Women in Judaism

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Women in Judaism have affected the course of Judaism over millenia. Their role is reflected in the Hebrew Bible, the Oral Law (the corpus of rabbinic literature), by custom, and by cultural factors. Although the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature present various female role models, religious law treats women in specific ways. According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, women account for 52% of the worldwide Jewish population.^[1]

A growing movement advocates for increased inclusion of women in positions such as rabbis, cantors, and communal leaders.^[3] This challenges historic practices. Perspectives on women's roles evolved over time due to discussion and reinterpretation of religious texts.^[4]

Biblical times

Compared to men, relatively few women are mentioned in the Bible by name and role. Those mentioned include the

Women are portrayed subverting male-dominated power structures.[6] Many Jewish women are considered foundational by feminists because they provide insights into life during those times. They are notable for breaking the male dominance of historical documentation. This is notable given the poor documentation of most women's lives at the time.^{[7][page needed]}

According to Jewish tradition, a covenant was formed between the Israelites and the God of Abraham at Mount Sinai. The Torah relates that Israelite men and women were present at Sinai; however, the covenant bound men to act upon its requirements and to ensure that household members (wives, children, and slaves) also met these requirements. In this sense, the covenant bound women, though indirectly.^[8]

Marriage and family law in biblical times gave men powers that it did not give to women. For example, a husband could choose to divorce a wife, but a wife could not divorce a husband without his consent. The practice of

Laws concerning the loss of female virginity have no male equivalent. Many of these laws, such as levirate marriage, are no longer practiced (chalitzah is practiced instead of levirate marriage). These and other gender differences found in the Torah suggest that biblical society viewed continuity, property, and family unity as paramount; however, they also suggest that women were to be subordinate to men.^[8] Men were required to perform specific duties for their wives, but these often reinforced gendered roles. These included the provision of clothing, food, and sexual service to their wives.^[9]

Women participated in ritual life. Women were required to make pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem once a year (men should on each of the three main festivals if possible) and offer the Passover sacrifice. They would also do so on special occasions in their lives such as giving a todah ("thanksgiving") offering after childbirth. Hence, they participated in many of the major public religious roles that non-Levitical men could, albeit less often and on a somewhat smaller and more discreet scale.

According to Jewish tradition, Michal, the daughter of Saul and David's first wife, accepted the commandments of tefillin and tzitzit. However, these requirements applied only to men.^[10] Many of the mitzvot applied to both men and women; however, women were usually exempt from requirements to perform a duty at a specific time, as opposed to doing so at a convenient time or requirements to abstain from an act).^[11] Two prominent theories attempt to explain this: pragmatism (because women's duties consume their time) and spirituality (because "women have superior inherent spiritual wisdom", known as bina, that makes them less dependent than men on religious practices to retain a strong spiritual connection to God).^[12]

Women depended on men economically. Women generally did not own property except in the rare case of inheriting land from a father who did not bear sons. Even in such cases, "women would be required to remarry within the tribe so as not to reduce its land holdings".^[8]

Talmudic times

Women were required by

Evidence suggests that, at least among the elite, women were educated in the Bible and in halacha. The daughter of a scholar was considered a good prospect for marriage in part because of her education. Stories in the Talmud present women whose husbands died or were exiled and yet were able to educate their children because of their own education.[16]

Classical Jewish

• Greater is the reward to be given by the All-Mighty to the (righteous) women than to (righteous) men.^[17]
• Ten measures of speech descended to the world; women took nine.^[18]
• Women are light on raw knowledge – i. e., they possess more intuition.^[19]
• A man without a wife lives without joy, blessing, and good; a man should love his wife as himself and respect her more than himself.^[20]
• When
  Rav Yosef b. Hiyya heard his mother's footsteps he would say: Let me arise before the approach of the divine presence.^[21]
• Israel was redeemed from Egypt by virtue of its (Israel's) righteous women.[22]
• A man must be careful never to speak slightingly to his wife, because women are prone to tears and sensitive to wrong.^[23]
• Women have greater faith than men.^[24]
• Women have greater powers of discernment.^[25]
• Women are especially tenderhearted.^[26]

While few women are mentioned by name, and none are known to have authored a rabbinic work, those who are mentioned are portrayed as having a strong influence on their husbands. Occasionally they have a public persona. Examples are Bruriah, the wife of the Tanna Rabbi Meir; Rachel, wife of Rabbi Akiva; Yalta, the wife of Rabbi Nachman; and Ima Shalom, the wife of Eliezer ben Hurcanus. When Eleazar ben Azariah was asked to assume the role of Nasi ("Prince" or President of the Sanhedrin), he replied that he must first take counsel with his wife, which he did.^[27]

Middle Ages

Since Jews were seen as second-class citizens in Christian and Muslim societies (legally known in the Muslim world as dhimmi), it was harder for Jewish women to establish their own status. Grossman claimed that three factors affected how Jewish women were perceived by society: "the biblical and Talmudic heritage; the situation in the non-Jewish society within which the Jews lived and functioned; and the economic status of the Jews, including the woman's role in supporting the family."^[28] Grossman used these factors to argue that women's status overall during this period rose.^[29]

During the Middle Ages, a conflict emerged between Judaism's expectations of women and the reality in which they lived; this was similar to the lives of Christian women of the period.

