Abstract:Over the last decade, ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) society in Israel has begun to counter sexual violence in ways and on a scale previously unimagined. The shift has been spearheaded by a heterogeneous network of haredi activists, professionals, community leaders and survivors, who are laboring to flag the issue on the community agenda as a high-priority social ill and to assist individuals and families in need. Pushing back against prevailing cultures of denial and silence, this groundbreaking movement works toward new possible scripts for communal accountability. Based on anthropological fieldwork underwritten by feminist sensibilities, I demonstrate that these anti-sexual violence initiatives are creating a venue for public criticism of rabbinic complicity and for the envisioning and enactment of new formations of rabbinic leadership. While this venue is not necessarily subversive in essence, the climate it helps foster is potentially critical, as these discussions expose and unpack taken-for-granted, unchallenged or opaque structures of rabbinic power and authority.
{"title":"\"They Must Join Us, There is No Other Way\": Haredi Activism, The Battle Against Sexual Violence, And The Reworking Of Rabbinic Accountability","authors":"Michal Kravel-Tovi","doi":"10.2979/nashim.37.1.06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/nashim.37.1.06","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Over the last decade, ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) society in Israel has begun to counter sexual violence in ways and on a scale previously unimagined. The shift has been spearheaded by a heterogeneous network of haredi activists, professionals, community leaders and survivors, who are laboring to flag the issue on the community agenda as a high-priority social ill and to assist individuals and families in need. Pushing back against prevailing cultures of denial and silence, this groundbreaking movement works toward new possible scripts for communal accountability. Based on anthropological fieldwork underwritten by feminist sensibilities, I demonstrate that these anti-sexual violence initiatives are creating a venue for public criticism of rabbinic complicity and for the envisioning and enactment of new formations of rabbinic leadership. While this venue is not necessarily subversive in essence, the climate it helps foster is potentially critical, as these discussions expose and unpack taken-for-granted, unchallenged or opaque structures of rabbinic power and authority.","PeriodicalId":42498,"journal":{"name":"Nashim-A Journal of Jewish Womens Studies & Gender Issues","volume":"18 1","pages":"66 - 86"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87105665","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}
Nashim Art Editor Judith Margolis writes: A survey of feminist activity in America for the last five decades will reveal that, while history was being made on our behalf, Joan Roth was often there with her camera, taking iconic photographs of women celebrating victories and mourning losses. At National Women’s Conferences, reproductive rights rallies, women’s marches, vigils and demonstrations, Roth framed for posterity the likes of Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisolm, Alice Shalvi and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Meanwhile, another body of work was also coming into being. Fueled by a fierce desire to search out and learn about the lives of Jewish women living far from the familiar centers of North American modern life, Roth, armed only with her camera and her curiosity, traveled to Ethiopia, Yemen, Morocco, the former Soviet Union, eastern Europe, South America, Bukhara and India. With determination and grit, Roth found ways to go to places she had never been and to find and communicate with women with whom she often did not share a language. Sometimes travel arrangements were organized by Jewish communal organizations and institutions in the U.S. or the destination country. But mostly Roth arranged and paid for her trips on her own. With disarming modesty, she related to me, while we were preparing this article:
{"title":"In Search of Jewish Women: My Travels into Light","authors":"J. Roth, Jesse Margolis","doi":"10.2979/nashim.37.1.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/nashim.37.1.10","url":null,"abstract":"Nashim Art Editor Judith Margolis writes: A survey of feminist activity in America for the last five decades will reveal that, while history was being made on our behalf, Joan Roth was often there with her camera, taking iconic photographs of women celebrating victories and mourning losses. At National Women’s Conferences, reproductive rights rallies, women’s marches, vigils and demonstrations, Roth framed for posterity the likes of Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisolm, Alice Shalvi and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Meanwhile, another body of work was also coming into being. Fueled by a fierce desire to search out and learn about the lives of Jewish women living far from the familiar centers of North American modern life, Roth, armed only with her camera and her curiosity, traveled to Ethiopia, Yemen, Morocco, the former Soviet Union, eastern Europe, South America, Bukhara and India. With determination and grit, Roth found ways to go to places she had never been and to find and communicate with women with whom she often did not share a language. Sometimes travel arrangements were organized by Jewish communal organizations and institutions in the U.S. or the destination country. But mostly Roth arranged and paid for her trips on her own. With disarming modesty, she related to me, while we were preparing this article:","PeriodicalId":42498,"journal":{"name":"Nashim-A Journal of Jewish Womens Studies & Gender Issues","volume":"86 1","pages":"132 - 162"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73394258","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}
Abstract:In this autoethnographic essay, I explore the confluence of my experience with early infertility and my scholarly work in both Jewish studies and feminist thought. I argue that, while feminist theorists' efforts to emphasize the political importance of "care work" and particular caregiving relationships contribute significantly to the field, they also risk ignoring some of the disorderly, unpredictable and painful ways that this "situatedness" can arise. In the context of rabbinic texts that make having children a prerequisite for holding positions of leadership within rabbinic society, and particularly those that describe "the pain of raising children" as the reason for this requirement, I consider how my own experience both matches up with and diverges from these descriptions, and from the experiences of caregiving described by feminist philosophers.
