This chapter explores the problems of studying Orthodox Jewish women, in particular the 'double invisibility' they experience, first from the perspective of male Orthodox Jews, and, second, in the lack of knowledge about them in the non-Jewish world. Orthodox women engage in a wide range of communal and domestic religious activities, in spite of their exclusion from an active role in worship in synagogue and from some areas of Torah study. Activities defined by Orthodoxy as the supreme religious privileges of women, such as keeping a kosher kitchen, preparing food for sabbath and festivals, and nurturing and educating children, remain largely invisible to Orthodox men. Standard descriptions of women's practices in the domestic and individual spheres omit many widespread customs and practices, often characterized as 'superstitions' although they form an integral and meaningful part of many women's religious lives. A major problem in studying women's religious lives and the ways in which they differ from and intersect with those of men is imagining how women fit into one's overall picture of Jewish religious activity. Neither the 'separate but equal' apologetic nor the simplistic identification of 'oppressed and oppressors' made by some feminists provides an adequate way of thinking about the relationship between male and female lived experience of Judaism. Given that Orthodox Judaism is undeniably patriarchal, it may reasonably be asked whether women have any access to power or agency within the religious life of the community, particularly in matters of ritual and correct practice.
{"title":"STUDYING JEWISH WOMEN","authors":"Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjpd.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjpd.6","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores the problems of studying Orthodox Jewish women, in particular the 'double invisibility' they experience, first from the perspective of male Orthodox Jews, and, second, in the lack of knowledge about them in the non-Jewish world. Orthodox women engage in a wide range of communal and domestic religious activities, in spite of their exclusion from an active role in worship in synagogue and from some areas of Torah study. Activities defined by Orthodoxy as the supreme religious privileges of women, such as keeping a kosher kitchen, preparing food for sabbath and festivals, and nurturing and educating children, remain largely invisible to Orthodox men. Standard descriptions of women's practices in the domestic and individual spheres omit many widespread customs and practices, often characterized as 'superstitions' although they form an integral and meaningful part of many women's religious lives. A major problem in studying women's religious lives and the ways in which they differ from and intersect with those of men is imagining how women fit into one's overall picture of Jewish religious activity. Neither the 'separate but equal' apologetic nor the simplistic identification of 'oppressed and oppressors' made by some feminists provides an adequate way of thinking about the relationship between male and female lived experience of Judaism. Given that Orthodox Judaism is undeniably patriarchal, it may reasonably be asked whether women have any access to power or agency within the religious life of the community, particularly in matters of ritual and correct practice.","PeriodicalId":251116,"journal":{"name":"Challenge and Conformity","volume":"120 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128104317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-31DOI: 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0004
Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz
This chapter documents and analyses women's activity in and experience of formal public worship in the synagogue. The synagogue is central to the performance of male religious obligations, but much less so to the performance of women's religious duties. Many observant women rarely attend synagogue, even if their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons go every week. Women have mixed feelings about synagogue attendance. Some find it essential to their experience of the sabbath, and some are resigned to their synagogue experience. Women traditionally play no or very little role in life-cycle celebrations. At some synagogues, women's participation is actively discouraged. Women held formal titles in the synagogues of ancient Rome, but there are no further instances of this until the twentieth century. Most Orthodox women emerge from the Jewish educational systems with little competence in reading Hebrew or in studying classical texts. Women find it hard to place acquired knowledge in a wider context, and tend to describe themselves as 'not very learned', ignoring their often immense expertise in areas of domestic knowledge, such as the running of a Jewish household. Women's lack of confidence, text-based knowledge, and training has prevented them from becoming Jewish educators. This survey of women's activity and experience in the 'official' communal sphere clearly illustrates the different attitudes and strategies of the three groups identifiable in the London Jewish community: Haredi, Modern Orthodox, and traditionalist.
