Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Women play a variety of roles in the diverse forms of Judaism that characterize the contemporary world Jewish community. All of their modes of Jewish identity and practice, however, are shaped by history and tradition as well as in response to recent trends in the larger world. This essay delineates the activities of Jewish women in contemporary forms of Judaism under the following rubrics: women in traditional Jewish societies, the impact of Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), women in pre-state and post-1948 Israel, the impact of feminism on contemporary forms of Jewish life and practice, and feminist theology in Judaism.Traditional Jewish societies are organized according to the principles of Rabbinic Judaism, which mandate separate roles and responsibilities for women and men. On the basis of belief in the divine origin of the halakhah, the evolved Jewish legal precepts and practices codified in the Babylonian Talmud and associated texts, Rabbinic Judaism provided shared religious principles, institutions, and modes of governance for Jews spread throughout an often hostile and dangerous diaspora. While this patriarchal system protected and honored women who complied with its customs, its framers portrayed females as essentially other than males and connected to the realm of nature as opposed to culture. Rabbinic social policy preferred to situate women's activities in the private ... log in or subscribe to read full text