{"title":"Water Wears Away Stone: Caring for Those We Can Only Imagine","authors":"Sarah Zager","doi":"10.2979/nashim.37.1.09","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/nashim.37.1.09","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In this autoethnographic essay, I explore the confluence of my experience with early infertility and my scholarly work in both Jewish studies and feminist thought. I argue that, while feminist theorists' efforts to emphasize the political importance of \"care work\" and particular caregiving relationships contribute significantly to the field, they also risk ignoring some of the disorderly, unpredictable and painful ways that this \"situatedness\" can arise. In the context of rabbinic texts that make having children a prerequisite for holding positions of leadership within rabbinic society, and particularly those that describe \"the pain of raising children\" as the reason for this requirement, I consider how my own experience both matches up with and diverges from these descriptions, and from the experiences of caregiving described by feminist philosophers.","PeriodicalId":42498,"journal":{"name":"Nashim-A Journal of Jewish Womens Studies & Gender Issues","volume":"5 1","pages":"116 - 131"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85332323","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}
Abstract:This essay examines the problematic intersections of gender, language and territory—in short, the negotiation of belonging—articulated in the pages of the Tsushtayer literary journal (1929–1931) by Yiddish women writers who contributed to the publication. As a noun, tsushtayer means "contribution," but the verb tsushtayern may be used in the sense of "reaching the shore," an intentional polysemy that leads directly to the mission of this journal, published in interwar Poland. Tsushtayer strove to reach beyond reductive discourses of territorialism and nationalism and discuss ways of linguistic non-territorial belonging, representing a literary quasi-territory and also offering a platform for the contributions of women writers. In their essays, reviews and poetic works, Rokhl Oyerbakh, Dvoyre Fogel, Kadya Molodowsky and others pondered issues of gender, especially the challenges faced by Jewish women intellectuals and writers creating space for themselves in Yiddish literature, Jewish culture and broader societal formations.
{"title":"Gender, Language and Territory: The Tsushtayer Literary Journal in Galicia and the Contributions of Yiddish Women Writers","authors":"Anastasiya Lyubas","doi":"10.2979/nashim.37.1.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/nashim.37.1.11","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay examines the problematic intersections of gender, language and territory—in short, the negotiation of belonging—articulated in the pages of the Tsushtayer literary journal (1929–1931) by Yiddish women writers who contributed to the publication. As a noun, tsushtayer means \"contribution,\" but the verb tsushtayern may be used in the sense of \"reaching the shore,\" an intentional polysemy that leads directly to the mission of this journal, published in interwar Poland. Tsushtayer strove to reach beyond reductive discourses of territorialism and nationalism and discuss ways of linguistic non-territorial belonging, representing a literary quasi-territory and also offering a platform for the contributions of women writers. In their essays, reviews and poetic works, Rokhl Oyerbakh, Dvoyre Fogel, Kadya Molodowsky and others pondered issues of gender, especially the challenges faced by Jewish women intellectuals and writers creating space for themselves in Yiddish literature, Jewish culture and broader societal formations.","PeriodicalId":42498,"journal":{"name":"Nashim-A Journal of Jewish Womens Studies & Gender Issues","volume":"17 1","pages":"163 - 184"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75019066","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}
Abstract:This feminist ethnographic investigation of the Mothers Circle of Coastal Virginia and the Interfaith Parents Circle utilizes the lens of feminist folkloristics to analyze the role that women have had in the foundation and evolution of the groups. Ultimately, this essay argues that the Mothers Circle of Coastal Virginia / Interfaith Parents Circle create a space for women to navigate the tensions faced by southern Jews; that they center Jews-by-choice and non-Jewish mothers parenting Jewish children by creating safe spaces for caregivers; and that, through a horizontal peer education model, these groups offer a sustainable and transferable model of programing for other Jewish groups that wish to lift the voices of Jews who often exist on the margins of their communities.
