I’m told that Modern Orthodoxy has a look. It’s funny to think of the Modern Orthodox as a stereotype, but only because I’m part of it and have been my whole life. You can see the stereotype of Hasidim in pretty much any Hollywood movie (test my theory–1 in 10 movies has a clip of a Hasid walking down the street), and in my world, Reform and Conservative Jews have always been the “other.” But to think that way of Modern Orthodoxy is new to me.
Modern Orthodoxy spans entire groups and classes of people. It’s not all one type. I went to an elementary school in Baltimore where boys and girls were in secular classes together and the dress code required girls to wear skirts to school–and that was Modern Orthodox.
I went to an all-girls high school in Silver Spring, Md. where I had to wear socks above my ankles, an oxford shirt buttoned all the way up, and a pleated black or gray skirt that came 4 inches below my knee–and that was Modern Orthodox. (What I actually wore, despite the rules, is another matter entirely.)
And my mom taught at a school where all classes were co-ed, and the girls (and guys) wore pants or skirts as they saw fit. And that was Modern Orthodox.
Obviously, groups of people can’t be defined by whether they wear pants or pleated skirts, but stereotyping isn’t usually too rational about these things. Anyway, my point is that I always thought of Modern Orthodoxy as a world of people, not one closeted sect. Which just goes to show you how sheltered I actually am.
I don’t like to think of myself as sheltered. Compared to my friends, I’m actually considered quite worldly. (Read: I have non-Jewish friends on Facebook; I see R-rated movies; I understand that’s-what-she-said jokes.) If you would like to box me in, though, I wear skirts only, no pants. Perhaps not the type of skirts that would make my high school principal proud, but overly specific modesty rules is a big enough subject for an entirely separate blog post, so we’ll get back to that.
So, as a worldly Modern Orthodox woman currently ensconced in the ultimate mothership of Modern Orthodoxy, Yeshiva University, I am here to rant and rave and wax poetic about anything and everything under the MO sun. Welcome to Modern Unorthodox!
Simi Lampert is an Orthodox Jew and a realist, in the way that cynics like to say, “I’m not cynical, I’m being realistic.” She is a senior at Yeshiva University’s Stern College, and is the editor-in-chief and founder of the YU Beacon. Her column, Modern Unorthodox, appears here on alternating Tuesdays.
