Jewish feminism
Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of the Jewish religion.
In its modern form, the Jewish feminist movement can be traced to the early 1970s in the United States. According to Judith Plaskow, the main grievances of early Jewish feminists were women's exclusion from the all-male prayer group or minyan, women's exemption from positive time-bound mitzvot, and women's inability to function as witnesses and to initiate divorce in Jewish religious courts.
According to historian Paula Hyman, two articles published in the 1970s were trailblazers in analyzing the status of Jewish women using feminism: "The Unfreedom of Jewish Women", published in 1970 in the Jewish Spectator by its editor, Trude Weiss-Rosmarin, and an article by Rachel Adler, then an Orthodox Jew and currently a professor at the Reform seminary Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, called "", published in 1971 in Davka. Also, in 1973, the first National Jewish Women's Conference was held, in New York City; Blu Greenberg gave its opening address.
Jewish feminist theology
There are many variations of feminist theology within Jewish communities, and it has not been formalized. In general, Jewish feminist theology considers "central Jewish categories, themes, and modes of expression." Ronit Irshai noted "one of the most conspicuous attributes of Jewish feminist theology is the belief, held by most of its advocates, that the repair can come from within, and that the main effort is to propose a theological structure that does so."The feminist theological movement originated in the secular feminism of the 1960s and 1970s. An early theological topic to be discussed, starting in the 1970s, was God language. In 1979, Rita Gross published her previously circulating article arguing that the Jewish lack of female imagery for God is the " ultimate symbol of the degradation of Jewish women." Judith Plaskow explained this by positing that the hierarchal relationship between God and humanity, along with the masculine terms used for God and feminine for humanity, led to a "causal connection between the conception of God and the patriarchal social structure." Plaskow called for a new religious language, including female "God-talk," which included creating a new religious memory, ceremonies, liturgy, and Midrash that could lead to new conceptions of the divine. A contrasting immanent theological theory, expressed by Tamar Ross, is that of "cumulative revelation," which claims revelation is " an ongoing and cumulative process, a gradual and dynamic development of the original Torah, such that the Torah’s ultimate meaning is revealed only over the course of time," that adds to knowledge.
A major inspiration for many Jewish feminist theologians was Raphael Patai's book The Hebrew Goddess, which contributed to knowledge about Jewish conceptions of a feminist divine in ancient and medieval tradition.
In 1976, Naomi Janowitz and Margaret Wenig, then undergraduates at Brown University, expressed this concept by writing Siddur Nashim. Later liturgists have further experimented with female God language. They use terms like Shekhinah, a feminine aspect of Judaism taken from mysticism, Rahmana, meaning "mother of wombs," "Yah," and "ein hahayim." Jewish feminist theology also considers female or gender-neutral metaphors for God. Neil Gillman notes that Jewish feminists, "reject... the king metaphor because of its hierarchical associations, and the paternal metaphor because it excludes their distinctive female experience. The world has changed, and so must our divine images."
By the 1990s, the Reform and Reconstructionist movements included feminist liturgy and God language in their siddurim. The Jewish Renewal movement uses Shekhinah to identify God.
There are other methods of Jewish feminist considerations of God's gender. There is a growing subfield in the study of gender and Judaism, which sees the binaries of male and female as crucial constructs in Jewish thought. For example, Sara Yehudit Schneider "does insist that God has a dual nature of male and female that ideally should be equal and should be united. Another perspective can be seen through Joy Ladin's transgender theology, which considers a God who "cannot be comprehended in gender binary terms" and who can be more deeply understood using trans language. An alternative feminist theology can be seen in the Kohenet movement, which “conceives of God/dess as a unity” in an earth-based context.
Jewish feminist theology also considers the relationship between halakha and theology. Philosophers such as Rachel Adler, Ronit Irshai, and Blu Greenberg consider halakha and their interaction with how the perception of God influences culture. This idea is further explored by Akedah Theology, which "associates obedience to the divine imperative embodied in Halakhah with the binding up of all our specifically human inclinations, desires, and needs, including our moral principles."
Feminist impact on liturgy and ritual
In 1854, Fanny Neuda wrote the first Jewish prayer book known to have been written by a woman for women, called Hours of Devotion; it was translated into English and published in the United States 12 years later. In 2015 a plaque honoring her was unveiled in Loštice, where she lived while her husband was a rabbi there.In 1946, the new Silverman siddur of Conservative Judaism changed the traditional words of Birkot Hashachar of thanking God for "not making me a woman", instead using words thanking God for "making me a free person".
