Category:  Orthodoxy & Feminism/Contemporary and Historical Roles of Women; Orthodoxy & Feminism/Understanding Traditional Texts; ditto/general reading 

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 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.

The hoard of manuscripts found in the Cairo Geniza, as well as halakhic tomes (such as Maimonides’ hilkhot ishut), give modern readers insight into the lives of women in the Medieval period, especially in Egypt around the 10^th century.  In addition, the author (a PhD student in Rabbinic Literature and Islamic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania) addresses insights from the responsa literature in Spain and France on issues such as divorce.  She also points out that women were, for the most part, excluded from Jewish mystical movements, among the Hasidei Ashkenaz and followers of the Kabbalah.  This article, while not academic (no footnotes or references to primary or secondary sources on the topic), provides a concise overview of Medieval attitudes towards women, whose social well-being was highly valued, though strictly guided by Jewish law.

Gluckel of Hameln (Glikl bas Judah Leib, 1646-1724), lived in Germany, was married at the age of 14, and she worked assiduously to provide for her children (she bore 14, 12 of whom survived to adulthood).  She wrote her memoir in seven sections as a moral legacy for her children, and though the original Yiddish manuscript  was lost, her son had made a copy.    The memoir first published in 1896 as Zikhroynes Glikl Hamel.  This selection is based on the rather awkward English translation by Beth Zion Abrahams (1962), reprinted by JPS in 2010.  Readers of Hebrew would do well to read the critical edition (Yiddish and Hebrew text on facing pages), with an extensive introduction and notes by Yiddish scholar Chava Turniansky, published in Jerusalem, 2006.   For more on Gluckel of Hameln Jewish Women’s Archive: http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/glueckel-of-hameln