Gender and Jewish History

Marion A. Kaplan is Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History at New York University. Deborah Dash Moore is Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of History and director of the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.

"[T]he subject matter of the essays shows how gender analysis can and should belong in a variety of fields and areas of study, from religious thought to the history of art to activism and politics. The result is a fitting tribute to one of the great historians of modern Judaism."—Religious Studies Review"Written by authorities in their fields, these essays are nevertheless accessible and uncover many previously hidden aspects of social, cultural, religious, and political Jewish life since the mid-18th century. Fall 2011"—Jewish Book World"Gender and Jewish History will ultimately be valuable to both scholars and graduate students in a number of disciplines. Although these essays did not arise out of a conference, they nevertheless engage in dialogue with one another to a remarkable degree."—Studies in Contemporary Jewry"Owing to the calibre of its scholarship and the fact that it brings together important work by scholars of European and American Jewish history, literature, culture, religious studies, and Holocaust studies, this book is unquestionably the most significant volume on the topic to appear in English in over a decade.11.3 2012"—Journal of Modern Jewish Studies"[T]he incredible breadth of essays in Gender and Jewish History proves that few topics in modern Jewish history can be understood without paying attention to gender, as a set of relationships that structure power."—The Jewish Quarterly Review"Imagine sitting down for delicious tapas at a long table with a group of old friends. The flavors are nuanced and varied, while the conversation is lively, provocative and deeply engaging. Reading Gender and Jewish History, edited by noted historians Marion A. Kaplan and Deborah Dash Moore, is a bit like that imagined leisurely meal."—Jewish Daily Forward"Marion A. Kaplan and Deborah Dash Moore have created a worthy tribute to Hyman's pioneering role in establishing gender as an essential component in the scholarly interpretation of the Jewish experience."—H-Judaic"Gender and Jewish History makes an important contribution to our understanding in three ways. First, it gathers together eminent and emerging scholars in one comprehensive collection. Second, its essays are engaging and wide-ranging in focus, depth and breadth, and accessibly written, without dense academic jargon, so that nonacademics can dig in, as well. Finally, it's a moving testament to just how much an individual can influence the development and trajectory of an entire scholarly field through persistence, persuasion and extraordinary vision."—ForeWord"A major collection of scholarship that contains the most up-to-date, indeed cutting-edge work on gender and Jewish history by several generations of top scholars."—Atina Grossmann, The Cooper Union

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction / Deborah Dash Moore and Marion A. KaplanPart 1. Women's Culture in Modern Jewish History1. How Does a Woman Write? Or, Pauline Wengeroff's Room of Her Own / Shulamit S. Magnus2. Wives and Wissenschaft: The Domestic Seedbed of Critical Scholarship / Ismar Schorsch3. Jews, Women, and Coffee in Early Modern Germany / Robert Liberles4. Water into Blood: Custom, Calendar, and an Unknown Yiddish Book for Women / Elisheva Carlebach5. "The Murdered Hebrew Maidservant of East New York": Gender, Class, and the Jewish Household in Eastern Europe and Its Diaspora / Rebecca Kobrin6. Jewish Courtship and Marriage in 1920s Vienna / Marsha L. Rozenblit7. "Did you bring any girls?" Gender Imbalance in a Jewish Refugee Settlement: Sosúa, the Dominican Republic, 1940-1945 / Marion A. Kaplan8. The Contribution of Gender to the Study of the Holocaust / Dalia OferPart 2. Gendered Dimensions of Religious Change9. Women in the Thought and Practice of the European Jewish Reform Movement / Michael A. Meyer10. German Orthodox Rabbinical Writings on the Jewish Textual Education of Women: The Views of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Rabbi Esriel Hildesheimer / David Ellenson11. Gender and Conversion Revisited / Todd M. Endelman12. The Politics of Love in Lev Levanda's Turbulent Times / ChaeRan Y. Freeze13. Fruitful Weaving: Eve and Penelope as Icons in the Poetry of Linda Pastan / Anne Lapidus Lerner14. Vernacular Kabbalah, Embodiment, and Women in the Early Modern and Contemporary Periods / Chava Weissler15. Telling Stories: The Legal Turn in Jewish Feminist Thought / Claire E. SufrinPart 3. Jewish Politics in American Accents16. "The Call to Action": Margaret Sanger, the Brownsville Jewish Women, and Political Activism / Judith Rosenbaum17. "Too Good to Have Been Made by a Woman": American Jewish Women Artists as Political Activists from the 1920s to the 1940s / Lauren B. Strauss18. Walkers in the City: Young Jewish Women with Cameras / Deborah Dash Moore19. Assembling Eichmann's Shackles / Deborah E. Lipstadt20. Golda and the Court Jew: Golda Meir, Henry Kissinger, and the Personas They Denied / Michael Scott Alexander21. Gendered Journeys: Jewish Migrations and the City in Postwar America / Lila Corwin Berman22. Constructing Manhood in American Jewish Culture / Beth S. WengerAfterword: An Emancipating Experience: The Jews of France in Paula Hyman's Oeuvre / Richard I. CohenBibliography of Paula Hyman's WorksList of ContributorsIndex