Jewish Studies

Women and Judaism

Women Remaking American Judaism

Edited by Riv-Ellen Prell

Considers the changes in American Judaism across the four major denominations that resulted from the Jewish feminist movement of the 1960s through today.

The Stains of Culture: An Ethno-Reading of Karaite Jewish Women

Ruth Tsoffar

Portrays the experiences of Egyptian Karaites in the San Francisco Bay Area as it explores the relationship between text and everyday life, between literal reading and its translation into bodily practices—especially as related to the female body.

“The Whole Wide World, Without Limits”: International Relief, Gender Politics, and American Jewish Women, 1893–1930

Mary McCune

An analysis of gender politics in the American Jewish community during the interwar period that reveals the role of gender and class in organizational politics and the importance of Jewish women in American political and activist history.

And Rachel Stole the Idols: The Emergence of Modern Hebrew Women’s Writing

Wendy I. Zierler

A feminist study of the beginnings of modern Hebrew women’s writing.

Our Lives Are But Stories: Narratives of Tunisian-Israeli Women

Esther Schely-Newman

A rich analysis of how four Tunisian-Israeli women tell the stories of their lives, and a look at the implications for our own understanding of stories and the behavior of communication.

Next Year I Will Know More: Literacy and Identity among Young Orthodox Women in Israel

Tamar El-Or

An investigation into the education of women in the religious Zionist community and its influence on Orthodox Judaism.