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On the one hand boys go to shul and yeshiva and even yeshiva after high school.
And as they grow up they regularly go to shul daily and often to learning groups.
It seems to me outside of Modern Orthodox shuls girls rarely go to shul.
Especially in todays age of cell phones and internet I think we NEED to encourage MORE interaction For Girls Women to Keep them , as men do, Re-Jew-vinated and connected.
In understand young mothers with babies need to stay home – but what about all the teen agers and mothers who do not have babies at home?Chasidishe women often go to shul Shabbos afternoon, moreso than non-chasidishe women.
For Rosh Chodesh bentshin they go to shul because Rosh Chodesh was given to the women.
The situation s such that the mothers who are BH busy with a growing family don’t have ability to take their daughters to shul. I have suggested to my wife and daughter-in-law that the granddaughters come to us occasionally for shabbos and go to shul.
Many seminary girls go to shul.
I believe there’s a story of someone asking a great gadol once what to do with extra money they had gotten for the shul, what was best to repair or improve first? This gadol told them to build a wall where the door was to the Women’s section, implying that there shouldn’t be one.
If a woman is not yet married she should be helping her mother at home.
A little organization by the shul can go a long way. Our shul has a group of high school girls who volunteer to walk a route and gather younger girls (whose mothers don’t attend) walk them to shul, supervise them during davening and hand them off to their fathers at kiddush.
A program with sign up sheet has operated for about 30 years.Mothers with large families may have young children at home for many years, and don’t go to shul on shabbos. Some live in areas where there is no eruv or they don’t hold by it so they can’t carry their young children or use carriages. Even when there is an eruv, many mothers don’t feel it is appropriate to take young children to shul where they may disturb. Their young daughters may feel uncomfortable going to shul without their mothers sitting next to them, showing them what to do etc. And since for girls there is no obligation to daven with a minyan or hear kriyas Hatorah, and their mothers are not modeling shul going, they do not go even as they get Bas MItzva age. So that leaves older girls, singles, and middle-age women+, who often do go to shul on shabbos.
I’m not sure that going to shul is enough in any case to counter the issues that the OP was describing, especially if it turns into a fashion show or involves a shul with lots of talking during davening or leining. I don’t think boys are immune from today’s challenges because they go to shul daily and more frequently on shabbos. Also, just because girls are not in shul, does not mean they havee no means to be connected- they also go to school, seminaries, shiurim, shabbos afternoon programs, etc. Girls can find much meaning in tefilla, especially in private, and that is a way to connect to Hashem even without a minyan and shul.I see many old American shuls had a “Sisterhood”. Does anyone know what they did (or do, if some still exist)?
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