Reply To: Mechitzah question

The required height for a mechitzah is a machloket poskim. Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin z’tz’l, a contemporary of similar stature to Rav Moshe z’tz’l, held that ten tefachim was l’chatchila the required height. (He also required that the mechitzah be rigid, which would pasul many much more opaque mechitzot.) This height is based on all of Chazal’s discussions in Eruvim and Sukkot so this is a very well grounded psak. The oldest Orthodox synagogue in America, Shearith Israel, has mechitzot that ten tefachim high. That congregation is notorious for refusing to countenance even slight departures from their long-established nusachim.