Rabbi: Women Can Work, As Long As They Feel Bad About It
As any working mother knows, balancing the competing demands of raising children and successful functioning in the workplace can be stressful and guilt-inducing. Now, as Elana Sztokman wrote on The Sisterhood, a West Bank rabbi has decided to make the situation even worse for the women in his religious community, who might, heaven forbid, feel the need to contribute to her family’s income.
Violent behavior in youth, proclaimed Kiryat Arba Rabbi Dov Lior, is a direct outgrowth of women leaving the house to earn a living. So, presumably, if every single mother was a devoted full-time housewife, all of humanity would be transformed into gentle folk handing out flowers and singing Psalms, and we would know war no more. Who knew it could be that easy?
Mind you, Lior generously offers that it is permissible for a woman to work if her husband is unable to provide for the family, but that it is not a desirable state.
This is even a bit more psychologically cruel than just forbidding mothers to work. He’s saying that a woman can go off to work if she must, but she needs to do so knowing that the Torah frowns upon it and that it will result in a life of violence for her offspring. Wonderful.
Not being part of the community, there is little I can do to offer solace to the guilt-ridden working women of Kiryat Arba. In an effort to do something to ease their minds, I decided to check out the mother whose child was arguably the most violent and destructive force of the last century. Surely, she had to have been career-obsessed. But no, it turns out that Klara Hitler’s life was “devoted to keeping house and raising children.” So much for Rabbi Lior’s theory
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Books The White House Seder started in a Pennsylvania basement. Its legacy lives on.
-
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
-
Fast Forward Yarden Bibas says ‘I am here because of Trump’ and pleads with him to stop the Gaza war
-
Fast Forward Trump’s plan to enlist Elon Musk began at Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.