This book, edited by Tamar Rudavsky (Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Ohio State University) includes seminal articles in the field of gender and Judaism by scholars such as Lori Lefkovitz, Sylvia Barack Fishman, Pamela Nadell, Rochelle Millen, and Naomi Graetz.  The collection is organized on the basis of 1) theoretical concerns in the study of gender and Judaism; 2) historical approaches; 3) literary readings; and 4) sociological studies.  It includes an analysis of traditional texts in the Talmud (Millen), the Zohar (Wolfson), and Hebrew Bible (Lefkovitz); articles that address issues such as rabbinic attitudes to wife beating (Graetz), women rabbis (Geller, Nadell), and Orthodox views on femininity (Myers and Litman), and constructions of Jewish masculinity (Brod), and the changing status of women in Italy (Adelman), Germany (Heschel), and America and Israel (Shalvi, Fishman).

This volume edited by Frederick Greenspahn, the Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Denver, includes papers presented at a conference on the changing spiritual options for women in historical and contemporary communities. It includes ten scholarly essays in the field of Jewish women’s and gender studies by leading scholars such as Judith Baskin, Sylvia Barack Fishman, Judith Hauptman, and Chava Weissler. Each article analyzes a different academic field,  ranging from Jewish feminist approaches to the Bible, gendered attitudes in the laws of halitzah (Levirite marriage), the spirituality of Eastern European Jewish women, women’s transformation of contemporary Jewish life, women in Jewish law, and the treatment of women in Jewish American and Israeli literature.

This paper is based on remarks Nathaniel Helfgot delivered at a panel on “Women’s Leadership Roles” (RCA Convention, April 25^th, 2010) – with Rabbi Michael Broyde, Rabbi Gidon Rothstein, and Dr. Deena Zimmerman.   His focus is not on titles but rather on function and justification for qualified and talented women to fulfill various clergy-like roles in the synagogue and Jewish community.

Sara Horowitz, a professor of literature at York University, Toronto, reviews themes in holocaust literature that revolve around gender issues, such as motherhood and childbirth, the reversal of gender roles, and sexual vulnerability.  From novels such as William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice  and Ilona Karmel’s An Estate of Memory,  to the Ida Fink’s collection of short stories, A Scrap in Time,  Horowitz shows the elaborate ways in which women’s experiences differed from those of men. This article is reprinted from Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia with permission of the author and the “Jewish Women's Archive.”

The change in the status of women in the Modern Period has not been recognized, halachically, by the Orthodox rabbinic establishment, which remains in the control of men and cut off from the contemporary context.  In order to cope with the great challenges present for both men and women in religious communities, which are imbedded in a patriarchal tradition, Hannah Kahat urges the development of rabbinic, spiritual, and feminine leadership.

Nussbaum Cohen interview Rabbi Sperber, Talmud professor at Bar Ilan and author of Women and Men in Communal Prayer:  Halakhic Perspectives (2010), upon a recent visit to New York.  He argued that the controversy surrounding the term for a female rabbi is political rather than substantive.  In Israel, for example, the term “rabba” is associated with a Reform or Conservative, female rabbi “which could be a source of confusion.”  In any case, he sees no reason why dedicated and Jewishly learned women should not serve in as rabbis if they understand the limitations – not able to officiate at weddings or function in all aspects of synagogue activities.

In this classic article, Peta Pellach (educator in Sydney, Australia, recent emigree to Israel) discusses the new frontier in Jewish education that is being led by women educators, as well as the halachic challenges on women’s issues that are facing the Orthodox Jewish community today. She confronts issues such as women touching the Sefer Torah, the status of women in the synagogue, and their relationship to Tefilah (prayer) and tefillin (phylacteries).

This review by Deborah Weissman (PhD in Jewish Education, Hebrew University) suggests that this book is true to its title, in offering “new insights and scholarship” on women and Judaism.  It includes an introduction by Judith Baskin (director of Jewish Studies program at the University of Oregon), ten more articles grouped in the categories of “Classical Tradition,” “History,” “Contemporary Life,” and “Literature,” and an epilogue by the editor.  The collection seems to be directed mainly at laypersons not familiar with recent developments in the field.   According to the reviewer, precisely because it is for the layperson, the articles tend to neglect the place of Jewish feminist scholarship within the wider field of women’s studies.