Dress up.

<<Honest question: what is the religious meaning for forbidding women to wear pants?>>

This admonition is in the torah -- prohibiting women from wearing men's clothing. Actually, that portion of the torah was read the day after the question was posted (Sat. Sept 1). The ultra orthodox adhere to this -- strictly.

I asked the question because we attend a small temple in st. catherines canada. my mother-in-law does not like when i wear a dressy open toe shoe. I was just wondering if that was not proper etiquette for high holidays. It does get very hot in there for september services.

Conservative synagogues vary widely in practice, but my guess is this is just a preference of your MIL's. Which may be enough reason to honor it.

For conservative open toe shoes should be fine. Not sure what to do about your MIL.

I just saw this. My post was 2 years old. Actually what I noticed about the clothes was that that they were all black (New York I think, not Orthodox) and I was told they were all designer. I never wear pants to an orthodox synagogue. I was really asking for my friend who had to go out and buy a dress (black)

I'm not sure that black is required by the orthodox - or just the way people in NYC dress.

I agree, the black is New York, not a reyquirement of Orthodox

You don't have to be Jewish to wear a black dress in NYC. Black is very popular with everyone.