Hair, Headwear, and Orthodox Jewish Women: Kallah's Choice - Softcover

Milligan, Amy K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1498505546 ISBN 13: 9781498505543

Publisher: Lexington Books, 2016

Synopsis

Hair, Headwear, and Orthodox Jewish Women comments on hair covering based on an ethnographic study of the lives of Orthodox Jewish women in a small non-metropolitan synagogue. It brings the often overlooked stories of these women to the forefront and probes questions as to how their location in a small community affects their behavioral choices, particularly regarding the folk practice of hair covering. A kallah, or bride, makes the decision as to whether or not she will cover her hair after marriage. In doing so, she externally announces her religious affiliation, in particular her commitment to maintaining an Orthodox Jewish home. Hair covering practices are also unique to women’s traditions and point out the importance of examining the women, especially because their cultural roles may be marginalized in studies as a result of their lack of a central role in worship. This study questions their contribution to Orthodoxy as well as their concept of Jewish identity and the ways in which they negotiate this identity with ritualized and traditional behavior, ultimately bringing into question the meaning of tradition in a modern world.

About this title

About the Author:

Amy K. Milligan teaches women and gender studies at Elizabethtown College. Her research concentrates on the overlap of gender and sexuality with religion.

Review:

In this brilliant ethnography, Amy Milligan lets us listen in to personal conversations and see women in and out of worship to ask a profound question about the maintenance of tradition in a non-traditional environment. She opens doors to places we have not looked before—beneath hair coverings and in women’s study groups—to make us reassess the meaning not only of orthodox practice, but of identity driven by women’s worldview. Her groundbreaking book on a hairy subject will surely change the way we think, and talk about, not just Jews but the expressive body of tradition. (Simon J. Bronner, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee)

Hair, Headwear, and Orthodox Jewish Women: Kallah’s Choice is an important contribution to the fields of Jewish studies, gender studies, and American studies. Through her multi-disciplinary approach, Milligan reveals the symbolic power of hair and hair covering as a tool for negotiating the complexity of Jewish identity among Jewish women in small-town America. While hair covering is often read as a repressive practice in traditional communities, Milligan shows how the choice to cover or not to cover one’s hair is perceived among the women she interviews as an expression of power to define their own status in a complicated religious landscape. This very readable ethnography is complemented by a careful analysis that draws on a wide range of theoretical tools, including insights from gender studies, cultural psychoanalysis, anthropology, and American studies. (Andrea Lieber, Dickinson College)

As the novel The Red Tent (1997), by Anita Diamant, depicted little-known Jewish women's roles in biblical times, so this intriguing, factual work provides many subtleties within Judaism as practiced by women in the contemporary US. A five-page glossary of mostly Hebrew and Yiddish terms is also helpful. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.
(CHOICE)

Through an interdisciplinary ethnographic approach, this study considers the lived religious cultural experiences of Orthodox Jewish women living in a small community. Through an investigation of hair and head covering, Milligan explores the meaning of tradition in a contemporary context.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1498505546
• ISBN 13: 9781498505543
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 166