In Search of Identity and Spirituality in the Fiction of American Jewish Female Authors at the Turn of the 21st Century. Dorota Mihulka
Jewish communal organizations to the full extent possible within halakhah” (“JOFA. Who We Are: Mission”). The integration of the values of equality into women’s religious lives, yet remaining within the Orthodox community in the process, has been of paramount importance to the JOFA. Thus, its agenda and approach to fulfill that aim have differed significantly from the ones put forward by Jewish feminists of the more liberal denominations of Judaism. As Blu Greenberg emphasizes, “Orthodox feminists have taken care to conform to the boundaries of Halakhah even as they press for reinterpretation of the law to achieve greater equality and dignity for women. […] Being halakhic, and being an Orthodox feminist means not going outside the Jewish law for a resolution to a problem” (2006: 564).
The JOFA, just like women’s tefillah groups, has faced fierce opposition from the rabbinical world. There are critics who argue that feminism is antithetical to Orthodox Judaism and that the new values of women’s equality threaten both the traditional role of the Jewish woman as wife and mother, and the halakhic authority. Nevertheless, the organization as well as regular women’s tefillah groups have done much to strengthen the significance of the Jewish family and the binding nature of Halakhah, providing Orthodox women with new possibilities and realities in the Orthodox community (cf. Greenberg, 2006: 564; Goldman, 2008: 110).
←53 | 54→
At this point, it is worth mentioning one particular group of Ultra-Orthodox women, namely the Lubavitcher women, who according to some scholars, such as for example Bonnie J. Morris (1991, 1995, 1998), and Naftali Loewenthal (2000) have enjoyed fantastic gains in educational and work opportunities. Despite the fact that in their daily and private life the Lubavitcher women are still obliged to observe scrupulously numerous strict Hasidic rules and regulations based on Halakhah, in public life they have held highly influential positions as educated, multilingual outreach activists, speakers, and writers in the United States since the 1960s. This exceptional position of the Lubavitcher women is mainly attributable to the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who introduced innovative changes to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, by agreeing to the foundation of a girls’ school system, an organization for all Lubavitcher women, two community publications by and for women, as well as annual conventions for Lubavitcher women activists all over North America. The Lubavitcher Rebbe also approved of greater Torah study for women, for which he was severely criticized by Satmar and Belzer rebbes of the more conservative Hasidic sects in the United States (Nadler, 2008: 104–105; Morris, 1998: 598–599).
In the 1970s, when American feminists, including Jewish feminists of more liberal denominations began levelling accusations against Orthodox Judaism’s patriarchal perception and treatment of women and their role in the Jewish community, a group of educated Lubavitcher women retaliated immediately. They were prepared to confront feminist criticism and their call for change by speaking and writing passionately in defense of the women’s role and belief system in Hasidic Judaism.