Feminist Judaism has also led to many communities adding the imahot, or matriarchs, to the Amidah and other prayers mentioning their male counterparts. According to Eric Caplan, this began in individual communities and spread through gatherings of the Chavurah movement.
Contemporary liturgists such as Marcia Falk have also written liturgy that introduce feminist concepts.
In the early 1970s, new rituals began popularizing. Jewish women staged public ceremonies for the birth of their daughters, sharing the ritual of "brit millah" which was historically reserved for newborn sons. They started forming special groups for prayer and study on Rosh Hodesh, the beginning of the new month, with their newfound freedoms to congregate.
In 1976, the first women-only Passover seder was held in Esther M. Broner's New York City apartment and led by her, with 13 women attending, including Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Phyllis Chesler. Esther Broner and Naomi Nimrod created a women's Haggadah for use at this seder. In the spring of 1976 Esther Broner published this "Women's Haggadah" in Ms. magazine, later publishing it as a book in 1994; this Haggadah is meant to include women where only men had been mentioned in traditional Haggadahs, and it features the Wise Women, the Four Daughters, the Women's Questions, the Women's Plagues, and a women-centric "Dayenu". The original Women's Seder has been held with the Women's Haggadah every year since 1976, and women-only seders are now held by some congregations as well.
Some seders now set out a cup for the prophet Miriam as well as the traditional cup for the prophet Elijah, sometimes accompanied by a ritual to honor Miriam. Miriam's cup originated in the 1980s in a Boston Rosh Chodesh group; it was invented by Stephanie Loo, who filled it with mayim hayim and used it in a feminist ceremony of guided meditation. Miriam's cup is linked to the midrash of Miriam's well, which "is a rabbinic legend that tells of a miraculous well that accompanied the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert at the Exodus from Egypt".
Furthermore, some Jews include an orange on the seder plate. The orange represents the fruitfulness for all Jews when all marginalized peoples are included, particularly women and gay people. An incorrect but common rumor says that this tradition began when a man told Susannah Heschel that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the seder plate; however, it actually began when in the early 1980s, while when speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel was introduced to an early feminist Haggadah that suggested adding a crust of bread on the seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians. Heschel felt that to put bread on the seder plate would be to accept that Jewish lesbians and gay men violate Judaism like chametz violates Passover. So, at her next seder, she chose an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out—a gesture of spitting out and repudiating the homophobia of traditional Judaism.
Orthodox Judaism
The position on feminism within the Orthodox denomination of Judaism is broadly divided along the factional lines of the modern Orthodox and Haredi communities, with the modern Orthodox favourable to certain advances for women, provided they are maintained within the framework of Jewish law. Haredi Judaism maintains a stricter stance on issues pertaining to feminism.Modern Orthodox approaches
Orthodox feminism works within the halakhic system and works with rabbis and rabbinical institutions to create more inclusive practices within Orthodox communal life and leadership. Orthodox feminism tends to focus on issues, such as the problems of agunah, fostering women's education, leadership, and ritual participation, women's leadership and making synagogue more women-friendly. Unlike other denominations, Orthodox feminists retain the partition in synagogue and do not count women in a minyan. The all-women's prayer group—Women's Tefilla Group, is an Orthodox practice that began in the 1970s and continues today.Educational opportunities have drastically increased for Orthodox women since the late twentieth century. It was common for only boys and men to study the Talmud and Jewish law but this has now been extended and is standard for girls. The Drisha Institute for Jewish Education was the first institution that gave women access to Talmudic study on an advanced level and gave training in halakha that was only previously accessible to men. In today's time, several institutions have joined Drisha and now offer women the opportunity to learn. Orthodox Jewish women now also have access to leadership roles as clergy and advisors on Jewish law. New educational programs have enabled Modern Orthodox women to study Talmud and other rabbinic literature, at levels intended to be comparable to a yeshivah or kollel for men, including Drisha Institute, Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and Matan Women's Institute for Torah Studies.
Blu Greenberg has a large impact on orthodox women's view of feminism. She encouraged women to take on new leadership roles while still abiding by the Jewish law in her book “On Women and Judaism” which was published in 1981. Greenberg was named the “foremother” of Orthodox Jewish feminism. In 1997, Blu Greenberg founded the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance to advocate for women's increased participation and leadership in Modern Orthodox Jewish life and to create a community for women and men dedicated to such change. JOFA has focused on issues including agunah, bat mitzvah, women's scholarship, women's prayer, ritual, women's synagogue leadership, and women's religious leadership. The organization has a mission statement of “advocates for expanding women’s rights and opportunities within the framework of halakha, to build a vibrant and equitable orthodox community.” They seek to be a resource and uplifting to the women in their community while simultaneously encouraging them to follow the ways of orthodox life. JOFA has been able to make multiple important changes and the organization is continuing its efforts to expand and push the barriers of the Orthodox community.
