Adventures in Hyphenated Folk

Zan (Xave's sister) is evidently a radio personality now, running a weekly show on WSRN (has a podcast feed, too). I finally got around to listening to one of the episodes she posted. It's nifty.

A Victory in Vermont

Props to Evann Orleck-Jetter, a twelve-year-old girl whose testimony was perhaps key to the Vermont legislature overturning the governor's veto and affirming same-sex marriage rights. It's this sort of story that shows that same-sex marriage is not a two-sided issue. The media is often reluctant to show the people who are really hurt by same-sex marriage bans because their opponents are not risking any vaguely equivalent harm, despite disingenuous talk about "imposing" same-sex marriage.

The Vermont decision is very significant for several reasons. First, it's a legislative move to recognize same-sex marriage, so it shows the growing popular and political support for equal marriage rights, not just reluctant acceptance of the unintendedly fair consequences of beloved constitutional principles (so-called "judicial activism"). Second, Vermont already had same-sex "civil unions", so it's a clear rejection of this recent reincarnation of "separate but equal". Third, overturning the veto required (at least some) bipartisan support, showing that (at least some) Republicans are beginning to realize one or more of the following: That "the gays are going to get you" is not an effective political message (or at least won't continue to be so effective forever), that denying parents rights isn't the way to help children (that the way to help children is to support families, not to pontificate about who should or shouldn't have them), that the so-called "defenders of marriage" of today are going to end up looking as bigoted as the "defenders of marriage" from a half-century ago, that denying people the array of benefits reserved for the married isn't going to turn anyone straight, that society has yet to crumble in any of the places that have allowed same-sex marriage, etc.

With the town council vote in DC, the (unanimous!) supreme court ruling in Iowa (whose procedures for constitutional amendment are as cautious as those of Massachusetts), and this, things are looking very optimistic for the marriage equality movement, despite the setbacks of the 2008 election.

Orange on the Seder Plate

Why is there an orange on the Seder¹ plate? This is one of my favorite new Passover traditions. The story goes that this is in response to some sexist rabbi's statement that "a woman belongs on the bimah² like an orange belongs on the Seder plate". Placing an orange on the Seder plate is, thus, a massive Take That.

However, I did a bit of Googling on the story and found the apparent originator of the idea arguing that the story is not only inaccurate, it's a corruption that subverts the original intention of the idea (reproducing in full from here because I think it's important that it be read; second source here):

In the early 1980s, the Hillel Foundation invited me to speak on a panel at Oberlin College. While on campus, I came across a Haggada³ that had been written by some Oberlin students to express feminist concerns. One ritual they devised was placing a crust of bread on the Seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians ("there's as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the Seder plate").

At the next Passover, I placed an orange on our family's Seder plate. During the first part of the Seder, I asked everyone to take a segment of the orange, make the blessing over fruit, and eat it as a gesture of solidarity with Jewish lesbians and gay men, and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community (I mentioned widows in particular).

Bread on the Seder plate brings an end to Pesach - it renders everything chometz⁴. And its symbolism suggests that being lesbian is being transgressive, violating Judaism. I felt that an orange was suggestive of something else: the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out - a gesture of spitting out, repudiating the homophobia that poisons too many Jews.

When lecturing, I often mentioned my custom as one of many new feminist rituals that had been developed in the last twenty years. Somehow, though, the typical patriarchal maneuver occurred: My idea of an orange and my intention of affirming lesbians and gay men were transformed. Now the story circulates that a MAN stood up after I lecture I delivered and said to me, in anger, that a woman belongs on the bimah as much as an orange on the Seder plate. My idea, a woman's words, are attributed to a man, and the affirmation of lesbians and gay men is simply erased. Isn't that precisely what's happened over the centuries to women's ideas?

Susannah Heschel, April, 2001
Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies Dartmouth College
[emphasis mine]

¹ Passover ritual (lit. "order")
² Platform in front of the Aron Hakodesh (cabinet containing the Torah scrolls) from which services are led
³ Book containing the Passover ritual and story (lit. "telling")
⁴ Leavened bread and associated foods that are not kosher for Passover