{"title":"The View from the Ladies’ Gallery: Women’s ‘Official’ Life in the Community","authors":"Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter documents and analyses women's activity in and experience of formal public worship in the synagogue. The synagogue is central to the performance of male religious obligations, but much less so to the performance of women's religious duties. Many observant women rarely attend synagogue, even if their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons go every week. Women have mixed feelings about synagogue attendance. Some find it essential to their experience of the sabbath, and some are resigned to their synagogue experience. Women traditionally play no or very little role in life-cycle celebrations. At some synagogues, women's participation is actively discouraged. Women held formal titles in the synagogues of ancient Rome, but there are no further instances of this until the twentieth century. Most Orthodox women emerge from the Jewish educational systems with little competence in reading Hebrew or in studying classical texts. Women find it hard to place acquired knowledge in a wider context, and tend to describe themselves as 'not very learned', ignoring their often immense expertise in areas of domestic knowledge, such as the running of a Jewish household. Women's lack of confidence, text-based knowledge, and training has prevented them from becoming Jewish educators. This survey of women's activity and experience in the 'official' communal sphere clearly illustrates the different attitudes and strategies of the three groups identifiable in the London Jewish community: Haredi, Modern Orthodox, and traditionalist.","PeriodicalId":251116,"journal":{"name":"Challenge and Conformity","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127565638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-31DOI: 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0005
Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz
This chapter deals with unofficial communal activity. A wide range of informal communal activities provides women with opportunities for religious or spiritual self-expression and for creating ritual contexts that function as substitutes for the communal rituals closed to them. It is here that they show most creativity and originality, often adapting or even inventing rituals. In Israel, the related practice of women praying in the standard synagogue service but then conducting a separate women-only Torah reading has taken root in several places. Until recently, the only regular prayer service for women in London was in Stanmore under the auspices of Stanmore and Canons Park United Synagogue. Many women feel that these services constitute the high point of their religious lives, offering an opportunity for quiet reflection and participation. This also allowed women the opportunity to learn more about the service and individual prayers, the sense of active participation. Recently, a new trend has emerged within the British Orthodox community. Small groups of highly educated professionals in their thirties and forties from the Modern Orthodox sector of the community, have begun to hold services known as partnership minyanim, in which women lead non-obligatory parts of the service, as well as reading the Torah and haftarah and being called up to recite the Torah blessings. Women also give sermons at these services, and recite Kaddish if they are mourners. Consideration of these non-official communal rituals provides further support for the threefold division of Orthodox women into haredi, Modern Orthodox, and traditionalist groups.
{"title":"Contested Prayers and Powerful Blessings: Women’s ‘Unofficial’ Life in the Community","authors":"Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter deals with unofficial communal activity. A wide range of informal communal activities provides women with opportunities for religious or spiritual self-expression and for creating ritual contexts that function as substitutes for the communal rituals closed to them. It is here that they show most creativity and originality, often adapting or even inventing rituals. In Israel, the related practice of women praying in the standard synagogue service but then conducting a separate women-only Torah reading has taken root in several places. Until recently, the only regular prayer service for women in London was in Stanmore under the auspices of Stanmore and Canons Park United Synagogue. Many women feel that these services constitute the high point of their religious lives, offering an opportunity for quiet reflection and participation. This also allowed women the opportunity to learn more about the service and individual prayers, the sense of active participation. Recently, a new trend has emerged within the British Orthodox community. Small groups of highly educated professionals in their thirties and forties from the Modern Orthodox sector of the community, have begun to hold services known as partnership minyanim, in which women lead non-obligatory parts of the service, as well as reading the Torah and haftarah and being called up to recite the Torah blessings. Women also give sermons at these services, and recite Kaddish if they are mourners. Consideration of these non-official communal rituals provides further support for the threefold division of Orthodox women into haredi, Modern Orthodox, and traditionalist groups.","PeriodicalId":251116,"journal":{"name":"Challenge and Conformity","volume":"7 16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128907548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-31DOI: 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0003
Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz
This chapter examines the historical and sociological context of Orthodox Jewish women in London, and applies concepts of community to analyse the religious geography of Orthodox Jews in Britain. The term 'community' is used by British Jews, generally in one of two distinct senses: the first, refers to all Jews who identify as Jews and participate in Jewish activities, the second, indicates a particular subgroup, the members of a particular synagogue. Most Jews who identify as belonging to the Jewish community also belong to several of these 'subcommunities,' all of which overlap with family and social circles within the Jewish and wider communities, and most of which are not mutually exclusive. Community affiliation thus exists at several levels and in several modes, with an individual's particular combination of networks and community memberships providing basic parameters of his or her individual Jewish identity. This complex, layered character of modern Jewish identity complicates the definition of the term 'Orthodox'. Current denominations include Liberal Judaism and Reform Judaism; Masorti Judaism; and Orthodox Judaism. Earlier tensions between traditional expectations for women and new ideas about their role in the wider society were reflected in developments within the British Jewish community: the foundation of Liberal Judaism. Orthodoxy has been slow to respond. The very word 'feminist' carries negative connotations in most Orthodox communities, even among women who profess strongly feminist views in economic and political matters.
{"title":"Setting the Scene: The Jewish Landscape","authors":"Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the historical and sociological context of Orthodox Jewish women in London, and applies concepts of community to analyse the religious geography of Orthodox Jews in Britain. The term 'community' is used by British Jews, generally in one of two distinct senses: the first, refers to all Jews who identify as Jews and participate in Jewish activities, the second, indicates a particular subgroup, the members of a particular synagogue. Most Jews who identify as belonging to the Jewish community also belong to several of these 'subcommunities,' all of which overlap with family and social circles within the Jewish and wider communities, and most of which are not mutually exclusive. Community affiliation thus exists at several levels and in several modes, with an individual's particular combination of networks and community memberships providing basic parameters of his or her individual Jewish identity. This complex, layered character of modern Jewish identity complicates the definition of the term 'Orthodox'. Current denominations include Liberal Judaism and Reform Judaism; Masorti Judaism; and Orthodox Judaism. Earlier tensions between traditional expectations for women and new ideas about their role in the wider society were reflected in developments within the British Jewish community: the foundation of Liberal Judaism. Orthodoxy has been slow to respond. The very word 'feminist' carries negative connotations in most Orthodox communities, even among women who profess strongly feminist views in economic and political matters.","PeriodicalId":251116,"journal":{"name":"Challenge and Conformity","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115621071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-31DOI: 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0007
Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz
This chapter explores unofficial domestic customs. The least visible aspect of Jewish women's lives is the individual customs or practices they perform in a domestic or everyday context, many learnt from female relatives, and the part these play in their religious lives. Individual practices are often so automatic that women do not reflect on them. In some cases, they receive so little attention from rabbis or in popular Jewish literature that women themselves discount or denigrate them as 'superstitions', even as they practise them. There has been a decline in older practices, which are more likely to be identified as magical or superstitious by women operating partly within a Western worldview, whereas more pietistic practices have increased in number among young women with higher levels of formal Jewish education. Other factors that facilitate and shape change in women's religious lives include developing technology in the Western world, such as the replacement of domestic manufacture by industrial production, leading to the demise of customs associated with these technologies, and the growing possibilities offered by the Internet in spreading knowledge of recently invented or expanded customs. Traditionalist women, though principally Western in their education and thinking, are still inextricably linked to their Jewish identity, which often includes customs and practices for which they might struggle to find a rationale, but which they are committed to observing. These customs provide a fertile field for women to adapt and reinterpret existing practices, and to invent new ones that express their most urgent concerns and aims.
