by Jill Finkelstein

Link Roundup: Women Rabbis and the Great Christmas Tree Debate

Welcome to this week’s installment of Lilith’s Link Roundup. Each week we’ll post Jewish and feminist highlights from around the web. If there’s anything you want to be sure we know about, email us or leave a message in the comments section below.

This week, Jessica Grose and Mark Oppenheimer debated whether or not Jews should own Christmas trees. In their four-part debate, they discussed the social and religious implications of this dilemma that is frequently faced by many interfaith couples like Jessica and her gentile husband. She adds, “Naming my kid Mary or festooning a fir tree does not negate my deeply felt Jewishness, nor does it dilute the Jewish traditions I still follow.” [Slate]

Last week, we reported the Hanukkah celebration that brought the first Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Orthodox women Rabbis together for the first time. The event will appear in an upcoming documentary on female Rabbis that is currently being filmed by Rabbi Lynne Kern and filmmaker Ronda Spinak. [JTA]

Moment Magazine also highlighted women rabbis in their latest issue, with a special feature on Sara Hurwitz, the first Orthodox Rabba. In addition, they discussed a new trend in Orthodox Judaism, known as partnership minyans. These minyans hope to add gender equality to prayer by requiring 10 men and 10 women to be present. [IntheMoment]

Sometime in the upcoming months, Women and Their Bodies (WTB), an NGO working to promote comprehensive social change in the health attitudes of Israeli women (both Jewish and Arab), will release Hebrew and Arabic editions of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

On Thursday night, the House failed to pass The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act, which would have created a plan to stop the harmful practice that affects millions of girls each year.  [Feministing]

We’re proud to share that Lilith contributing editor Amy Stone’s Letter to the Editor was featured in the New York Times. Amy, one of Lilith’s founders, wrote in response to an article on Jewish burial traditions. She previously wrote about Feminist Funerals in Lilith’s Spring 2009 issue. [NYT]