Arlene Agus

Arlene Agus (March 17, 1949 – December 2024) was an American Orthodox Jewish feminist and writer. She was "an early advocate of Orthodox feminism nda prominent advocate for Soviet Jewry," and was perhaps best known for reviving women's observance of Rosh Chodesh.

Early life and education

Agus was born in Brooklyn, New York City. Her family "traced its lineage to the 10th and 11th centuries as direct descendants of Rashi". She was introduced to Jewish ritual music at a young age, as her father worked part-time as a hazzan. Agus also became aware of the differences in the treatment of women and men at a young age. At age six, she confronted her rabbi after he chose her male cousin, "who could not carry a tune," over her to lead the closing song.

She attended the Modern Orthodox Yeshivah of Flatbush, where she led an unsuccessful protest after Talmud study was removed from the girls' curriculum. She also later noted that she felt her education did not properly explain to her Jewish women's religious duties or Jewish women's history. This experience informed her later activism, and her belief in the importance of girls receiving a proper Jewish education. She attended Brooklyn College, where she majored in Celtic studies. After graduating, she moved to the Upper West Side in Manhattan. She later undertook graduate work in music therapy.

Career

Agus' professional career was in special education. She worked as "a Jewish education specialist at New York’s Jewish Child Care Association and a member of the faculty of the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El". By the 1980s, she worked as a non-profit consultant and had worked with Cardozo Law School at Yeshiva University and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies at New York.

Jewish feminism

Agus considered herself a "temperate feminist" interested in "communal unity," but was deemed radical by some community members. She viewed Judaism as inherently feminist, although this element could not be fully realized until after the women's egalitarian movement.In 1971, Agus co-founded Ezrat Nashim, "the first American Jewish feminist organization". Ezrat Nashim protested at the 1972 Conservative rabbis' conference, where their demands included:
*Women being allowed synagogue membership
*Women counting towards a minyan
*Women being "considered as bound to fulfill all mitzvot equally with men"
*Full participation in religious observances
*Women being able to act as witnesses in religious courts
*Women being allowed to initiate divorce
*Women being "permitted and encouraged to attend rabbinical and cantorial schools"

The involved women, including Agus, also fashioned their own tallitot. In 1973, she encouraged Blue Greenberg to deliver the keynote address at the First National Jewish Women's Conference. The same year, she founded a women's kollel. In 1982, she successfully negotiated a divorce for an agunah, a Jewish woman stuck in her marriage because her husband refused to allow her a divorce.

Agus remarked in 1984 that she would have been a rabbi if Orthodox law had allowed it, and that "It's only because I refuse to be denominationally limited that I'm not going to rabbinical school at the Conservative] Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Jewish Theological Seminary". Instead, she learned and then taught Torah Hebrew cantillation, cantillation at Ansche Chesed, a Manhattan synagogue that, at the time, did not adhere to a specific stream of Judaism. Also at Ansche Chesed, she founded Minyan M'at, "an egalitarian service".

Among Agus's other feminist projects included co-founding the "first all-women's tefillot," and the creation of "egalitarian ceremonies for births, bar and bat mitzvahs, and weddings and commitment ceremonies," and ''tkhines''. Agus also developed other Jewish rituals, such as a ceremony "to expiate the guilt of grown children mourning their parents," inspired by a friend's experiences of guilt following her mother's death.

Rosh Chodesh observance

In 1971, Agus led "a small group of women in a revival of the ritual as a creative women’s celebration". She wrote an article about the observance in 1976, titled "This Month Is for You: Observing Rosh Hodesh as a Woman’s Holiday", which sparked more widespread adoption.

Soviet Jewry activism

While at Brooklyn College, Agus led the borough chapter of Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. She later worked at the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. Agus felt the issue of Soviet Jewry helped to not only unite Jews, but also helped foster Jewish connections with non-Jewish activists. Agus continued her activism after graduating; in 1980, she coordinated Solidarity Day, an event held in New York City which called "for the release of Jews unable to emigrate under the Soviet regime".

Later life and death

Agus became estranged from her friends and family in her later life. Her body was found in her apartment in December 2024. She was 75.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agus, Arlene
1949 births
2024 deaths
Date of death unknown
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American women
20th-century people from New York (state)
Activists from Brooklyn
American feminists
American human rights activists
Brooklyn College alumni
Jewish American feminists
Jewish women activists
Jews from New York City
Orthodox Jewish feminists
People from the Upper West Side
Yeshivah of Flatbush alumni
Soviet Jewry movement activists