{"title":"Red Threads and Amulets: Women’s ‘Unofficial’ Life in the Family","authors":"Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores unofficial domestic customs. The least visible aspect of Jewish women's lives is the individual customs or practices they perform in a domestic or everyday context, many learnt from female relatives, and the part these play in their religious lives. Individual practices are often so automatic that women do not reflect on them. In some cases, they receive so little attention from rabbis or in popular Jewish literature that women themselves discount or denigrate them as 'superstitions', even as they practise them. There has been a decline in older practices, which are more likely to be identified as magical or superstitious by women operating partly within a Western worldview, whereas more pietistic practices have increased in number among young women with higher levels of formal Jewish education. Other factors that facilitate and shape change in women's religious lives include developing technology in the Western world, such as the replacement of domestic manufacture by industrial production, leading to the demise of customs associated with these technologies, and the growing possibilities offered by the Internet in spreading knowledge of recently invented or expanded customs. Traditionalist women, though principally Western in their education and thinking, are still inextricably linked to their Jewish identity, which often includes customs and practices for which they might struggle to find a rationale, but which they are committed to observing. These customs provide a fertile field for women to adapt and reinterpret existing practices, and to invent new ones that express their most urgent concerns and aims.","PeriodicalId":251116,"journal":{"name":"Challenge and Conformity","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133546526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-31DOI: 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0006
Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz
This chapter covers official domestic practices. Orthodox Judaism is firmly rooted in the world of everyday action: several central commandments and their halakhic elaboration include activities such as the preparation and consumption of food, the observance of the weekly sabbath and numerous festivals, dress, education, and the recital of blessings before and after eating and in other daily contexts. The home is explicitly designated as a sacred sphere, to a greater extent than in Christian and general British culture. The conception, nurturing, and education of children are often seen as central to the Jewish woman's role, even though no formal commandments are entailed. Most Orthodox women see their domestic role in very different, more nuanced, and complex terms, viewing it as central to their identity and to Jewish continuity, but not as the only sphere in which they should be active religiously. Many of them, particularly the Modern Orthodox, have indeed internalized feminist arguments and seek to extend their religious lives outside the boundaries of the home, and to take a more active religious role within it, but they all share the conviction that the creation of a Jewish home and the raising of children to be good human beings and faithful Jews is a task of vital importance.
{"title":"The View from the Kitchen: Women’s ‘Official’ Life in the Family","authors":"Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz","doi":"10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781786941718.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter covers official domestic practices. Orthodox Judaism is firmly rooted in the world of everyday action: several central commandments and their halakhic elaboration include activities such as the preparation and consumption of food, the observance of the weekly sabbath and numerous festivals, dress, education, and the recital of blessings before and after eating and in other daily contexts. The home is explicitly designated as a sacred sphere, to a greater extent than in Christian and general British culture. The conception, nurturing, and education of children are often seen as central to the Jewish woman's role, even though no formal commandments are entailed. Most Orthodox women see their domestic role in very different, more nuanced, and complex terms, viewing it as central to their identity and to Jewish continuity, but not as the only sphere in which they should be active religiously. Many of them, particularly the Modern Orthodox, have indeed internalized feminist arguments and seek to extend their religious lives outside the boundaries of the home, and to take a more active religious role within it, but they all share the conviction that the creation of a Jewish home and the raising of children to be good human beings and faithful Jews is a task of vital importance.","PeriodicalId":251116,"journal":{"name":"Challenge and Conformity","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124009514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"INDEX","authors":"","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjpd.19","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjpd.19","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":251116,"journal":{"name":"Challenge and Conformity","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126537423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"RED THREADS AND AMULETS:","authors":"","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjpd.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjpd.11","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":251116,"journal":{"name":"Challenge and Conformity","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130937225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"CONTESTED PRAYERS AND POWERFUL BLESSINGS:","authors":"","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjpd.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjpd.9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":251116,"journal":{"name":"Challenge and Conformity","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124913195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"THE VIEW FROM THE LADIES’ GALLERY:","authors":"","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjpd.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hqdjpd.8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":251116,"journal":{"name":"Challenge and Conformity","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114808733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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