How Have Female Clergy Transformed Jewish Life, Ritual and Practice?
Forty-six years after the first American woman rabbi was ordained, Judaism is transformed.
27
Sep
14
Aug
‘RBG’ Documentary Humanizes a Justice
The movie’s success is impressive considering the heavyweight competition it stood up against.
08
Jun
For Jewish Organizations, the Unique Challenge of #MeToo
In the Jewish communal world, addressing systemic harassment and abuse comes with its own complications.
24
May
How Israeli Women Are Making Political Strides on National and Local Levels
WePower has a pretty clear goal: equal representation in Israeli political life by the year 2030.
09
Mar
#MeToo, Said the Shulamite
The central figure of Song of Songs is an unnamed young woman, referred to variously including as “the Shulamite,” who asserts her sexual and emotional agency while others attempt to control her.
17
Nov
‘No One Said a Word’: When Powerful Men Prey on Women
Suddenly, strong arms enveloped me from behind and a man’s body pressed up against my posterior. I looked around, startled. I was stunned to see it was our host, the presidential candidate.
22
Mar
Why Feminism and Zionism Are Not Contradictory
Sarsour, like the activists from the International Women’s Strike, is a committed supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that singles out Israel and Zionism for condemnation. This reflects not only a misunderstanding of Zionism but a violation of some of the most basic feminist principles.
17
Mar
Book Essay // Refracted Identities, Mirrored Lives
Suleiman’s new book, The Némirovsky Question: The Life, Death and Legacy of a Jewish Writer in 20th-Century France, explores Némirovsky’s tragic career and the deteriorating civil society of pre-World War II France that first nurtured the writer and then ultimately turned on her. Drawing on parallels to her own life, Suleiman makes of the story a meditation on allegiance, foreignness and assimilation—one with uncanny echoes for today’s politics.
13
Mar
‘They Are Enlisting Our Girls’: The Cost of Israel’s Culture Wars
Rabbi Yigal Levenstein’s crude, misogynist, hate-filled statements about religious women serving in the Israel Defense Forces, leave little doubt as to what he thinks about women in the army and about Israeli society in general.
06
Feb
Book Review // Twenty Girls to Envy Me: Selected Poems of Orit Gidali
Until the 1980s, women were a small minority among Hebrew writers. There was Russian-born Rahel Bluwstein (1890–1931), considered the “founding mother” of modern Hebrew poetry by women. Esther Raab (1894–1981) was the first native-born Israeli woman poet, principally known for her rich use of modern Hebrew.