In Search of Identity and Spirituality in the Fiction of American Jewish Female Authors at the Turn of the 21st Century. Dorota Mihulka
construct of Jewish women who have brought feminist insights and critiques into the Jewish community and into the field of Jewish Studies in the American university” (2003: 297).33
As noted by Riv-Ellen Prell in the Introduction to her work, Women Remaking American Judaism, Jewish feminism was fueled by individuals and self-organizing groups who launched conferences and campaigns, as well as established new organizations and institutions in order to introduce the issue of gender equality to the Jewish community (2007: 3). In 1972, a group of ten New York Jewish feminists, known as Ezrat Nashim (Hebrew for ‘women’s section of the synagogue,’ but also ‘women’s help’), took the issue of equality to the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement, presenting “Jewish Women Call for Change.” Calling for the public affirmation of women’s equality in all aspects of Jewish life, the document stated:
It is time that: women be granted membership in synagogues, women be counted in a minyan, women be allowed full participation in religious observances, women be recognized as witnesses before Jewish law, women be allowed to initiate divorce, women be permitted and encouraged to attend Rabbinical and Cantorial schools, and to perform Rabbinical and Cantorial functions in synagogues, women be encouraged to join decision-making bodies, and to assume professional leadership roles, in synagogues and in the general Jewish community, women be considered as bound to fulfill all mitzvot equally with men. (“Ezrat Nashim: Jewish Women Call for Change,” March 1972)
“The Call for Change” put forward the early agenda of Jewish feminism which emphasized ‘equal access’ of women to public roles and honor within the Jewish community from which they had been excluded, and the elimination of the subordinate status of Jewish women in Jewish law. So influential was the manifesto of this liberal Jewish feminist group that it contributed to many changes in the Conservative Movement in the following years, further equalizing men and women in synagogue rituals and positions of leadership in congregational life (see also Section 1.2.2 in this chapter).
Jewish feminists also brought their message of gender equality to a wider public through the written word. Lilith: The Independent Jewish Women Magazine, established by Susan Weidman Schneider in 1976, was the first periodical to give voice to the ideas of Jewish feminism. From its inception, the magazine has combined ←64 | 65→news of particular interest to Jewish women, focusing on religious and social issues, with the latest Jewish feminist research as well as thought-provoking reviews of new publications. The issues discussed in Lilith have stimulated a great deal of thinking and, indeed, fostered change within the Jewish community. The following decades saw a proliferation of Jewish feminist magazines, journals, and newspapers, such as Shifra: A Jewish Feminist Magazine founded in 1984, Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends established in 1990, and Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women Studies and Gender Issues started in 1998, to name but a few. These journals and magazines represent a leading and respected voice of Jewish feminism and scholarship on Judaism and gender, highlighting the struggle to redefine the place of women in Jewish tradition and history in ways that incorporate both female spirituality and creativity (Hyman, “Jewish Feminism,” 1998: 695; Lerner, 1998: 854–856). Apart from that, major anthologies on Jewish feminism have been published since the 1970s, including Elizabeth Koltun’s The Jewish Woman: New Perspectives (1976), Susannah Heschel’s On Being a Jewish Feminist (1983), or Elyse Goldstein’s New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future (2009), all of which reflected the development of Jewish feminist scholarship in the particular decades.
Not only through their publications did Jewish feminists gain support for their cause, but also through the creation of and participation in various organizations and institutions which were dedicated to the personal, religious, cultural, and political aspects of women’s lives. For example, the Jewish Feminist Organization (JFO), founded in 1974 as a result of the two successful Jewish women’s conferences held in New York in previous years, articulated the double goal that became characteristic of Jewish feminists:
We, Jewish feminists, have joined together here, in strength and joy to struggle for the liberation of the Jewish woman. Jewish women of all ages, political, cultural and religious outlooks and sexual preferences, are all sisters. We are committed to the development of our full human potential and to the survival and enhancement of Jewish life. We seek […] the full, direct, and equal participation of women at all levels of Jewish life – communal, religious, educational, and political. We shall be a force for such creative change in the Jewish community [as well as] […] the voice of the Jewish feminist movement in the national and international movement. (“Jewish Feminist Organization: Statement of Purpose,” April 1974)
As this quotation indicates, from its early days, Jewish feminists devoted themselves to addressing pressing issues in the women’s movement, thereby expecting to make great strides not only in the lives of Jewish women but in the whole Jewish community. Although the Jewish Feminist Organization failed to become a national umbrella feminist organization, it quickly evolved into the Jewish Women’s Resource Center (JWRC) in l976, whose aim was to document the emergence and history of feminism in the context of Judaism (Binder and Gross, 1998: 700–701). The Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, in turn, founded in 1979 by Rabbi Silber, provided Jewish women with the unprecedented opportunity to ←65 | 66→engage in the advanced study of traditional Jewish texts. The religious study offered to Jewish women by this non-denominational institution, can be comparable to the yeshiva training offered to their male counterparts (cf. Hyman, “Jewish Feminism,” 1998: 697; Bronznick, Goldenhar, and Samuels, 2010: 515–516). This is how Rabbi Silber justifies his initiative to provide serious learning for Jewish women from different backgrounds, “this is not only a feminist issue. […] It is a community issue. The more thoughtful and knowledgeable men and women we have active in the Jewish community, making good ethical decisions and setting good goals, the better the community we have” (qtd. in Lautin, 1998: 340).
As has been stated at the beginning of Section 1.3.1, there is no singular definition of Jewish feminism; instead there are many different ways in which feminists articulated their encounters with Judaism. This multitude of ways has led to a variety of definitions of what it means to be ‘a Jewish feminist.’ These various definitions reveal the fact that Jewish feminists, as feminists and as Jews, belonging to different Jewish denominational movements, do not share a common vision, and strive for different goals. Ellen M. Umansky offers three definitions of Jewish feminism which reflect this diversity in belief and goals, namely “Jewish feminism as a call for increased participation and legal change,” “Jewish feminism as a call for equal access,” and “Jewish feminism as transformation” (1999: 180–187).
Proponents of the first definition of Jewish feminism argue that to be a Jewish feminist is to believe in and/or actively call for the greater participation of women within Jewish religious and communal life. They have attempted to create, facilitate, or make available public religious opportunities for girls and women from which traditionally they were exempt if not excluded, for example greater access to religious education and participation in public worship. Moreover, these Jewish feminists have been actively involved in pressing rabbinic authorities for legal change in order to re-examine those laws that have created unnecessary hardships for women, for example the laws of divorce and most specifically those concerning the agunah (Umansky, 1999: 180–181).
“Equal access feminists,” representing the second group of Jewish feminists, press not only for increasing the rights and responsibilities of women within Judaism, just like the above-mentioned feminists, but they also wish to secure for women equal access to all aspects of Jewish life including those privileges or rights which previously have been exclusively reserved for men. They have sought the inclusion of women in the minyan, the right of women to receive aliyot (to be called up to the pulpit to recite blessings before and after the Torah reading), and to read from the Torah itself. Many such feminists, especially those within the Conservative movement, have advocated the wearing of such traditionally male attire as kippot (head coverings), tallitot, and even tefillin by women during communal worship. Moreover, many such feminists have worked to create or to participate in ceremonies paralleling those traditionally celebrated by men, for example baby naming ceremonies for