Sign up for Weekday J and get the latest on what's happening in the Jewish Bay Area.

As the first International Conference on Orthodoxy and Feminism demonstrated, Orthodox feminist is no longer an oxymoron.

Several hundred people were expected to attend the New York gathering but, in the end, more than 700 women, and a sprinkling of men, including rabbis, showed up.

The unexpectedly large turnout speaks to a growing interest among Orthodox women to participate more fully in Judaism, without feeling excluded from religious pursuits.

Happily, the movement's leaders are listening. While some centrist Orthodox rabbinical authorities remain opposed to changing the status of women, nine Orthodox rabbis at the conference stated publicly that Jewish law can accommodate women's desires for increased participation.

Outsiders to the Orthodox world may not see such a stance as groundbreaking. But women in the movement know how truly significant it is.

As one conference participant said, "It's earthshaking that rabbis are saying for the first time that their hands are not tied by distance from Sinai."

In many ways, Orthodox women face a different world than they did 20 years ago, in part because of changes in the secular world as well as within Judaism.

They hold prayer groups. In some synagogues, they touch the Torah after reading it, as men have always done. Synagogue baby-namings are becoming increasingly accepted as a way to publicly welcome the birth of a girl. And increasing numbers of girls are enjoying bat mitzvah ceremonies.

To those outside the movement, those may seem like small steps. Orthodox women still have a way to go before they feel that being a feminist is not diametrically opposed to being Orthodox. But to women such as Freda Rosenfeld of Brooklyn, such strides have been major.

"Ten years ago, we felt on the fringe," she said. "Now we are definitely mainstream."

The conference was an important start.