Jewish feminism
Encyclopedia
Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to improve the religious, legal, and social status
of women within Judaism and to open up new opportunities for religious experience and leadership for Jewish women. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of Judaism.
, who has focused on feminism in Reform Judaism
, the main issues for early Jewish feminists in these movements were the exclusion from the all-male prayer group or minyan
, the exemption from positive time-bound
mitzvot
, and women's inability to function as witnesses and to initiate divorce.
According to historian Paula Hyman
, two articles published in 1970 on the role of women in Judaism were particularly influential. "The Unfreedom of Jewish Women," published in the Jewish Spectator by its editor, Trude Weiss-Rosmarin
, criticized the treatment of women in Jewish law
, followed in 1972 by an article by Rachel Adler
, then an Orthodox Jew
and currently a professor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, called "The Jew Who Wasn't There: Halakhah and the Jewish Woman," published in Davka, a countercultural magazine.
In 1972, a group of ten New York feminists calling themselves Ezrat Nashim (the women's section in a synagogue
, but also "women's help"), took the issue of equality for women to the 1972 convention of the Conservative
movement's Rabbinical Assembly
, presenting a document on 14 March that they named the "Call for Change." The rabbis received the document in their convention packets, but Ezrat Nashim presented it during a meeting with the rabbis' wives.
The "Call for Change" demanded that women be accepted as witnesses before Jewish law, be considered as bound to perform all mitzvot
, be allowed full participation in religious observances, have equal rights in marriage and be allowed to initiate divorce, be counted in the minyan
, and be permitted to assume positions of leadership in the synagogue and within the general Jewish community. Paula Hyman, who was a member of Ezrat Nashim, wrote that: "We recognized that the subordinate status of women was linked to their exemption from positive time-bound mitzvot (commandments), and we therefore accepted increased obligation as the corollary of equality." Eleven years later, in October 1983, the Jewish Theological Seminary
(JTS), the main educational institution of the Conservative Movement, announced its decision to accept women into the Rabbinical School. Hyman took part in the vote as a member of the JTS faculty.
Today, women are ordained as rabbis and cantors, and can read from the Torah in front of the congregation and be counted in the minyan, have full participation in religious observances, and be accepted as witnesses before Jewish law, in all types of Judaism except Orthodox Judaism. Women are still not allowed to initiate divorce in Conservative as well as Orthodox Judaism, and are not considered as bound to perform all mitzvot by the Orthodox. However, women have assumed positions of leadership in the synagogue and within the general Jewish community within all types of Judaism. The first female president of a major Orthodox Jewish synagogue was Gail Billig in 1997, at Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood, N.J.
In 1976, the first women-only Passover seder was held in Esther M. Broner's
New York City apartment and led by her, with 13 women attending, including Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Phyllis Chesler. Esther Broner and Naomi Nimrod created a women's haggadah for use at this seder. In the spring of 1976 Esther Broner published this “Women’s Haggadah” in Ms. magazine, later publishing it as a book in 1994; this haggadah is meant to include women where only men had been mentioned in traditional haggadahs, and it features the Wise Women, the Four Daughters, the Women’s Questions, the Women’s Plagues, and a women-centric “Dayenu
”. The original Women's Seder has been held with the Women's Haggadah every year since 1976, and women-only seders are now held by some congregations as well. Some seders (including the original Women's Seder, but not limited to women-only seders) now set out a cup for the prophet Miriam as well as the traditional cup for the prophet Elijah, sometimes accompanied by a ritual to honor Miriam. According to Jewish feminist writer Tamara Cohen, the practice of filling a cup with water to symbolize Miriam’s inclusion in the seder originated at a Rosh Chodesh
group in Boston in 1989. Miriam is associated with water because rabbis attribute to Miriam the well that traveled with the Israelites throughout their wandering in the desert.
