Tradition versus Egalitarianism in the Thinking of Jewish-American Adolescents

Abstract

This article describes results from interviews with Jewish teenagers about the tension between adherence to tradition and commitment to egalitarianism in relation to issues like women in the rabbinate, women wearing ritual garments like kipot and talitot, and gender separation at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. For many teens, egalitarian values trumped traditional objections to female rabbis and other forms of participation in synagogue life in America; however, they were more hesitant to challenge gender separation at the Kotel in Israel, where the purported antiquity and authenticity of Orthodox tradition is more readily accepted.