Prohibitions against teaching women Torah eased, and women started to form prayer groups.[32] Women participated in Jewish practices publicly at the synagogue. Women probably learned how to read the liturgy in Hebrew.^[33]

Bowker stated that traditionally, "men and women pray separately. This goes back to ancient times when women could go only as far as the second court of the Temple."^[2]: 19 In most synagogues, women were given an area named Ezrat Nashim, most likely a balcony; some synagogues had a separate building.^[34]

Separation from the men was created by the Rabbis in the Mishnah and the Talmud. The reasoning was that a woman and her body would distract men and give them impure thoughts during prayer.^[35] Due to this rabbinical interpretation, scholars viewed the women's role in the synagogue as limited and sometimes non-existent. Later research reported that women had a significant role in the synagogue and the community at large. Women usually attended synagogue, for example, on the Shabbat and the holidays.^[36]

Depending on the location, women either attended the same service as the men or conducted their own. In larger synagogues, a designated woman who was able to follow the cantor would repeat the prayers for the women.^[34] Women had always attended services on Shabbat and holidays, but beginning in the eleventh century, women became more involved in the synagogue and its rituals. Separate seating for women became a norm around the beginning of the thirteenth century.^[37] Women, however, did much more than pray. One of their main jobs was to beautify the building. Women sewed Torah ark curtains and Torah covers; some survive.^[38] The synagogue was a communal place for both men and women where worship, learning and community activities occurred.

The rise of

Marriage, domestic violence and divorce were discussed by

Many women had enough education to help their husbands in business or even run their own. Jewish women seem to have lent money to Christian women throughout Europe.[56] Women also worked as copyists, midwives, spinners, and weavers.^[57][58]

Debates in Jewish law

Education of women

From certain contexts of the Mishnah and Talmud it can be derived that women should not study Mishnah. Female Tannaitic Torah jurists included Rabbi Meir's wife,^[59] Rabbi Meir's daughter, and the daughter of Haninah ben Teradion.^[60] Haninah's daughter is mentioned as a sage in the non-Talmud third-century text Tractate Semahot, verse 12:13.^[61] Rabbi Meir's wife is credited with teaching him how to understand some verses from Isaiah.^[62] The Mishnah references certain women teaching men the Torah from behind a curtain, so that no man would be offended.

However, a yeshiva, or school for Talmudic studies, is an "exclusively masculine environment".^[2]: 123

One of the most important Ashkenazi rabbanim of the past century, Yisrael Meir Kagan, known popularly as the "Chofetz Chaim", favored Torah education for girls to counteract the French "finishing schools" prevalent in his day for the daughters of the bourgeoisie.

"It would appear that all [these sexist laws] were intended for earlier generations when everyone dwelt in the place of their familial ancestral home and ancestral tradition was very powerful among all to follow the path of their fathers... under such circumstances we could maintain that a woman not study Mishnayos and, for guidance, rely on her righteous parents, but presently, due to our myriad sins, ancestral tradition has become exceptionally weak and it is common that people do not dwell in proximity to the family home, and especially those women who devote themselves to mastering the vernacular, surely it is a now a great mitzvah to teach them Scripture and the ethical teachings of our sages such as Pirkei Avos, Menoras Ha-Ma'or and the like so that they will internalize our sacred faith because [if we do not do so] they are prone to abandon the path of God and violate all principles of [our] faith."^[66]

Joseph Soloveitchik

Rabbi

Part of a series of articles on
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Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism holds that men and women have different roles in religious life. Each person is created with a unique role in the world.^{[citation needed]} Opinions vary among Orthodox Jews concerning these principles. Most claim that men and women have complementary yet different roles, and bear different obligations. For example, women are not burdened with time-bound mitzvot. Others believe that such differences have cultural, social, and historical causes. Women were historically exempted from religious study beyond understanding the practical aspects of Torah and the practices necessary for running a devout household; both of which they were obligated to learn. Until the twentieth century, women were often discouraged from learning Talmud and other advanced Jewish texts. In the past 100 years, Orthodox Jewish education for women has expanded tremendously.^[68] This is most visible in the development of the Bais Yaakov system.