In the Book of Numbers
, the well dries up immediately following Miriam’s death. Furthermore, some Jews include an orange on the seder plate. The orange represents the fruitfulness for all Jews when all marginalized peoples are included, particularly women and gay people. An incorrect but common rumor says that this tradition began when a man told Susannah Heschel
that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the seder plate; however, it actually began when in the early 1980s, while when speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel was introduced to an early feminist Haggadah that suggested adding a crust of bread on the seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians (as some would say there's as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate). Heschel felt that to put bread on the seder plate would be to accept that Jewish lesbians and gay men violate Judaism like chametz
violates Passover. So, at her next seder, she chose an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out – a gesture of spitting out and repudiating the homophobia of traditional Judaism.
exist within the Jewish community.
Some of these theologies promote the idea that it is important to have a feminine characterisation of God within the siddur
(Jewish prayerbook).
Reconstructionist
Rabbi
Rebecca Alpert
(Reform Judaism, Winter 1991) comments:
Rabbi Paula Reimers ("Feminism, Judaism, and God the Mother", Conservative Judaism 46 (1993)) comments:
Ahuva Zache affirms that using both masculine and feminine language for God can be a positive thing, but reminds her Reform Jewish readership that God is beyond gender (Is God male, female, both or neither? How should we phrase our prayers in response to God’s gender?, in the Union for Reform Judaism
's iTorah, http://urj.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=11422):
These views are highly controversial even within liberal Jewish movements. Orthodox Jews
and many Conservative Jews
hold that it is wrong to use English female pronouns for God, viewing such usage as an intrusion of modern feminist ideology into Jewish tradition. Liberal prayerbooks tend increasingly to also avoid male-specific words and pronouns, seeking that all references to God in translations be made in gender-neutral language.
In 2003 "The Female Face of God in Auschwitz", the first full-length feminist theology of the Holocaust, written by Melissa Raphael, was published http://www.amazon.com/dp/0415236657. Judith Plaskow’s "Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (1991)", and Rachel Adler’s "Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics (1999)" are the only two full-length Jewish feminist works to focus entirely on theology in general (rather than specific aspects such as Holocaust theology) http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/feminist-theology.
views all forms of feminism, whether in "Jewish" or non-Jewish forms as unnecessary, on the grounds that Torah Judaism believes in wholeness, in the valid claims of contrasting aspects: in being part of a society while remaining a unique people; in being part of a community while maintaining one's individuality; in being a full-fledged part of the world while also being a woman. The Hareidi vision of womanhood can be summed up in King Solomon's poem "A Woman of Valor," which praises a woman for qualities such as wisdom, courage, creativity, business acumen, and the profound insight to recognize how to relate to individuals according to their specific needs.
Therefore there is no movement within Haredi Judaism to train women as rabbi
s. While most Haredi women receive schooling in Beis Yaakov schools designed for them exclusively, the curriculum of these schools does not teach Talmud
and neither encourages nor teaches its female students to study the same subjects as young Haredi men in the Haredi yeshiva
s.
The most important thrust of Haredi education for girls and young women is to educate, train and encourage them to fulfill their potential which includes becoming wives and successful mothers within large families devoted to the Torah Judaism
way of life. In some Haredi communities, the education of girls in secular subjects (such as mathematics) is superior to that of boys. This is partly because of the greater time devoted to sacred subjects in the case of boys, and partly because many Haredi women work in paid jobs to enable their husbands to engage in full-time Torah study or to bring in a second income.
(halakha), life, and leadership. However, it differs in several key respects. Firstly, its stated approach accepts the Orthodox belief that Jewish law is divine in origin, and as such, Orthodox Jewish feminists say they seek change only in a manner that can be defended in terms of Jewish law, and try to work with, rather than against, the rabbinate.
Therefore, in conflicts between halakha and arguments from egalitarianism, Orthodox feminists say they have remained loyal to halakha, though this is disputed by other feminists and anti-feminist Orthodox Jews. Secondly, Orthodox feminism neither requires precisely equal roles between men and women, as has been the tendency in Conservative Judaism, nor does it seek to overthrow the religious tradition and substitute new sources and traditions, as has been suggested by Reform feminists such as Rachel Adler and Judith Plaskow. Rather, accepting the possibility that somewhat different approaches may be appropriate for men and women, Orthodox feminism generally seeks support for acceptable means to change women's halakhic status, a significant presence and role within the public communal service, and new, supplemental traditions, or the reinstitution of old traditions, of importance to women's lives and worship. Orthodox feminism tends to focus on specific, practical issues, such as the problems of agunah
, fostering women's education, leadership, and participation, and arguments for involvement in specific rituals.
