...or so its members would have you believe.
Mount Sinai is a synagogue in Washington Heights, NY. It's the area I currently live. While Mount Sinai is not the synagogue in the area that I belong to, it is arguably the biggest and most influential one. Mount Sinai like any good synagogue holds community events. This past Sunday, Mount Sinai held one such event called "Man-Seder".
The Man-Seder event was a male-only event where members of the community came together to eat, drink, and learn Torah. (Torah is the old testament, but can also be used as an umbrella term for any Judaic study). While someone right away may see a problem with a male only event, that person should keep in mind the fact that Mount Sinai also holds female-only events, as well as events for both genders. It is okay to have events for males only, especially since they usually have more events that are for females only. Mount Sinai is an orthodox synagogue and sometimes they just want to make events for some male bonding.
So once we get past that, then what is the problem? Well, in my eyes nothing is wrong. However, on the Facebook event for the page someone did have a problem. Now, I want to say first that everyone's identity will be protected. Even though people said their beliefs in a public forum and therefore is the truth, for the sake of civility I will not post any names.
The Man-Seder did promote certain stereotypes. The meal would be very meat based and there would be an abundance of beer. It is true that not all males drink. It is true that not all males eat meat. However, the stereotype does have some truth to it. Overall, many men do like drinking beer and eating meat.
On the Facebook event for the Man-Seder, a female pointed out the fact the not all men fit in what is considered "manly" with a video and a long post. Now, the creators of the event offered for anyone who doesn't drink alcohol a non-alcoholic option. They were also working on a vegetarian option after some people reached out to them to do such. To me it sounds like they were being pretty inclusive to a variety of people. You can be a different sexual orientation, race, or political party to go. So when the girl pointed out that not all men are meat eaters or drink alcohol, she didn't do it because she cared about informing us of injustice, but to be self-righteous and seek attention.
It is something you see often nowadays. People will find a problem in every little thing and call it out to make themselves look good. People take it upon themselves to be Social-Warriors for those who don't fit in the norm. However, they don't realize that they aren't making those not in the norm more accepted but those in the norm to be villains
Below are pictures of the conversation so you can make your own conclusions. I will post a follow up with pictures of all the comments from the thread that I have. Excuse the pictures' rotation below. I'm still figuring out how to post pictures to the blog.
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