Also in 1997, Gail Billig became the first female president of a major Orthodox synagogue, at Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood, New Jersey.
In 2002, the first partnership minyans were established—Shira Hadasha in Jerusalem, and Darkhei Noam in New York City. These are Orthodox communities that maximize women's participation in the prayer to the full extent possible within halakha. Although critics of partnership minyan argue that these are not "Orthodox", the communities themselves vehemently insist that they are Orthodox. The fact that the synagogues have partitions and do not count women as part of the minyan demonstrates the loyalty to Orthodox practice. Dr. Elana Sztokman, former executive director of JOFA, wrote extensively about this phenomenon in her book The Men's Section: Orthodox Jewish Men in an Egalitarian World and examined this dynamic in which the partnership minyan considers itself Orthodox but is often rejected as Orthodox by other members of the community. Today there are over 35 partnership minyans around the world.
Another major historical event of Orthodox feminism occurred in 2009 when Rabba Sara Hurwitz became the first publicly ordained Orthodox woman rabbi. Avi Weiss then launched a training school for Orthodox women in rabbinic positions, Yeshivat Maharat Rabbi Weiss had originally announced that graduates would be called "rabba", but when the Rabbinical Council of America threatened to oust him, he recanted and created the term maharat. The first cohort of maharats graduated in June 2013: Maharats Ruth Balinsky-Friedman, Rachel Kohl Finegold and Abby Brown Scheier. In 2015 Yaffa Epstein was ordained as Rabba by the Yeshivat Maharat. Also that year Lila Kagedan was ordained as Rabbi by the Yeshivat Maharat, making her their first graduate to take the title Rabbi.
In January 2013 Tamar Frankiel became the president of the Academy for Jewish Religion in California, making her the first Orthodox woman to lead an American rabbinical school. The school itself is transdenominational, not Orthodox.
In 2013 the Israeli Orthodox rabbinical organization Beit Hillel issued a halachic ruling which allows women, for the first time, to say the Kaddish prayer in memory of their deceased parents.
Also in 2013, the first class of female halachic advisers trained to practice in the US graduated; they graduated from the North American branch of Nishmat's yoetzet halacha program in a ceremony at Congregation Sheartith Israel, Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Manhattan. However, this event was met with only faint enthusiasm among Orthodox feminists for several reasons. One is that Nishmat consistently distances itself from feminism, as its founder Chana Henkin often pronounces that she is not a feminist and that the women who graduate from Nishmat do not adjudicate halakha but always ask male rabbis. Another reason is that against the backdrop of the graduation of women from Yeshivat Maharat, in which women are full leaders with complete authority to adjudicate and function as communal rabbis this event does not necessarily represent the greatest advancement for Orthodox women and is arguably a step backward. That is, women counseling women only on "women's issues" without any real halakhic authority of their own keeps women in a somewhat more official version of traditional gender roles.
In 2014, the first women were elected as national officers of the Orthodox Union; specifically, three female national vice presidents and two female associate vice presidents were elected.
In June 2015, Lila Kagedan was ordained by Yeshivat Maharat and in keeping with newer policies, was given the freedom to choose her own title, and she chose to be addressed as "Rabbi". In 2015, Rabbi Kagedan completed a residency at Shira Hadasha in Australia.
However, in the fall of 2015, the Rabbinical Council of America, representing over a thousand Orthodox rabbis across the United States, formally adopted a policy prohibiting the ordination or hiring of women rabbis by synagogues that operate within the boundaries of their figurative jurisdiction, regardless of title.
Also in 2015, the Israeli Orthodox rabbinical organization Beit Hillel issued a ruling which allows women to give instruction on Jewish law and to issue halachic decisions. Beit Hillel claimed that this ruling was the first time women issuing halachic rulings was formally affirmed in a written responsa of Jewish law.
Also in 2015, Jennie Rosenfeld became the first female Orthodox spiritual advisor in Israel
Also in 2015, the first Israeli political party dedicated to Haredi women was unveiled, called "B'Zhutan: Haredi Women Making Change".
In 2016 it was announced that Ephraim Mirvis created the job of ma'ayan by which women would be advisers on Jewish law in the area of family purity and as adult educators in Orthodox synagogues. This requires a part-time training course for 18 months, which is the first such course in the United Kingdom.
In 2017, the Orthodox Union adopted a policy banning women from serving as clergy, from holding titles such as "rabbi", or from doing common clergy functions even without a title, in its congregations in the United States.