{"title":"Creating Jewish Mothers: A Feminist Ethnographic Investigation of The Mothers Circle of Coastal Virginia and the Interfaith Parents Circle","authors":"Amy K. Milligan","doi":"10.2979/nashim.37.1.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/nashim.37.1.04","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This feminist ethnographic investigation of the Mothers Circle of Coastal Virginia and the Interfaith Parents Circle utilizes the lens of feminist folkloristics to analyze the role that women have had in the foundation and evolution of the groups. Ultimately, this essay argues that the Mothers Circle of Coastal Virginia / Interfaith Parents Circle create a space for women to navigate the tensions faced by southern Jews; that they center Jews-by-choice and non-Jewish mothers parenting Jewish children by creating safe spaces for caregivers; and that, through a horizontal peer education model, these groups offer a sustainable and transferable model of programing for other Jewish groups that wish to lift the voices of Jews who often exist on the margins of their communities.","PeriodicalId":42498,"journal":{"name":"Nashim-A Journal of Jewish Womens Studies & Gender Issues","volume":"28 1","pages":"37 - 61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84473525","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 : 2021-01-12DOI: 10.1353/ajs.2021.a845292
Dana Herman
{"title":"From Left to Right: Lucy S. Dawidowicz, the New York Intellectuals, and the Politics of Jewish History by Nancy Sinkoff (review)","authors":"Dana Herman","doi":"10.1353/ajs.2021.a845292","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/ajs.2021.a845292","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42498,"journal":{"name":"Nashim-A Journal of Jewish Womens Studies & Gender Issues","volume":"92 1","pages":"185 - 187"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85680623","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}
Abstract:Since 2006, the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute has trained women as Jewish spiritual leaders outside the rabbinic paradigm. The group understands itself not only as a clergy-training program but also as a sisterhood. Taking the self-description seriously, this essay traces how the ethnographer's embodied presence as a lactating woman helped forge kinship ties at the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute. In particular, it considers the social effects of the breast pump's rhythmic pulsing, the symbolism attached to milk as a sacred substance, and the ritual power of breast milk for creating familial bonds. In doing so, it challenges the Western anthropological imagination of kinship, which remains dominated by "blood-based" descent, predicated on biological parentage and heterosexual marriage. While anthropological studies have examined how queer families and assisted reproductive technologies are complicating Euro-American notions of kinship, consideration of the consubstantial effects (a patently Christological language) of food and milk-sharing have largely been limited to non-Western and pre-modern cultures. In this article, I show how "milk kinship" opened up new horizons of relationality in the ethnography of contemporary Jewish life. This study deploys and creates intimacy in place of ethnographic distance, not only to shed light on the social construction of Jewish community, but also to perform a feminist ethnographic methodology rooted in care.
{"title":"Milk Sisters: Forging Sisterhood At Kohenet's Hebrew Priestess Institute","authors":"Cara Rock-Singer","doi":"10.2979/nashim.37.1.07","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/nashim.37.1.07","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Since 2006, the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute has trained women as Jewish spiritual leaders outside the rabbinic paradigm. The group understands itself not only as a clergy-training program but also as a sisterhood. Taking the self-description seriously, this essay traces how the ethnographer's embodied presence as a lactating woman helped forge kinship ties at the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute. In particular, it considers the social effects of the breast pump's rhythmic pulsing, the symbolism attached to milk as a sacred substance, and the ritual power of breast milk for creating familial bonds. In doing so, it challenges the Western anthropological imagination of kinship, which remains dominated by \"blood-based\" descent, predicated on biological parentage and heterosexual marriage. While anthropological studies have examined how queer families and assisted reproductive technologies are complicating Euro-American notions of kinship, consideration of the consubstantial effects (a patently Christological language) of food and milk-sharing have largely been limited to non-Western and pre-modern cultures. In this article, I show how \"milk kinship\" opened up new horizons of relationality in the ethnography of contemporary Jewish life. This study deploys and creates intimacy in place of ethnographic distance, not only to shed light on the social construction of Jewish community, but also to perform a feminist ethnographic methodology rooted in care.","PeriodicalId":42498,"journal":{"name":"Nashim-A Journal of Jewish Womens Studies & Gender Issues","volume":"188 1","pages":"114 - 87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86183872","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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