What may contribute to this treatment is that many of the Orthodox obligations for adult women are tied to being married. Sharon Weiss-Greenberg, who is the executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance and has advocated for better treatment of singles in the community, said the high value on being married starts with the first mitzvah, or good deed, described in the Torah: “You shall be fruitful and multiply.” While this line can be interpreted in different ways, many view it as a commandment to have children. And some, such as Rabbi Aryeh Citron, dean of Yeshivah College in Miami Beach, Florida, view it as a directive “to have as many children as possible.”
Weiss-Greenberg warned: “If they’re going to make people who are single, for whatever reason they are, feel different or less than, then they’re missing out on all they could be contributing.”