One reason for a different agenda for Modern Orthodox feminism is its need to focus on issues which became largely non-existent in liberal branches of Judaism prior to the appearance of Jewish feminism in the 1970s. These issues include the agunah
problem arising from Jewish women's lack of power to initiate a religious divorce, problems of access to advanced religious education, and matters of physical access and personal comfort in matters of tzniut
(modesty), such as, for example, the construction of mechitzot
which permit women to see and hear services. (See Mechitza#Proper height of synagogue mechitza)
In 1997, Blu Greenberg
founded the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
(JOFA) to advocate for women's increased participation in Modern Orthodox Jewish life and to create a community for women and men dedicated to such change.
Critics of Orthodox feminism from within Orthodox Judaism have disputed its claims to Orthodox legitimacy, including its claims to accept the divinity of Jewish law and to work within legitimate halakhic processes.
Social status
In sociology or anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society . It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group, for example son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc....
of women within Judaism and to open up new opportunities for religious experience and leadership for Jewish women. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of Judaism.
Participation in observances
In its modern form, the movement can be traced to the early 1970s in the United States. According to Judith PlaskowJudith Plaskow
Dr. Judith Plaskow is Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College. Her scholarly interests focus on contemporary religious thought with a specialization in feminist theology. Dr. Plaskow has lectured widely on feminist theology in the United States and Europe. She co-founded The Journal...
, who has focused on feminism in Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
, the main issues for early Jewish feminists in these movements were the exclusion from the all-male prayer group or minyan
Minyan
A minyan in Judaism refers to the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations. According to many non-Orthodox streams of Judaism adult females count in the minyan....
, the exemption from positive time-bound
Positive time-bound mitzvot
The idea of time-bound positive commandments are those positive commandments that may be fulfilled only within certain periods of time...
mitzvot
Mitzvah
The primary meaning of the Hebrew word refers to precepts and commandments as commanded by God...
, and women's inability to function as witnesses and to initiate divorce.
According to historian Paula Hyman
Paula Hyman
Paula Hyman is the Lucy Moses Professor of Modern Jewish History at Yale University and president of the American Academy of Jewish Research...
, two articles published in 1970 on the role of women in Judaism were particularly influential. "The Unfreedom of Jewish Women," published in the Jewish Spectator by its editor, Trude Weiss-Rosmarin
Trude Weiss-Rosmarin
Trude Weiss-Rosmarin was a Jewish-German-American writer, editor, scholar, and feminist activist. With her husband, she co-founded the School of the Jewish Woman in New York in 1933, and in 1939 founded the Jewish Spectator, a quarterly magazine, which she edited for 50 years.She was the author of...
, criticized the treatment of women in Jewish law
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
, followed in 1972 by an article by Rachel Adler
Rachel Adler
Rachel Adler is associate professor of Modern Jewish Thought and Judaism and Gender at the School of Religion, University of Southern California and the Hebrew Union College Rabbinical School at the Los Angeles campus...
, then an Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
and currently a professor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, called "The Jew Who Wasn't There: Halakhah and the Jewish Woman," published in Davka, a countercultural magazine.
In 1972, a group of ten New York feminists calling themselves Ezrat Nashim (the women's section in a synagogue
Mechitza
A mechitza in Jewish Halakha is a partition, particularly one that is used to separate men and women....
, but also "women's help"), took the issue of equality for women to the 1972 convention of the Conservative
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
movement's Rabbinical Assembly
Rabbinical Assembly
The Rabbinical Assembly is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and...
, presenting a document on 14 March that they named the "Call for Change." The rabbis received the document in their convention packets, but Ezrat Nashim presented it during a meeting with the rabbis' wives.
The "Call for Change" demanded that women be accepted as witnesses before Jewish law, be considered as bound to perform all mitzvot
Mitzvah
The primary meaning of the Hebrew word refers to precepts and commandments as commanded by God...