Orthodox women have been working to expand women's learning and scholarship, promoting women's ritual inclusion in worship, and promoting women's communal and religious leadership.^[69] Some rabbinic leaders are opposed to such changes, claiming that women are motivated by sociological reasons rather than religion.^[70] For example, Orthodox, Haredi, and Hasidic rabbis discourage women from wearing a kippah, tallit, or tefillin.^[71]

In Orthodox synagogues, women are not entitled to deliver

Although Judaism prescribes modesty for both men and women,

In accordance with Jewish Law, Orthodox Jewish women refrain from bodily contact with their husbands while they are

Modern Orthodox

Orthodox leader Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik discouraged women from serving as presidents of synagogues or other official leadership positions,^[75] from performing other mitzvot traditionally performed by males exclusively, such as wearing a tallit or tefillin. A minor reason is that the tefillin help keep men from thinking impure thoughts. Women are thought not to need help with this. Soloveitchik wrote that while women do not lack the capability to perform such acts, there is no mesorah (Jewish tradition) that permits it. In making his decision, he relied upon Jewish oral law, including a mishnah in Chulin 2a and a Beit Yoseph in the Tur Yoreh Deah stating that a woman can perform a specific official communal service for her own needs, but not those of others.^[76]

Women's issues garnered more interest with the advent of feminism. Many Modern Orthodox Jewish women and Modern Orthodox rabbis sought to provide more Jewish education for women. Modern Orthodox communities promote women's secular education. A few Modern Orthodox Synagogues have women serving as clergy, including Gilah Kletenik at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun.

In 2010, Sara Hurwitz became the first woman to ordained as a "Rabba", or female equivalent of a rabbi, when she started serving as an "Open Orthodox" spiritual leader.^[77]

In 2013,

In 2014, the first-ever book of halachic decisions was written by women who were ordained to serve as poskot (Idit Bartov and Anat Novoselsky) was published.[84] They were ordained by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, after completing Midreshet Lindenbaum women's college's course, as well as passing examinations equivalent to the rabbinate's requirement for men.^[84]

2015

On June 10 Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy and Rahel Berkovits became the first two women to be ordained as Modern Orthodox Jewish Rabbas in Israel.^[85]

In June Lila Kagedan was ordained by Yeshivat Maharat and given the freedom to choose her own title, she chose "Rabbi".^[86] She became the first female Modern Orthodox rabbi in the US in January 2016.^[87][88]

In the fall, the Agudath Israel of America denounced moves to ordain women, and declared Yeshivat Maharat, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Open Orthodoxy, as having rejected basic tenets of Judaism.^[89][90][91] The Rabbinical Council of America passed a resolution which stated, "RCA members with positions in Orthodox institutions may not ordain women into the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title used; or hire or ratify the hiring of a woman into a rabbinic position at an Orthodox institution; or allow a title implying rabbinic ordination to be used by a teacher of Limudei Kodesh in an Orthodox institution."^[92]

Jennie Rosenfeld became the first female Orthodox spiritual advisor in Israel.^[93]

2016-

In 2016 Ephraim Mirvis created the job of ma'ayan by which women would be advisers on Jewish law in the area of family purity and as adult educators in Orthodox synagogues.^[94] This required a part-time training course for 18 months, the first such course in the United Kingdom.^[94] On August 23, 2016, Karmit Feintuch became the first woman in Jerusalem to be hired as a Modern Orthodox "rabbanit" and serve as a spiritual leader.^[95]

In 2017, the Orthodox Union adopted a policy banning women from serving as clergy, from holding titles such as "rabbi", and from performing common clergy functions even without a title, in its US congregations.^[96]

Women's prayer groups

In Germany, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, women's prayer groups were led by female cantors. Rabbi Eliezer of Worms, in his elegy for his wife Dulca, praised her for teaching the other women how to pray and embellishing the prayer with music. The gravestone of Urania of Worms, who died in 1275, contains the inscription "who sang piyyutim for the women with musical voice". In the Nurnberg Memorial Book, one Richenza was inscribed with the title "prayer leader of the women".^[97]

Orthodox women more recently began holding organized women's tefila (prayer) groups beginning in the 1970s. While all Orthodox legal authorities agree that women are prohibited from forming a

The Ramah in Choshen Mishpat (Siman 35, 14) rules that in a case where only women congregate, or in a case where only women could possibly testify (in this case, the alleged harassment occurred behind closed doors), they can, and should, certainly testify. (Terumas Hadeshen Siman 353 and Agudah Perek 10, Yochasin)

This is also the ruling of the

Chasam Sofer pointed out in his sefer (monograph) (Orach Chaim T'shuvah 11)^[105]

The Rabbinical Council of America, while initially relying on its own investigation, chose to rely on the Halakhic ruling of the Haredi Rabbinical body as authoritative in the situation.^{[citation needed]}

Orthodox approaches to change

Leaders of the Haredi community opposied any change in the role of women, arguing that religious and social constraints on women are timeless, and are not subject to change. Many argued that giving traditionally male roles to women would detract from both women's and men's ability to lead fulfilling lives. Haredim perceived arguments for liberalization as stemming from antagonism to Jewish law and beliefs.

