Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition - Softcover

Rebecca Alpert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231096615 ISBN 13: 9780231096614

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1998

Synopsis

One of the first women to be ordained as a rabbi explores how lesbians can shape Jewish tradition to resonate with their own experience.

About this title

Review:

Not since Nice Jewish Girls by Evelyn Torton Beck and Twice Blessed by Andy Rose and Christie Balka has a book so thoughtfully explored the difficult balance of living as both a Jew and a lesbian. The title, Like Bread on the Seder Plate, refers to a tradition that began in the 1980s among Jewish lesbians, whereby they placed a piece of leavened bread on the Seder plate at Passover to evoke their feelings of isolation from Jewish tradition. As one of the first women to be ordained as a rabbi, author Rebecca Alpert asserts a visible place for lesbians within Judaism, reinterpreting the homophobic strictures imposed by the Torah to construct a framework in which Jewish lesbians can feel included and accepted. A brave, accessible, and important book, Like Bread on the Seder Plate is sure to inspire many Jewish lesbians to reclaim a cultural and religious life that previously excluded them. --Kera L. Bolonik

About the Author:

Rebecca Alpert is assistant professor of religion and women's studies at Temple University and is a codirector of the Women's Studies Program. She is the coauthor ofExploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0231096615
• ISBN 13: 9780231096614
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224