Young women leaving religion more than young men.

[blü 2]

Most of these women give multiple reasons. It appears to be what might be called the perfect storm. Relevant issues are: unequal treatment of men and women, LGBT exclusion, personal trauma, scandals, simply losing faith, other things in life taking priority, rigid gender roles, teachings on sexuality, too political, and hypocrisy of the leadership.

First, I don't know; I'm simply guessing.

Second, the Abrahamic churches have all tended to emphasize intolerance of homosexuality let alone present day gender roles, and stress the centrality of marriage, roles for the male and roles for the female in marriage, the words of God putting males in charge. There are exceptions to all of these, of course, but they're not the mainstream by any means.

I'm reminded of the old joke about marriage ─ marriage is an institution, but who wants to live in an institution?

Go, gals ─ and boys ─ and find your way as you honestly wish.

 

[GoodAttention]

Yes, the general exodus from organized religion is affecting us Jews too. According to at least one of the articles I read on the woman thing, it is happening in all religions. Since Judaism is a religion, I would deduce that the author was including Judaism in that.

Many of the things listed for reasons are certainly true of synagogues as well. We have our scandals. Trauma sometimes happens. Our rabbis are sometimes hypocrites. You get the idea.

In other cases, some of those reasons only apply to certain groups within Judaism. Certainly not all, but some synagogues definitely do treat women unequally from men including barring women from being rabbis, do have sexual rules that young people don't like, do teach that LGBT is a sin, you get the picture.

My understanding is there is no “commandment” or requirement for Jewish women to have children, as there is for men?

 

[IndigoChild5559]

My understanding is there is no “commandment” or requirement for Jewish women to have children, as there is for men?

In Orthodox Judaism, the commandment to be fruitful and multiply is understood to apply to men, but not women. Why? I'm so far from being a Rabbi that it's not funny, and really if you truly want to delve into this, we have two excellent Rabbis here in our own forum. The only thing I can tell you is something I remember my Rabbi telling me long ago, that the reason certain commandments are obligations for men and not women is because women are "on a higher spiritual plane" and will naturally do what is right without obligation, while men must be ordered to do these things.

In Conservative Judaism the commandment to be fruitful and multiply is seen as a shared value for both men and women. But in my experience, although it is viewed as a mitzvah, it really isn't seen as a requirement.

I'm not really sure how it is viewed in Reform Judaism, but I can tell you that in general the Reform see the commandments more as a source of inspiration and starting points for discussion, than as obligatory rules. They would discuss the ethical points both for and against having children, and leave room for different couples to reach different decisions. I wish I could give you something more definitive.

Again, I feel a little out of my league, and I truly hope I haven't steered you wrong. You might try RabbiO or rosends.