How can you tell Orthodox Jews in 1937 America had a substandard commitment to Orthodoxy? Let the Bais Yaakov Cookbook tell you why.
This is from the Bais Yaakov cookbook. It was posted to a Facebook group and has circulated that way and via email. (I don't want to hat tip the person who likely first posted it on Facebook unless that person tells me it is okay to do so, but if the person does, I will.)
At any rate, the key false claim in this brief summary of Orthodox Judaism in America is the idea that Orthodox girls regularly wore sleeveless tops and slacks in 1937.
Very few American women, let alone Orthodox women, wore slacks in 1937 and the then-current fashion was heightened sleeve and shoulder awareness, meaning bloused and ruffled sleeves and heavily padded shoulders.
The few women's slacks that were sold had very wide legs and almost appeared like a dress when a woman stood still. (Think exaggerated men's sailor pants from 1940s movies.) They weren't form-fitting or tight anywhere and are by some halakhic opinions perfectly fine for women to wear. Even so, very few women wore them.
Women almost exclusively wore dresses in 1937 – dresses whose hemlines were often much closer to the ground than had been the case a decade earlier.
American Jewish women didn't cover their hair because many Jewish women in Western and Central Europe – including many wives of famous Litvish rabbis and rosh yeshivas – didn't cover their hair. The idea was that in a society where non-Jewish married women don't commonly cover their hair, Jewish women do not have to do so, either.
As for using "non-Jewish" names, in 1937 almost every Orthodox Jew in America worked for a living,and that often meant working with or for non-Jews and doing business with non-Jews. And Jewish children, even many Orthodox ones, went to public schools – which is largely why there was a generation of Orthodox Jewish professionals, including some haredi professionals, in the 1960s and 70s. They used "non-Jewish" names because it was easier.
But now, a much smaller percentage of haredim work for a living outside the Jewish community. Those who do so often use secular names. Of course, as you can see from the cookbook, that makes them less desirable husbands.
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