Both described in their founding materials the goal of maximizing women's participation in prayer services within the boundaries of Orthodox understandings of Jewish law.
According to scholar William Kaplowitz, within six years there were over twenty other similar synagogues around the world, including: Minyan Tehillah, founded in 2003 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Shira Hadasha in Melbourne, Australia, Darchei Noam in Modi’in, and others in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, New Haven, Washington, D.C., and several more (including a cluster in the Tri-State area alone).
By 2014, an additional dozen or so were created in communities such as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mazkeret Batya and Beersheba in Israel, two in the United Kingdom, several on college campuses, high-schools, and more.
Ann Arbor has a partnership minyan but neither Detroit, Cleveland, nor Baltimore, each with over twelve times as many Jews, does (United Jewish Communities, 2002).
The permitting rabbis have interpreted various earlier talmudic and halachic sources to either provide conceptual or indirect support for public women's prayer.
The existence of partnership minyanim was preceded by an opinion by Modern Orthodox Rabbi Mendel Shapiro in 2001,[8] subsequently joined by Bar-Ilan University Talmud Professor Rabbi Daniel Sperber,[9] positing that halakha (Jewish law) permits Orthodox women to be called to, and to read from, the Torah on Shabbat under certain conditions.
[10] Rabbi Shapiro's analysis focused on a Baraita in the Babylonian Talmud stating that: Rabbi Shapiro's primary argument, based on the language of this baraita as well as traditional commentaries to it, was that women were only discouraged from performing public Torah reading based on a social concern for the dignity of the congregation ("Kevod HaTzibur").
Noting that the concept had received modern applications by Orthodox decisors including an opinion by Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg permitting wearing a hearing aid on Shabbat (based on a Talmudic opinion overriding the rabbinic prohibition against carrying on Shabbat to permit a person needing to defecate to carry wiping material), Rabbi Shapiro argued that the Kevod HaBriyot concept could be applied to override the rabbinic prohibition against calling women to the Torah on grounds of human dignity or respect.
The Magen Avraham's view eventually prevailed, and subsequent commentators, including Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, developed his ideas to the point of creating various exceptions under which a Yisrael observing a special occasion could sometimes be called first even if a Kohen is present and refuses to waive the first aliyah.
In addition to point-by-point halakhic counterarguments, he also said: In 2013 British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis stated that a partnership minyan service was not something which could take place in synagogues under his auspices.
Gidon Rothstein (author of Murderer in the Mikdash[15]), in an article in the Rabbinical Council of America's journal Tradition, analyzed Rabbi Shapiro's arguments and concluded that Among other arguments, Rabbi Rothstein argued that even according to the lenient opinions that congregations can waive their "dignity", they can do so only on a temporary and situational basis, or as a concession to a particular circumstance after the fact, but not on a permanent basis.
"[16] Rabbi Rothstein also argued that women are not members of the public community with respect to Torah reading, and the dignity of the community would be affronted by "outsourcing" obligations to non-members: An article in The Forward (September 20, 2002) summarized Orthodox views immediately following the initial partnership minyan congregations: A later Forward article (March 5, 2014) suggested that Orthodox authorities "have taken aim at the growing phenomenon of partnership minyans," citing many recent statements and articles by Orthodox rabbis and scholars and a reported incident where a rabbinical student at Yeshiva University was reprimanded for hosting a partnership minyan.
In his critique, Rabbi Ariel wrote that the violation of the "dignity of the congregation" involved refers to the sexual distraction that would be experienced if men and women were not kept separate.
He argued that partnership minyanim would cause a dispute that would result in a split in the orthodox community, and that women's participation harms the sacredness of the synagogue.
"Considering the novelty of this innovation, religious integrity and sensitivity requires serious consultation with renowned halakhic authorities of recognized stature—prior to acting on such a significant departure from normative halakha."
He concluded with a reflection that "the halakhic process is a search for truth—Divine truth" and stressed the importance of not adapting an approach "simply because it yields the desired result."
The Reform and Reconstructionist movements, as well as most of Conservative Judaism, grant men and women identical roles in their synagogues, services, and leadership.
A test of the Partnership Minyan format at the Wesleyan University Hillel in 2005 led to significant objections among non-Orthodox students, with sophomore Erica Belkin calling it "a test of how far the Jewish community's pluralism and tolerance would extend" and junior Daniella Schmidt stating that "At Wesleyan, we make an effort to provide safe spaces for everyone, including those who prefer orthodox traditions like the mechitza.
Audrey Trachtman, a board member of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, characterized it as "an exciting and important step" but as "a discussion, not intended to be uniform practice.
[31] In the JOFA 10th Anniversary International Conference on Feminism & Orthodoxy (February 10–11, 2007), three members of these minyanim (Elitzur Bar-Asher, Michal Bar-Asher Siegal and Alanna Cooper), in a session under the title "Beyond Women's Issues: Partnership Minyanim Engages Orthodoxy", discussed issues they encountered and approaches to resolving them in implementing this style of worship, as well as their personal ideological approaches.