Michael,

I'm the anonymous who first responded to you. I don't think our author, or any of the commenters, have suggested that we force the Orthodox to cease worshipping in their own manner. However, I would think a website such as Jewcy, focused on exploring contemporary Jewish life and practice, would be precisely the forum for a thoughtful explanation and discussion of our own beliefs and practices. I think we would all welcome a thoughtful response as to the merits of the mechitzah. All you have given us however is a directive not to talk about the issue. To turn your advice back at you, if you don't want to read criticisms of certain Jewish practices, why come to a website where contemporary Jewish practice is discussed?

Unfortunately, I've found the attitude of "fine, do your thing, but don't ever criticize the Orthodox" far too prevelent among the non-Orthodox. Too many of us seem to have accepted the perspective that the Orthodox version of everything is correct and we are simply bad or lazy Jews. We ought to have the intellectual integrity to discuss and evaluate our ideas--if that's such a threat to the Orthodox then their beliefs must be pretty weak.

Finally, while you are right that for the most part rapid packs of Haredim aren't breaking down my doors or the doors of my synagogue, you are wrong that they have no more impact than lecturing us. When we buried my grandmother, we were almost unable to say Kaddish because Orthodox Jews control the cemetery where my relatives are all buried and the Rabbi refused to count the female relatives. Another example: my first experience of Hillel at college--an Ivy League school, not some reactionary bastion--was Kol Nidre. At the very beginning of my first semester, I, a man, went to services with two Jewish friends I had just recently met, both women. I expected to make new friends at services, but also expected to have the comfort of sharing services with the people I had gone there with. Instead, I discovered that the services had been divided, I was separated from my friends and sent off to sit all by myself in a room full of strangers, feeling quite abused.

Those are just two examples of the imposition of the male/female separation on my own life. I am sure other commenters can chime in with their own experiences. Finally, though, even if we granted that the Orthodox are just lecturing and haranguing and no more: by remaining silent and failing to present the other side of the argument, we are allowing the Orthodox to recruit apparently sizable numbers of Jewish youth, and to drive away from Judaism altogether those young Jews who want no part of the archaic sexism and insulism being sold as "Judaism." If we want to preserve the existence of liberal, modern, progressive Judaism, then we have to engage in the conversation, rather than ceding it to the Orthodox. After all, isn't Jewish tradition all about arguing about the right form of practice?

So by all means, defend the mechitza and let's have a respectful, in depth discussion. But don't ask us to just shut up and go away.