Naomi Ragen is an Orthodox novelist and playwright who has written
extensively about women's issues in the Orthodox world. She is a
graduate of the Hebrew Institute of Long Island and attended the Sara
Schenirer Hebrew Teachers Seminary in Boro Park. She has an M.A. in
English Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This article originally appeared in issue 5 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.
There was no Rabbi more concerned with tseni'ut (modesty) than R. Moshe Feinstein. He was against men shaking a woman's hand even as a polite greeting (IM OH 1:113; EH 1:56). Even in circumstances when the law didn't strictly prohibit the mingling of men and women, he encouraged God-fearing people to avoid such situations.
