"A woman belongs on the bimah just as much as an orange belongs on the seder plate". This phrase has been circulating throughout my family for years, and I never knew the origin. I assumed that it had come from a Jewish women's rights activist, advocating for the acceptance of women in modern Judaism. Instead, I found that its original meaning had become subverted, intended to be symbolic of gay and lesbian Jews, widows, orphans, and adopted Jews, who sometimes feel ostracized by the community. While I am still in favor of the woman on the bimah analogy, this new information adds much greater weight to the significance of the out-of-place orange, and from this point forward it carries new weight for me.
http://forward.com/opinion/172959/an-orange-on-plate-for-women-and-spit-out-seeds/
I completely disagree with the statement "A woman belongs on the Bimah just as much as an orange belongs on the Seder plate." In the unfair and discriminatory times we live in today, anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and unjustified expectations of women are extremely present. I am not advocating violence, but I think it is important to counterattack the way things are and try to make effective change. By using the positive symbolism of the orange, we must recognize and celebrate the contributions of people, including but definitely not limited to women. I recognize your family values, but I disagree completely with this statement and support women on the Bimah. My family places an orange on our Seder plate each year and chooses a cause (whether it be in support of gay people, the disabled, etc.) to celebrate.
ReplyDelete"A woman belongs on the bimah just as much as an orange belongs on the seder plate" is not an anti-feminist statement. By saying "just as much as an orange belongs on the seder plate", it is implying that an orange does belong, and therefore a woman belongs on the bimah as well. That is how it is interpreted in my family, and that is why we include an orange next to the maror and the charoset. An orange is just as relevant as they are in contemporary times, and although there are already women on the bimah today, our orange is meant to symbolize how women should continue to be accepted on the bimah, so we continue to make our orange accepted on our seder plate.
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