Yentl's Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1580050573 ISBN 13: 9781580050579

Publisher: Seal Press, 2001

Synopsis

Thanks in large part to the struggles of their activist foremothers, today’s young Jewish women have a dizzying array of spiritual options. Yentl’s Revenge chronicles a range of experiences lived by an entire generation of women, from Judeo-pagan witches to young Orthodox mothers, from rabbis to sex educators. Contributors ponder Jewish transgenderdom, Jewish body image, Jewish punk, the stereotype of the Jewish American Princess, intermarriage, circumcision, faith, and intolerance. Essays include Bubbe Got Back: Tales of a Jewish Caboose” by Ophira Edut, and On Being a Jewish Feminist Valley Girl” by Tobin Belzer.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Ruttenberg, a San Francisco-based writer and contributing editor to the Jewish feminist journal Lilith, has assembled a provocative collection of impassioned essays by an unorthodox group of young Jewish feminists. The 20 writers wrestle with a wide range of issues from mainstream concerns like identity and Zionism, to edgier ones such as witchcraft and transgender theory. Particularly challenging is Haviva Ner-David's "Parenting as a Religious Jewish Feminist." Having grown up feeling "marginalized and irrelevant," Ner-David is now studying with an Orthodox rabbi in Jerusalem for rabbinic ordination. She prays with the male accouterments of phylacteries and prayer shawl, and has taken part in other traditionally male rituals. Attuned to the discomfort she produces in other observant Jews, she expresses ambivalence about imposing her customs on her daughters. Loolwa Khazzoom, a Jew of Iraqi descent, describes the alienation she felt sitting behind the women's prayer partition and in the face of condescension from Jews of European descent. Like the other writers here, instead of simply rejecting Judaism, Khazzoom is actively involved in redefining her Jewishness, currently working as program coordinator of the Jewish Multicultural Education Project when she is not singing and playing bass for her all-girls band. A left-wing religious Jew, Emily Wages takes on those progressive Jews who identify Judaism with oppression, patriarchy and xenophobia, while they honor other religions and cultures. With an upbeat foreword by noted Jewish scholar and feminist Susannah Heschel, this cutting-edge anthology is a welcome testament to how Jewish Gen-X women are finding their own distinctive voices.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Seal Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1580050573
• ISBN 13: 9781580050579
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Ruttenberg Danya