Hello hello. How are all of you out there in the blogosphere? Glad you found us.
We're voices from the other side of the curtain. From our side of the curtain. So are you. We’re all Jewish women, we all describe ourselves as Orthodox. But who are we?
Orthodoxy. It sounds like a dental procedure. It means conservatism, opposing change, the status quo. It feels rough and boxy, too many consonants. It sounds black-and-white.
Does it describe you? What does it mean to be an Orthodox woman? What do we have to give? Who are we?
We don’t know about you, but the words “Jewish” and “woman” aren’t black-and-white to us. They’re deep. They’re juicy. They’re bold and colorful, holy, and human. They have life and love. And we don’t know about you, but we feel that we’re all so different. So complex in our thinking and feeling, so rich in our spirituality, so varied in our identities. We’re not black-and-white.
And neither is our Judaism, our Orthodox Judaism. It’s a mosaic of the deepest expression of all of us, that together, with God’s help, we create. We weave the curtain, and stand beside it. To each of us, being an Orthodox woman is a journey that’s both incredibly unique, and intimately united with all Jewish women. Young women, older women, women struggling and women embracing. Women searching for who they are. So many voices.
So that's why we set up this blog, to create a forum to explore one another's voices. You see, we're putting together a production of a series of monologues representing the diversity of women within the Orthodox community. But we're only a small group of people, coming from our own particular perspectives. There's no way we can represent you, without asking you to share your voice with us. We ask you to take some time to read through what we've come up with, comment on it, and share your unique story, your voice, with us, by emailing us at voicesfromourside@yahoo.com.
Maybe you’ll find the voices here familiar. Maybe you'll be challenged by a voice you find foreign to your experience. Maybe the voices here will help you find your own, just as we’ve found our voices through learning from so many women like you.
Please note: every post on this site is both anonymous and copyrighted, to voicesfromourside@yahoo.com. If you'd like to use material, please just contact us.
