Between Feminism and Orthodox Judaism

Between Feminism and Orthodox Judaism
Author: Yael Israel-Cohen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2012-07-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004234837

In Between Feminism and Orthodox Judaism, Yael Israel-Cohen offers an intricate picture of feminist religious identity, resistance, and religious change.

Expanding the Palace of Torah

Expanding the Palace of Torah
Author: Tamar Ross
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2021-07-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 168458051X

Expanding the Palace of Torah offers a broad philosophical overview of the challenges the women’s revolution poses to Orthodox Judaism, as well as Orthodox Judaism’s response to those challenges. Writing as an insider—herself an Orthodox Jew—Tamar Ross confronts the radical feminist critique of Judaism as a religion deeply entrenched in patriarchy. Surprisingly, very little work has been done in this area, beyond exploring the leeway for ad hoc solutions to practical problems as they arise on the halakhic plane. In exposing the largely male-focused thrust of the rabbinic tradition and its biblical grounding, she sees this critique as posing a potential threat to the theological heart of traditional Judaism—the belief in divine revelation. This new edition brings this acclaimed and classic text back into print with a new essay by Tamar Ross which examines new developments in feminist thought since the book was first published in 2004.

Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism

Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism
Author: Tova Hartman
Publisher: Upne
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007
Genre: Feminism
ISBN: 9781584656586

An innovative analysis of how creative tensions between modern Orthodox Judaism and feminism can lead to unexpected perspectives and beliefs

Tradition in a Rootless World

Tradition in a Rootless World
Author: Lynn Davidman
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 267
Release: 1991
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0520075455

"[Davidman's] rich ethnographic observations and lucid prose illuminate two of the more important aspects of modern religion generally: the changing role of women and the resurgence of traditional faith."—Robert Wuthnow, author of Meaning and Moral Order

Jewish Radical Feminism

Jewish Radical Feminism
Author: Joyce Antler
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2020-04-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1479802549

Finalist, 2019 PROSE Award in Biography, given by the Association of American Publishers Fifty years after the start of the women’s liberation movement, a book that at last illuminates the profound impact Jewishness and second-wave feminism had on each other Jewish women were undeniably instrumental in shaping the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Yet historians and participants themselves have overlooked their contributions as Jews. This has left many vital questions unasked and unanswered—until now. Delving into archival sources and conducting extensive interviews with these fierce pioneers, Joyce Antler has at last broken the silence about the confluence of feminism and Jewish identity. Antler’s exhilarating new book features dozens of compelling biographical narratives that reveal the struggles and achievements of Jewish radical feminists in Chicago, New York and Boston, as well as those who participated in the later, self-consciously identified Jewish feminist movement that fought gender inequities in Jewish religious and secular life. Disproportionately represented in the movement, Jewish women’s liberationists helped to provide theories and models for radical action that were used throughout the United States and abroad. Their articles and books became classics of the movement and led to new initiatives in academia, politics, and grassroots organizing. Other Jewish-identified feminists brought the women’s movement to the Jewish mainstream and Jewish feminism to the Left. For many of these women, feminism in fact served as a “portal” into Judaism. Recovering this deeply hidden history, Jewish Radical Feminism places Jewish women’s activism at the center of feminist and Jewish narratives. The stories of over forty women’s liberationists and identified Jewish feminists—from Shulamith Firestone and Susan Brownmiller to Rabbis Laura Geller and Rebecca Alpert—illustrate how women’s liberation and Jewish feminism unfolded over the course of the lives of an extraordinary cohort of women, profoundly influencing the social, political, and religious revolutions of our era.

New Jewish Feminism

New Jewish Feminism
Author: Rabbi Elyse Goldstein
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 514
Release: 2012-06-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1580236502

Jewish Feminism: What Have We Accomplished? What Is Still to Be Done? “When you are in the middle of the revolution you can’t really plan the next steps ahead. But now we can. The book is intended to open up a dialogue between the early Jewish feminist pioneers and the young women shaping Judaism today.... Read it, use it, debate it, ponder it.” —from the Introduction This empowering anthology looks at the growth and accomplishments of Jewish feminism and what that means for Jewish women today and tomorrow. It features the voices of women from every area of Jewish life—the Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Orthodox and Jewish Renewal movements; rabbis, congregational leaders, artists, writers, community service professionals, academics, and chaplains, from the United States, Canada, and Israel—addressing the important issues that concern Jewish women: Women and Theology Women, Ritual and Torah Women and the Synagogue Women in Israel Gender, Sexuality and Age Women and the Denominations Leadership and Social Justice

Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released

Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released
Author: Helène Aylon
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2012-05-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1558617698

‘[A] richly evocative, captivating, and reflective memoir” of a feminist artist who broke free of the limits placed on her by family, Judaism and society (Publishers Weekly). Growing up an Orthodox Jew in Brooklyn, Helene Aylon spent her Friday nights in a sea of extended family as the Sabbath candles flickered. Passionate about art, she dreamt of escaping the strict, secular world of her youth, but instead married a rabbi and became a mother of two. Then, her world was split apart when her husband was diagnosed with cancer, and Aylon found herself widowed at thirty. Free to explore both her own soul and the changing world around her, Aylon sought a home in the burgeoning environmental art scene of the 1970s—creating transgressive works that explore identity, women’s bodies, the environment, disarmament, and the notion of God. Finally, she dares to asks of Judaism: Where are the women? With many examples of her work included within, Whatever is Contained ”is an arresting tale of uncommon courage, intelligence, and wit” following Aylon’s search for truth in art, and the links between feminism and Judaism (Gail Levin, author of Lee Krasner: A Biography and Becoming Judy Chicago).

Women Remaking American Judaism

Women Remaking American Judaism
Author: Riv-Ellen Prell
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2007-08-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0814335683

The rise of Jewish feminism, a branch of both second-wave feminism and the American counterculture, in the late 1960s had an extraordinary impact on the leadership, practice, and beliefs of American Jews. Women Remaking American Judaism is the first book to fully examine the changes in American Judaism as women fought to practice their religion fully and to ensure that its rituals, texts, and liturgies reflected their lives. In addition to identifying the changes that took place, this volume aims to understand the process of change in ritual, theology, and clergy across the denominations. The essays in Women Remaking American Judaism offer a paradoxical understanding of Jewish feminism as both radical, in the transformational sense, and accomodationist, in the sense that it was thoroughly compatible with liberal Judaism. Essays in the first section, Reenvisioning Judaism, investigate the feminist challenges to traditional understanding of Jewish law, texts, and theology. In Redefining Judaism, the second section, contributors recognize that the changes in American Judaism were ultimately put into place by each denomination, their law committees, seminaries, rabbinic courts, rabbis, and synagogues, and examine the distinct evolution of women’s issues in the Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist movements. Finally, in the third section, Re-Framing Judaism, essays address feminist innovations that, in some cases, took place outside of the synagogue. An introduction by Riv-Ellen Prell situates the essays in both American and modern Jewish history and offers an analysis of why Jewish feminism was revolutionary. Women Remaking American Judaism raises provocative questions about the changes to Judaism following the feminist movement, at every turn asking what change means in Judaism and other American religions and how the fight for equality between men and women parallels and differs from other changes in Judaism. Women Remaking American Judaism will be of interest to both scholars of Jewish history and women’s studies.

Standing Again at Sinai

Standing Again at Sinai
Author: Judith Plaskow
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 308
Release: 1991-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0060666846

A feminist critique of Judaism as a patriarchal tradition and an exploration of the increasing involvement of women in naming and shaping Jewish tradition.

Life on the Fringes

Life on the Fringes
Author: Haviva Ner-David
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781934730430

Part memoir, part commentary, Life on the Fringes charts a startling Jewish feminist journey both solitary and engaging. Haviva Ner-David draws us into the many facets of her life's story: a complex modern Orthodox childhood (including a battle with anorexia); adherence to a unique combination of Jewish observances; the emergence of her feminist commitments and support of gays and lesbians in Jewish life; a serious engagement with Jewish texts -- and now, studying for rabbinic ordination with an Orthodox rabbi in Israel, where Ner-David and her family have made their home. Over time, we see Ner-David take on both traditionally male practices -- donning a tallit and tefillin every day, wearing tzitzit at all times -- as well as those of traditional Jewish women -- covering her head, and observing in great detail the laws of niddah which govern a woman's separation from her husband in the days surrounding her menstrual period. Her personal wrestling and her halakhic analysis help us see Jewish tradition in new, more textured ways -- and lets us see new possibilities for our own lives. Writing with warmth, vision, and passion, Ner-David unwraps her often startling package of Jewish choices, inviting readers into her many worlds, even as she challenges us to examine and deepen our own allegiances and Jewish feminist journeys. No one who takes seriously the intersection of feminism and traditional Judaism will be able to ignore this book.