Alef: The NEXT Conversation

24: Jewish Women

This week we introduce issue #24: “Jewish Women”

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If I asked ten people to describe what pops into mind when mentioning the topic “Jewish women,” I would likely hear ten vastly different answers (or possibly twelve, if all ten people polled were Jewish themselves). One guy might go into great detail about the Jewish women who populated his synagogue growing up, while the girl next to him describes her grandmother, who survived Auschwitz before making aliyah to Palestine and fighting for Israel’s independence. There may be a jokster among the bunch who actually says, “Sarah Silverman” and is then booted out of the group for insulting women—and humankind—the world over.

Perhaps one or two people would touch on one of the Torah’s strong female characters; there are many from which to choose, including Deborah, aka “The Fiery One.” Passages in the Book of Judges regard Deborah as the original Biblical “fighting woman.” The Torah also views Abraham’s wife, Sarah, as the matriarch of the Jewish people. She is often portrayed as a strong, independent woman who would go to great lengths to provide for her family (you won’t catch me providing stand-in women to my husband should infertility issues arise, but Sarah did just that). Speaking of infertility (well, fertility), a few readers may point to the strong female characters of Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent, in which the women of Jacob’s tribe took refuge and bonded with one another in a red tent while either menstruating or giving birth.

Extending past the Biblical era and into more modern times, other people may very well mention Holocaust survivors, or Holocaust chroniclers like Anne Frank, who did not survive but whose evident strength did and will impact generations to come. Or they may suggest the fiery Palmach fighter, Jordana Ben Canaan, from Leon Uris’ epic novel about Israel’s fight for independence, Exodus, a fictional character but one surely based on both factual and mythological projections of a Zionist ideal.

If you ask me about Jewish women, the first image that pops into mind is not a singular, known individual; rather it’s the image of an older, hearty woman with tight, graying curls, a wizened face and penchant for muttering Yiddish curse words. In my mind’s eye, she’s grappling with a carp swimming furiously around the bathtub of her small, tenement apartment; he can’t go far, the carp, but knows that once he’s caught, his fate of becoming gefilte fish on the old woman’s Pesach table is all but sealed.

Women in Judaism, both from a religious and cultural perspective, clearly take on a different and unique look for everyone. In this issue of Alef, we will explore those ideas and themes. Enjoy the posts and, as always, we welcome your open and honest commentary. If there’s one lesson you learn, though, it may very well be that even though Deborah was, arguably, the first female Jewish fighter, she has hardly been the last.

– Emily Kapit +Alef

Jewish Women Posts:
My Grandmother’s Doily
My Own Mama Manual
The Top 10 Moments for Jewish Women in 2010
Nice Jewish Girl No More
Nice Catholic Girl

Photo by Michal_Hadassah, licensed under Creative Commons.

Tags: bible, Holocaust, infertility, jewish, sarah, Women, Yiddish

Posted by Sarah, Thursday, December 16th, 2010, 4:35 pm, Women.