, be allowed full participation in religious observances, have equal rights in marriage and be allowed to initiate divorce, be counted in the minyan
Minyan
A minyan in Judaism refers to the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations. According to many non-Orthodox streams of Judaism adult females count in the minyan....
, and be permitted to assume positions of leadership in the synagogue and within the general Jewish community. Paula Hyman, who was a member of Ezrat Nashim, wrote that: "We recognized that the subordinate status of women was linked to their exemption from positive time-bound mitzvot (commandments), and we therefore accepted increased obligation as the corollary of equality." Eleven years later, in October 1983, the Jewish Theological Seminary
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies.JTS operates five schools: Albert A...
(JTS), the main educational institution of the Conservative Movement, announced its decision to accept women into the Rabbinical School. Hyman took part in the vote as a member of the JTS faculty.
Today, women are ordained as rabbis and cantors, and can read from the Torah in front of the congregation and be counted in the minyan, have full participation in religious observances, and be accepted as witnesses before Jewish law, in all types of Judaism except Orthodox Judaism. Women are still not allowed to initiate divorce in Conservative as well as Orthodox Judaism, and are not considered as bound to perform all mitzvot by the Orthodox. However, women have assumed positions of leadership in the synagogue and within the general Jewish community within all types of Judaism. The first female president of a major Orthodox Jewish synagogue was Gail Billig in 1997, at Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood, N.J.
In 1976, the first women-only Passover seder was held in Esther M. Broner's
E. M. Broner
Esther M. Broner, best known as E.M. Broner, Ph.D., Professor Emerita was a Jewish American feminist author....
New York City apartment and led by her, with 13 women attending, including Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Phyllis Chesler. Esther Broner and Naomi Nimrod created a women's haggadah for use at this seder. In the spring of 1976 Esther Broner published this “Women’s Haggadah” in Ms. magazine, later publishing it as a book in 1994; this haggadah is meant to include women where only men had been mentioned in traditional haggadahs, and it features the Wise Women, the Four Daughters, the Women’s Questions, the Women’s Plagues, and a women-centric “Dayenu
Dayenu
Dayenu is a song that is part of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The word "Dayenu" means approximately, "it would have been enough for us", "it would have been sufficient", or "it would have sufficed" . This traditional up-beat Passover song is over one thousand years old...
”. The original Women's Seder has been held with the Women's Haggadah every year since 1976, and women-only seders are now held by some congregations as well. Some seders (including the original Women's Seder, but not limited to women-only seders) now set out a cup for the prophet Miriam as well as the traditional cup for the prophet Elijah, sometimes accompanied by a ritual to honor Miriam. According to Jewish feminist writer Tamara Cohen, the practice of filling a cup with water to symbolize Miriam’s inclusion in the seder originated at a Rosh Chodesh
Rosh Chodesh
Rosh Chodesh or Rosh ḥodesh is the name for the first day of every month in the Hebrew calendar, marked by the appearance of the new moon. The new moon is marked by the day and hour that the new crescent is observed...
group in Boston in 1989. Miriam is associated with water because rabbis attribute to Miriam the well that traveled with the Israelites throughout their wandering in the desert.
In the Book of Numbers
Book of Numbers
The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....
, the well dries up immediately following Miriam’s death. Furthermore, some Jews include an orange on the seder plate. The orange represents the fruitfulness for all Jews when all marginalized peoples are included, particularly women and gay people. An incorrect but common rumor says that this tradition began when a man told Susannah Heschel
Susannah Heschel
Susannah Heschel is Dartmouth College's Eli Black associate professor of Jewish Studies, an award-winning author, and the daughter of Abraham Joshua Heschel....
that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the seder plate; however, it actually began when in the early 1980s, while when speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel was introduced to an early feminist Haggadah that suggested adding a crust of bread on the seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians (as some would say there's as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate). Heschel felt that to put bread on the seder plate would be to accept that Jewish lesbians and gay men violate Judaism like chametz
Chametz
Chametz, also Chometz, and other spellings transliterated from , are leavened foods that are forbidden on the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to Jewish law, Jews may not own, eat or benefit from chametz during Passover...
violates Passover. So, at her next seder, she chose an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out – a gesture of spitting out and repudiating the homophobia of traditional Judaism.
