Source: The Boston Globe
On March 13, 2000, The Boston Globe reported that a new study of American Jews, to be released today at Brandeis University, finds that among involved but non-Orthodox Jews women are more likely than men to be studying their faith. Sylvia Barack Fishman, co-director of the Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women, which is releasing the study, stated: "One of the extraordinary results of Jewish feminism is that there has been real sea change in attitudes toward girls and women studying traditional texts, so that for the first time in 2,000 years of Jewish history girls and women now have access to the basic tools for [Jewish] cultural literacy." The research, conducted by sociologist Steven M. Cohen of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, involved a survey of 1,302 American Jews. The results show that the rate of adult Jewish learning is equal among men and women, but that if the Orthodox and the unaffiliated are excepted, women are ahead of men. Cohen stated: "This is significant in that it points to the central role of women in Jewish life." Erica Brown of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston stated: "As women became more educated secularly, you had rabbis understanding that if you didn't educate women Jewishly, they were going to leave the fold."