Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women

<p>Jewish women of all ages and backgrounds come together in Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women to explore and rejoice in what they have in common--their heritage. They reveal in striking personal stories how their Jewishness has shaped their identities and informed their experiences in innumerable meaningful ways. Survivors witnesses defenders innovators and healers these women question celebrate and transmit Jewish and feminist values in hopes that they might bridge the differences among Jewish women. They invite both Jewish and non-Jewish readers to share in their discussions and stories that convey and celebrate the multiplicity of Jewish backgrounds attitudes and issues.In Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women you will read about cultural religious and gender choices conversion to Judaism family patterns Jewish immigrant experiences the complexities of Jewish secular identities antisemitism sexism and domestic violence in the Jewish community. As the pages unfold in this wonderful book of personal odysseys the colorful patterns of Jewish women’s lives are laid before you. You will find much cause for rejoicing as the authors weave together their compelling and unique stories about:</p><ul> <li>midlife Bat mitzvah preparations </li> <li>the transmission of Jewish values by Sephardi and Ashkenazi grandmothers </li> <li>traditional Sephardi customs </li> <li>the sorrow and healing involved in coping with the Holocaust </li> <li>a lesbian’s fascination with Kafka </li> <li>the external and internal obstacles Jewish women encounter in their efforts to study Jewish topics and participate in Jewish ritual </li> <li>becoming a Reconstructionist rabbi </li> <li>the difficulties and benefits of being the teenaged daughter of a rabbi</li> </ul><p>A harmonious chorus of individual voices Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women will delight and inspire Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike. It reminds each of us how diverse and distinctive Jewish women’s lives are as well as how united they can be under the wonderful fold of Judaism. This book will be of great interest to all women as well as to rabbis Jewish community leaders and professionals mental health workers and those in Jewish studies women’s studies and multicultural studies.</p>