Jewish feminist theology
Various versions of feminist theologyFeminist theology
Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scriptures, and theologies of those religions from a feminist perspective...
exist within the Jewish community.
Some of these theologies promote the idea that it is important to have a feminine characterisation of God within the siddur
Siddur
A siddur is a Jewish prayer book, containing a set order of daily prayers. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as it is known today has developed...
(Jewish prayerbook).
Reconstructionist
Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan . The movement views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. It originated as a branch of Conservative Judaism, before it splintered...
Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Rebecca Alpert
Rebecca Alpert
Rabbi Rebecca Trachtenberg Alpert is associate professor in the Departments of Religion and Women's Studies and the chair of the Department of Religion at Temple University.-Early life and education:...
(Reform Judaism, Winter 1991) comments:
Rabbi Paula Reimers ("Feminism, Judaism, and God the Mother", Conservative Judaism 46 (1993)) comments:
Ahuva Zache affirms that using both masculine and feminine language for God can be a positive thing, but reminds her Reform Jewish readership that God is beyond gender (Is God male, female, both or neither? How should we phrase our prayers in response to God’s gender?, in the Union for Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
's iTorah, http://urj.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=11422):
These views are highly controversial even within liberal Jewish movements. Orthodox Jews
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
and many Conservative Jews
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
hold that it is wrong to use English female pronouns for God, viewing such usage as an intrusion of modern feminist ideology into Jewish tradition. Liberal prayerbooks tend increasingly to also avoid male-specific words and pronouns, seeking that all references to God in translations be made in gender-neutral language.
In 2003 "The Female Face of God in Auschwitz", the first full-length feminist theology of the Holocaust, written by Melissa Raphael, was published http://www.amazon.com/dp/0415236657. Judith Plaskow’s "Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (1991)", and Rachel Adler’s "Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics (1999)" are the only two full-length Jewish feminist works to focus entirely on theology in general (rather than specific aspects such as Holocaust theology) http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/feminist-theology.
Haredi Judaism and its opposition to feminism
Haredi JudaismHaredi Judaism
Haredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism is the most conservative form of Orthodox Judaism, often referred to as ultra-Orthodox. A follower of Haredi Judaism is called a Haredi ....
views all forms of feminism, whether in "Jewish" or non-Jewish forms as unnecessary, on the grounds that Torah Judaism believes in wholeness, in the valid claims of contrasting aspects: in being part of a society while remaining a unique people; in being part of a community while maintaining one's individuality; in being a full-fledged part of the world while also being a woman. The Hareidi vision of womanhood can be summed up in King Solomon's poem "A Woman of Valor," which praises a woman for qualities such as wisdom, courage, creativity, business acumen, and the profound insight to recognize how to relate to individuals according to their specific needs.
Therefore there is no movement within Haredi Judaism to train women as rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
s. While most Haredi women receive schooling in Beis Yaakov schools designed for them exclusively, the curriculum of these schools does not teach Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
and neither encourages nor teaches its female students to study the same subjects as young Haredi men in the Haredi yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
s.
The most important thrust of Haredi education for girls and young women is to educate, train and encourage them to fulfill their potential which includes becoming wives and successful mothers within large families devoted to the Torah Judaism
Torah Judaism
Torah Judaism is an English term applied to a number of Orthodox Jewish groups to describe their Judaism as being based on an adherence to the laws of the Torah's mitzvot as expounded in Orthodox Halakha...
way of life. In some Haredi communities, the education of girls in secular subjects (such as mathematics) is superior to that of boys. This is partly because of the greater time devoted to sacred subjects in the case of boys, and partly because many Haredi women work in paid jobs to enable their husbands to engage in full-time Torah study or to bring in a second income.
Modern Orthodox Judaism and feminism
Modern Orthodox feminism, like its Conservative and Reform/Reconstructionist counterparts, seeks to change the position of women in Jewish lawHalakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
(halakha), life, and leadership. However, it differs in several key respects. Firstly, its stated approach accepts the Orthodox belief that Jewish law is divine in origin, and as such, Orthodox Jewish feminists say they seek change only in a manner that can be defended in terms of Jewish law, and try to work with, rather than against, the rabbinate.
