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The Case of Feminism— Mechanisms of Change 65

was also willing to follow the path of the minhag. He understood the need for organizations and had been present at the rabbinic meeting in Frankfurt , but he also understood that they move slowly. He was a proponent of equality for women and instituted the family pew which immediately became popular. The people saw it as a new minhag. The family pew, introduced by Isaac Mayer Wise in his Albany congregation was denounced by Isaac Leeser (1806-1868) in The Occidentin1851,”' but it rapidly became widely accepted. There was neither national outcry nor national debate. The seating of women with men was gradually adopted. It became the norm in Reform and many Conservative congregations without halakhic justification as did counting women as part of a minyan which fits well already into Isaac Mayer Wise 's early thoughts.” Here was a major step forward toward the equality of women, taken quietly. It was followed by changes in marriage and funeral ceremonies and women on synagogue boards, along with other matters.

Isaac Mayer Wise and other Reform leaders never became leaders for change in the broader feminine issues. They remained uninfluenced by the events around them as for example, the first North American effort in this long struggle occurred in Seneca Falls, N. Y. [n1848. Of all the great revolutionary events of that year, this was the quietest. On July 19-20, 1848, a two day“convention” took place in a small Wesleyan chapel whose minister became reluctant when the Meeting date approached. It was barely noted in the local paper. There were a large number of subsequent meetings in the next decade, often denounced, especially by religious leaders; women were divided over whether to demand the vote or not. When the 14th amendment, which gave rights to the Negro was proposed in 1866, a few raised the issue of women's rights, whereas some still wondered whether Women were considered citizens.” The Supreme Court unanimously decided that citizenship did not confer the right to vote in 1874. The American women's movement was slow in getting started and faced along, tough, uphill battle, until the equal rights amendment of 1920.