Moreover, the Lubavitcher women have also played an important role as outreach missionaries, or shluchim. Traveling to remote locations, including college and university campuses, the Lubavitcher missionaries undertake campaigns to propagate the Hasidic lifestyle, their values, and Jewish learning among young adult secular Jews. Their endeavors to attract them to the Chabad movement seem to be successful as more and more liberal or non-observant Jews have become their followers in recent decades. A ba’al teshuvah (Hebrew for ‘master of return’ or ‘one who repents’) can be defined as a formerly secular and non-observant Jew who undertakes some type of religious observance, adopts a religious viewpoint, and returns into the religious and theological framework of Judaism. As Jacob Neusner and Alan Avery-Peck remark, “the single most striking trait of the contemporary Judaic religious world, in all its diversity, is the return to Judaism of formerly secular Jews, on the one side, or the movement from less rigorous to more complete observance of the holy way of life, on the other” (2004: 12). In the second half of the twentieth century, there emerged a strong ba’al teshuvah movement within Orthodox Judaism, similar to ‘born again’ Christianity, which has become an important social force contributing to the rapid growth of American Orthodoxy by attracting a large number of young secular/liberal Jews. Seeking a greater sense of spirituality in their lives, they are prepared to return to and fully embrace the Orthodox way of life as well as change their identity to become Orthodox Jews. ←54 | 55→Although it is too early to assess the long-term impact of ba’alei teshuvah on the Orthodox world, one thing is certain: “the very phenomenon of non-observant Jews turning to Orthodoxy has raised the movement’s self-esteem and increased its prestige within the broader American Jewish community,” as Jack Wertheimer points out (1989: 113).24
Many organizations are active in the ba’al teshuvah movement, such as the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Aish HaTorah and other yeshivot which are dedicated to the training of non-observant Jews in the United States and Israel. It is not uncommon for members of the ba’al teshuvah movement to become religious zealots, intolerant of Jews who identify with more liberal Judaism. Additionally, ba’alei teshuvah frequently encounter problems relating to non-Orthodox family members who sometimes perceive them with suspicion and hostility, being appalled by their fundamentalism. On the other hand, some Orthodox Jews wish to distinguish themselves from ba’alei teshuvah by referring to themselves as F.F.B. – frum (pious) from birth, claiming that the B.T.s are considered to be a disgrace to Orthodoxy (cf. Greenberg, 2006: 556; Karesh and Hurvitz, 2006: 41; Jacobs, 1995: 42–43).
Sociological studies by, for example, Herbert Danzger (1989) seem to indicate that most of the newly Orthodox are ba’alot teshuvah (Jewish women returning to a traditional observant Jewish lifestyle) and that women are more likely than men to turn to a religious way of life. Two other sociological studies: Debra Renee Kaufman’s Rachel’s Daughters: Newly Orthodox Jewish Women (1991) and Lynn Davidman’s Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism (1991), as well as Lis Harris’s ethnography Holy Days: The World of a Hasidic Family (1985) further develop the subject of ba’alot teshuvah. These studies explore how the newly Orthodox Jewish women negotiate within traditional religious institutions ←55 | 56→in order to find a meaningful place for themselves. Additionally, they discuss and analyze the reasons why secular Jewish women are attracted to the closely-knit Hasidic communities in today’s post-modern world. Davidman characterizes ba’alot teshuvah in such a way:
[they] are seeking a sense of self-rootedness in a larger continually existing community with a past and a future. They are also in search of an ordered sense of self on a personal level: they are often troubled by the confusion over gender in the wider society and by the lack of comfortable patterns for forming nuclear families. […] Ba’alot teshuvah find Orthodox Judaism appealing precisely because it offers a conception of femininity in which women’s roles as wives and mothers are honored and seen as central. (1998: 108)
Apart from portraying happy, educated, determined, and fulfilled Hasidic women in their private and public life, these sociological studies also contribute to abating misconceptions about Hasidic practices.
On the whole, life for women within the Hasidic communities can be deeply fulfilling and imbued with an all-embracing sense of meaning both on personal/private and public levels. The Lubavitcher Hasidism is one of very few exceptions among Hasidic sects in the United States, if not the only one, which has provided its women with, at least, partial fulfillment on both levels. As Bonnie J. Morris points out, “[wh]ile other Hasidic sects scorn the Lubavitchers as opportunistic or too willing to compromise on issues of modernity, the Lubavitch movement has enabled Hasidic women to study, advocate, and publish – in short, to gain an American voice” (1998: 599).25
1.2.5 Women in Humanistic Judaism and Jewish Renewal
Contemporary radical alternatives within Judaism range from unrelentingly rationalistic secular movements to various groups of an esoteric, mystical character. Needless to say, there is an underlying difference between these two types of radical alternatives to Judaism. At one extreme, there are rationalists reluctant to ←56 | 57→accept that there is a personal God regulating human affairs. At the other extreme, there are various esoteric movements that consider mainstream religion too apathetic or remote, seeking a more passionate and