Individual Jewish leaders spoke out, but the organized community in North America did not although some Jewish women were suffragettes. A conservative wait and see attitude prevailed as it did in much of American society through those decades. The path of the minhag would bring only limited changes.
In the democratic setting of North America , the voice of the people could force innovation. This was an extension of the minhag which has been a major force in Jewish life throughout our history; the rabbinate resisted, reluctantly accommodated, or ignored these minhagim, especially if they were contrary to the halakhic tradition.” In numerous instances such divergent paths were, nevertheless taken. For example the Talmud ignored semi-pagan synagogue decorations which continued for centuries in Israel and the neighboring lands. Rabbis frequently accepted a local minhag in liturgy and in life-cycle ceremonies, such as breaking the glass at weddings or permitting pictures on tombstones. It was more difficult to resist in America even when the change was as drastic as mixed seating. Innovations occurred and spread without any attempt at halakhic justification. This was true of scores of innovations great and small and certainly of every move in the direction of feminism such as women's Torah reading, bat mitzvah, women in leadership positions and eventually the admission of women to rabbinic studies. All these changes occurred as minhag. In America minhagreigns supreme. The minhag has been a dominant force on the American Jewish scene, affecting every aspect of Jewish life. It, of course, represents popular democracy.
A THEOLOGICAL APPROACH