understand. Would you clarify:
You wrote about women's "vote." I could not tell whether you
meant voting in the literal sense and, if so, whether you
meant in Israeli or in American elections. In the United
States, at least, the Gedolim have told all frum Jews to vote
in important elections; their advice is not limited to men.
Thus, your comments are difficult to understand.
If you meant "vote" in a metaphorical sense (that is, married
women don't function as the family decision- makers or policy-
makers), your comments make more sense. However, your meaning
is hard to detect from a simple reading of the essay.
Thank you for all your diligent work.
Moshe Polon
The Editor Replies:
Perhaps it could have been made clearer in the original
editorial, so we are taking this opportunity to do so.
In referring to women's vote, we refer to their right to
vote, not to their actually casting ballots. The actual
process of going to a poll and exercising their civil
privilege, once they have that privilege, is not especially
problematic.
The issue is giving them the political right to vote, and
the mindset that right engenders. That is a problem that must
be dealt with, whether they go to the polls or not.
Once women are granted the vote, rabbonim have told them
to exercise it. If they do not, then their family is not
really being weighted properly in determining the interests
of the general community.
