BTW the cantor's job is generally educational not liturgical. The real issue is that there are few men entering the rabbinate for roles other than the pulpit and in Orthodox the gap is quite wide. As far as I know Reform and Masorti don't place a great deal of focus on the same educational areas that Orthodox do, e.g Talmud studies, Dof Yomi, etc.

Moreover, few Reform shuls have the resources to support a rabbi and a full time cantor. Unless you're in Boca Raton.

And for what it's worth Masorti membership is way down. They don't really understand what they want to be. Reform membership is up, but one would expect that as it is nearly irreligious Unitarian Protestantism at this point. 1 part save the animals and 1 part send food to Darfur. I think the Judaism inside of it's been lost.

Since you haven't been inside a shul in 30 years, that attendance in shul is predominately women now. Masorti has become far more liberal than it was 20 years ago (at least in the US, but not in Israel where Masorti has WOMEN only seders - bet you did not know that...). With the rise of the egalitarian movement in the last generation, in many shuls, men have been effectively pushed out. So their membership is the same, but their attendance is not.

It's too bad you see this as an us vs them war, but if you really feel that it's a zero sum game and not only must you win but everyone else must lose, I guess that's what you'll do. Good luck with that, Judy.

Stop making everything a goddamn Lifetime Movie.

My premiums help pay for your pap smears and mammograms. Even though there is zero probability of me personally needing to take advantage of it. That's simply a fact of life - men and women indeed have different health care needs. I suppose some brightlight will soon come up with women only health insurance by women for women etc etc but you might not like the outcome of that. As a group, women of childbearing age is the largest consumers of health care dollars.

There was a serious effort to carve Regan's head on Mount Rushmore.