LETTERS

To the Editor:

In the “Ask the Rabbis” forum in which you polled various rabbis asking them to describe the rabbi’s role in modern America (January/February 2010), my colleague Rabbi Amy Wallk Katz's
perspective used only feminine pronouns.  As a man, I found this very distracting and offensive.  As a fellow Conservative rabbi, I actually found myself distanced from her sentiments of the rabbinic role today because of the gender-specific language she used. When I contacted
Rabbi Wallk Katz to question her decision to use only feminine language, she sent me a copy of her original response to the Moment forum in which she alternated from male to female pronouns between paragraphs. Clearly, her response was edited by Moment to refer to all
rabbis as female, thereby distancing approximately half of your readership.

For generations it was acceptable to write using only third-person male pronouns, yet that convention has changed in recent time. I found it interesting that the Orthodox rabbi in the poll (Rabbi Yitz Greenberg) used the term “he/she” even though there are currently no female Orthodox women with the title "rabbi."  Another rabbi chose the inclusive "we."  Women fought hard for gender neutrality in language; now, they should be mindful not to tip the scale in the opposite direction.

Rabbi Jason Miller
Farmington Hills, MI