Therefore, in conflicts between halakha and arguments from egalitarianism, Orthodox feminists say they have remained loyal to halakha, though this is disputed by other feminists and anti-feminist Orthodox Jews. Secondly, Orthodox feminism neither requires precisely equal roles between men and women, as has been the tendency in Conservative Judaism, nor does it seek to overthrow the religious tradition and substitute new sources and traditions, as has been suggested by Reform feminists such as Rachel Adler and Judith Plaskow. Rather, accepting the possibility that somewhat different approaches may be appropriate for men and women, Orthodox feminism generally seeks support for acceptable means to change women's halakhic status, a significant presence and role within the public communal service, and new, supplemental traditions, or the reinstitution of old traditions, of importance to women's lives and worship. Orthodox feminism tends to focus on specific, practical issues, such as the problems of agunah
Agunah
Agunah ; literally 'anchored or chained') is a halachic term for a Jewish woman who is "chained" to her marriage. The classic case of this, is a man who has left on a journey, and has not returned, or has gone into battle and is MIA...
, fostering women's education, leadership, and participation, and arguments for involvement in specific rituals.
One reason for a different agenda for Modern Orthodox feminism is its need to focus on issues which became largely non-existent in liberal branches of Judaism prior to the appearance of Jewish feminism in the 1970s. These issues include the agunah
Agunah
Agunah ; literally 'anchored or chained') is a halachic term for a Jewish woman who is "chained" to her marriage. The classic case of this, is a man who has left on a journey, and has not returned, or has gone into battle and is MIA...
problem arising from Jewish women's lack of power to initiate a religious divorce, problems of access to advanced religious education, and matters of physical access and personal comfort in matters of tzniut
Tzniut
Tzniut is a term used within Judaism and has its greatest influence as a concept within Orthodox Judaism...
(modesty), such as, for example, the construction of mechitzot
Mechitza
A mechitza in Jewish Halakha is a partition, particularly one that is used to separate men and women....
which permit women to see and hear services. (See Mechitza#Proper height of synagogue mechitza)
In 1997, Blu Greenberg
Blu Greenberg
Blu Greenberg is an American writer specializing in Modern Judaism and women's issues. She is the author of On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition and Black Bread: Poems, After the Holocaust ....
founded the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance was founded in 1997 with the aim of "expand[ing] the spiritual, ritual, intellectual, and political opportunities for women with the framework of halakha," or Jewish law...
(JOFA) to advocate for women's increased participation in Modern Orthodox Jewish life and to create a community for women and men dedicated to such change.
Critics of Orthodox feminism from within Orthodox Judaism have disputed its claims to Orthodox legitimacy, including its claims to accept the divinity of Jewish law and to work within legitimate halakhic processes.
See also
- List of Jewish feminists
- Gender and JudaismGender and JudaismGender and Judaism is an emerging subfield at the intersection of gender studies and Jewish studies. Gender studies centers on interdisciplinary research on the phenomenon of gender. It focuses on cultural representations of gender and people's lived experience...
- Homosexuality and JudaismHomosexuality and JudaismThe subject of homosexuality in Judaism dates back to the Torah, in the books of Bereshit and Vayiqra. Bereshit treats the destruction of the cities of Sedom and Amorrah by God...
- Jewish view of marriageJewish view of marriageIn Judaism, marriage is viewed as a contractual bond commanded by God in which a man and a woman come together to create a relationship in which God is directly involved. Though procreation is not the sole purpose, a Jewish marriage is also expected to fulfill the commandment to have children. The...
- Women in Judaism
- Ms. magazine rejects AJC ad honoring three Israeli women
- Orthodox Jewish feminismOrthodox Jewish feminismOrthodox Jewish feminism is a movement in Orthodox Judaism which seeks to further the cause of a more egalitarian approach to Jewish practice within the bounds of Jewish Law...
Further reading
- Feldman, Emmanuel. . Jewish ActionJewish ActionJewish Action is an American Orthodox Jewish magazine published by the Orthodox Union.The magazine generally presents a Modern Orthodox viewpoint, and covers "topics of interest to an international Orthodox Jewish audience.....
