<img data-src = "https://badets.forwardcdn.com/images/303×227/steven-m-cohen-head-shot-1532037988.JPG "data-high-res =" https://badets.forwardcdn.com/images/cropped/steven-m-cohen-head-shot-1532037988.JPG "alt =" Jewish sociologist Steven M. Cohen 19659005] must of course demand to know how the institutions will respond to accusations against a prominent and trustworthy member of the community.
But just as importantly, these allegations force us to ask ourselves to what extent badist attitudes and the abusive behaviors of Cohen work? In addition to fighting against the & # 39; impact of an alleged abuser as a guardian at the highest level, these latest accusations require us to take into account the more obscure, even more problematic, gender-related aspects of Cohen's agenda focused on the continuity. How surprising is it that a man whose worldview was based on women with more babies turned out to have no respect for women's personal badual boundaries?
Cohen has taken the habit of reducing continuity to a biological exercise. A typical Steven M. Cohen editorial highlights the concern of "filling more Jewish baby cars" rather than engaging existing Jews, especially those who are in mixed marriages.
I criticized this diary, in which pushed by predetermined conclusions and based on outdated and unexamined badumptions about American Jews and what is good for them.
I blamed Cohen for acting less as an impartial investigator and more like what I call an "ethno-political entrepreneur." "I accused Cohen and his colleagues of pushing the so-called crisis of mixed marriages in order to blame ordinary Jews and their private choices, instead of reflecting on the failures of those in power [19659009Intheearly1960sandlegalabortionadecadelaterforthefirsttimefertilitywasalmostentirelyunderthecontrolofwomensobirthsfellsharplyespeciallyamongnon-Jewishwomen-AmericanRiots:MakingmarriageandfertilityacommonthemeofinterestandgivingitbadmostscientificcoverageofacademicresearchlegitimizestheerosionofJewishwomen'scontrolovertheirownfertilityandthereforetheirindependenceservingthegreatest"continuity"
Indeed, Cohen's "continuity" was very much like an old-fashioned anti-feminist reaction, as Kate Manne writes about the logic of the mid sogyny, "the patriarchs … depend on loving mothers, good wives, cool girlfriends, loyal secretaries". And I would add good Jews, those who marry other Jews and make Jewish babies, at least two, please, to reach replacement rates.
This vision of women as wives and wives is totally consistent with the personal abuses that Cohen is accused of. According to one of his accusers in the Jewish Week, "Cohen would justify his invasive interrogation [of female subordinates] by citing his profession as a sociologist and demographer."
Cohen saw himself as a figure of authority and was therefore entitled to Privacy and It becomes very difficult to unravel the badism of an abuser of the patriarchal agenda that he has spent decades advancing
. 19659002] And this is not just about Cohen. The Jewish institutional world faces an inevitable gender problem: older men hold the majority of well-paid and prestigious management positions, and the bulk of the work is done by women (often underpaid), many of whom should not complain about the lack of pay and benefits because it is an honor to work for the community.
It is hard not to see the rampant exploitation of women's work in the Jewish world related to the expectations that Jewish women should sacrifice their independence. The biologically-based vision of Cohen's "continuity"
C is in this context already deeply imbalanced that Cohen has continued a pattern of misuse and inappropriate behavior for decades, even though many knew him and whispered. And yet, all the while, he has accumulated a dazzling list of teaching positions, boards of directors, honors from academic society and paid consultants (including yes, the Pew Research Center Survey of American Jewish Life.)
As concerns and murmurings about inappropriate behavior accumulated, Jewish institutions allowed Cohen to reach higher and higher positions. . He had power over the careers of countless men and women, as well as the authority to implement a common agenda with the control of private romantic choices, and the women's body and fertility, in his heart .
Cohen was not embarrbaded by denials. "I recognize that there is a pattern here," he writes. "It's a behavior that reflects my inappropriate behavior for which I take full responsibility."
The allegations against Cohen force us once again to think about what will happen the day after #MeToo. What will be considered adequate repair or teshuva? And once the name has been removed from his many positions and sinecures, will he then qualify for new ones after showing adequate repentance?
In Cohen's case, the questions will go much further than the questions of repentance and rehabilitation. ] Cohen has shaped a huge part of the Jewish community conversation over the decades. It's up to us to ask tough questions.
To what extent do traditional patriarchal values shape our view of modern and liberal American Jewish life? What could continuity look like if it did not focus on literal and biological reproduction? How was our community conversation colored by badism and misogyny? How did the guarding of Cohen keep some kinds of women, ideas and views out of the conversation? How can we know what could have been?
These are huge questions that extend to all levels of Jewish life. It will not be easy, but these grievous accusations against a trustworthy community leader can prove to be an unprecedented opportunity to count in the American Jewish community.
Perhaps we will seize this opportunity to ask who is speaking, who controls the agenda, and how individuals are, for good and ill, allowed to impose their own values on the community in its own way. together.
Rokhl Kafrissen is a cultural critic and playwright in New York.
