Women Are ‘Weak-Minded’ And ‘Just Babble,’ Israeli Rabbi Tells Yeshiva Students
Rabbi Yosef Kelner Image by YouTube
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A rabbi who teaches at a pre-military yeshiva in the West Bank told students that women are “weak minded” and “just babble.”
Rabbi Yosef Kelner also said women have a “limited capacity” for spirituality in the footage broadcast Tuesday by Hadashot news taken at a class on marriage and family. The class at the Bnei David academy in the Eli settlement was filmed last summer.
“There’s no such thing as spiritual women. It’s just not true,” Kelner said. “It’s not a failure on women’s part, it’s just that nobody is expecting them to reach certain heights spiritually.
“They are weak-minded. They just babble, that’s it. Women’s babble.”
He told the yeshiva students that modern culture is “destroying” and “confusing” women.
Kelner also indicated that men are more intelligent than women.
“Just because they send them en masse to universities they’re suddenly all great geniuses? No!” he said.
He issued an apology shortly after the footage was broadcast.
“I’m sorry this sort of thing ever came out of me. Sometimes a person fails. I wouldn’t say such things today,” he said.
Kelner added that his colleagues at the yeshiva are “opposed to both the style and content” of the comments.
The yeshiva reportedly has distanced itself from the rabbi’s remarks.
The head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, came under fire nearly a year ago for denigrating female soldiers by saying the Israeli army drives them “crazy,” confuses their values and that they are “not Jewish” when they come out.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