, Winter 1999 - "Girls Just Wanna Be 'Frum': JOFA conference speaker says feminism lags at Talmud study programs in Israel", NY Jewish Week, February 2007.
- Anita DiamantAnita DiamantAnita Diamant is an American author of fiction and non-fiction books. She is best known for her novel, The Red Tent, a New York Times best seller...
. "Holding Up Half the Sky: Feminist Judaism", PatheosPatheos- History :Patheos was founded in 2008 by Leo and Cathie Brunnick, both web technology professionals and residents of Denver, Colorado. Leo, a non-practicing Catholic, and Cathie, a Lutheran-turned-Evangelical, started the project the week they were married as they tried to blend their... - Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez. "An Ever-Evolving Judaism: Women Meeting the Needs of the Community", PatheosPatheos- History :Patheos was founded in 2008 by Leo and Cathie Brunnick, both web technology professionals and residents of Denver, Colorado. Leo, a non-practicing Catholic, and Cathie, a Lutheran-turned-Evangelical, started the project the week they were married as they tried to blend their...
- Jewish women and the feminist revolution, an exhibit of the Jewish Women's Archive (FlashAdobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
interactive site) - Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA)
- Adler, RachelRachel AdlerRachel Adler is associate professor of Modern Jewish Thought and Judaism and Gender at the School of Religion, University of Southern California and the Hebrew Union College Rabbinical School at the Los Angeles campus...
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- Adler, Rachel. "Feminist Judaism: Past and Future", Crosscurrents, Winter 2002, Vol. 51, No 4.
- Greenberg, BluBlu GreenbergBlu Greenberg is an American writer specializing in Modern Judaism and women's issues. She is the author of On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition and Black Bread: Poems, After the Holocaust ....
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- Hartman, TovaTova HartmanTova Hartman is a Professor of Gender Studies and Education at Bar Ilan University of Ramat Gan, specializing in gender and religion, and gender and psychology...
, Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation. Brandeis University Press, 2007. ISBN 1-58465-658-1. - Hyman, PaulaPaula HymanPaula Hyman is the Lucy Moses Professor of Modern Jewish History at Yale University and president of the American Academy of Jewish Research...
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- Hyman, E. Paula & Dalia Ofer. (eds) (2006) Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Publication Society CD-ROM
- Ner-David, Haviva. Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Toward Traditional Rabbinic Ordination. Needham, MA: JFL Books, 2000.
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, 17 June 2004 - Ozick, Cynthia. "Notes toward finding the right question" in Heschel, S. On Being a Jewish Feminist: A Reader. Schocken, 1983.
- Plaskow, JudithJudith PlaskowDr. Judith Plaskow is Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College. Her scholarly interests focus on contemporary religious thought with a specialization in feminist theology. Dr. Plaskow has lectured widely on feminist theology in the United States and Europe. She co-founded The Journal...
. "The right question is theological" in Heschel, S. On being a Jewish Feminist: A Reader, Shocken, 1983(a). - "Language, God and Liturgy: A Feminist Perspective," Response 44:3–14, 1983(b).
- Plaskow, Judith. Standing again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective, Harper and Row, 1990(a)
- "Beyond Egalitarianism," Tikkun 5.6:79–81, 1990(b).
- "Facing the Ambiguity of God," Tikkun. 6.5:70-1, 1991.
- Reinhartz, AdeleAdele ReinhartzAdele Reinhartz is a Canadian academic and a specialist in the history and literature of Christianity and Judaism in the Greco-Roman period, the Gospel of John, early Jewish-Christian relations, literary criticism including feminist literary criticism, feminist exegesis, and the impact of the Bible...
. - Ruttenberg, Danya, ed. "Yentl's Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism." Seal Press, 2001.
- Teman, Elly. "Birthing a Mother: the Surrogate Body and the Pregnant Self." Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
- Umansky, E. & Ashton, D. (eds) Four Centuries of Jewish Women's Spirituality: A Sourcebook, Beacon, 1992.
- Wolowelsky, Joel B. "Feminism and Orthodox Judaism", Judaism, 188, 47:4, 1998, 499–507.