I enjoyed reading Michael Feldstein’s article “It Happened at Bnai Yeshurun: February 21, 1977” (March 16, 2022). As an invited guest, I attended the bat mitzvah celebration of his sister Ruthie and was inspired by this service for women.

As a founding member of the Teaneck Women’s Tefillah (TWT), I wish to respond on behalf of our group, which was formed a few years after the Feldstein simcha. The first Megillah reading for women by women in Teaneck took place in spring 1978 on Purim night and came under the auspices of the TWT a few years later. Since then, we have been reading Megillah together each year (with the exception of 2021, due to the pandemic). Starting in January 1982, TWT began to meet monthly for Shabbat morning davening and bat mitzvah celebrations. Our largest annual gatherings are still on Simchat Torah day and on Tisha B’Av night for the chanting of Eicha, in addition to Purim.

Feldstein stated that “the women’s tefillah services in the communities that host them are usually limited” to these three holidays (Simchat Torah, Purim, and Tisha B’Av). This description is currently true for our tefillah group in Teaneck, but not so in other communities. Around the U.S., there are tefillah groups that meet each month to daven, sometimes for mincha closest to Shabbat Mevarchim Hachodesh, or to recite the Chamesh Megillot, and to celebrate life-cycle events of their members, often accompanied by divrei Torah.

Feldstein also wrote that women’s tefillah groups have “spawned an entire generation of young women who are capable of reading the Megillah and the Torah.” But we think that the impact of women’s tefillah groups is even greater. Women’s tefillah groups now exist in Jewish communities worldwide. Some groups have been accepted as an official part of established Modern Orthodox shuls. Women attending tefillah groups are seeking a more spiritually meaningful way to pray through direct participation, through singing full voice in a well-paced davening, and through enhanced understanding of the texts, both in tefillah and in Tanach. Some of our former TWT members have become very active in tefillah groups at shuls in other communities, e.g., Atlanta; Silver Spring, Maryland; Washington D.C., Berkeley, California; Stamford, Connecticut.

The Teaneck Women’s Tefillah currently has a membership of over 100 women. We are now starting a project to record our history. Women interested in joining TWT or sharing their reflections on TWT may contact us at: [email protected].