More liberal variants of Modern Orthodox Judaism tend to view proposed changes in the role of women on a case-by-case basis, focusing on arguments regarding the religious and legal role of specific prayers, rituals and activities individually. Such arguments focus on cases where the Talmud and other traditional sources express multiple or more liberal viewpoints, particularly where the role of women in the past was arguably broader than in later times. Feminist advocates within Orthodoxy generally stay within the traditional legal process of argumentation, seeking a gradualist approach.^{[citation needed]} Nevertheless, a growing Orthodox feminist movement seeks to address gender inequalities.^[106]

Agunot

that forces the husband to serve a get or else be reported to the Jewish court.

Conservative Judaism

Although the position of Conservative Judaism toward women originally differed little from the Orthodox position, it later minimized legal and ritual differences between men and women. The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) of the Rabbinical Assembly issued decisions and responsa on this topic. These provide for women's active participation in areas such as:

• Publicly reading the Torah (ba'al kriah)
• Being counted as part of a minyan
• Being called for an aliyah to read the Torah
• Serving as a cantor (shaliach tzibbur)
• Serving as rabbi and halakhic decisor (posek - an arbiter in matters of religious law)
• Wearing a tallit and tefillin

A rabbi may decide which particular rulings to adopt for the congregation; thus, some Conservative congregations became more or less egalitarian than others.

Areas where legal differences remain between men and women include:

• Matrilineal descent. The child of a Jewish mother is born Jewish; the child of a Jewish father is born Jewish if and only if the mother is Jewish.
• Pidyon Ha-Bat, a proposed ceremony based on the biblical redemption of the eldest newborn son (
  Pidyon Ha-Ben). CJLS stated that this ceremony should not be performed for women. Other ceremonies, such as a Simchat Bat (welcoming a newborn daughter), should instead be used.^[108]

A Conservative Jewish

ketuba includes a clause that puts a husband and wife on more equal footing when it comes to marriage and divorce law within halacha.^[109]

CJLS reaffirmed in 2006[110] the obligation of Conservative women to observe niddah (sexual abstinence during and after menstruation) and mikvah (ritual immersion) following menstruation, although liberalizing certain details.^[111][110] Such practices, while requirements of Conservative Judaism, are not widely observed among Conservative laity.

Changes

Conservative Judaism traditionally held traditional views of women's role. However, in 1946, the new Silverman siddur changed the traditional words of thanking God for "not making me a woman", instead thanking God for "making me a free person."^[112] In 1955, the CJLS of the Rabbinical Assembly allowed women to have an aliyah at Torah-readings services.^[113]

In 1973, the CJLS of the Rabbinical Assembly voted, without issuing an opinion, that women could count in a minyan.

A commission appointed by the Conservative movement to study the issue of ordaining women as rabbis, met between 1977 and 1978. It consisted of eleven men and three women: attorney Marian Siner Gordon,

cantors.^[109] Paula Hyman

, among others, voted as a member of the JTSA faculty.

In 2002, the CJLS adapted a

responsum by Rabbi David Fine, Women and the Minyan,^[115] which provided a religious-law foundation for women counting in a minyan and explained the Conservative approach to the role of women in prayer.^[115]

It holds that although Jewish women do not traditionally have the same obligations as men, Conservative women have voluntarily undertaken them. Because of this undertaking, Fine's responsum claimed that Conservative women are eligible to serve as agents and decision-makers for others. The responsum also held that traditionally-minded communities and individual women could opt out without sinning. By adopting this responsum, the CJLS allowed itself to provide a considered Jewish-law justification for its practices, without having to rely on ad hoc arguments, undermine the religious importance of community and clergy, ask individual women intrusive questions, repudiate the halakhic tradition, or label women as sinners who followed traditional practices.

In 2006, the CJLS adopted three

Between 1973 and 2002, the Conservative movement adopted changes through its official organizations, but without issuing explanatory opinions. Since 2002, the Conservative movement coalesced around a unified approach to the role of women.[120]

In 1973, 1983, and 1993, individual rabbis and professors issued six major opinions that influenced the Conservative approach, the first and second Sigal, Blumenthal, Rabinowitz, and Roth responsa, and the Hauptman article. These opinions sought to launch a wholesale shift in women's public roles through a comprehensive legal justification. Most such opinions proposed that Jewish women always were, or had become, legally obligated to perform many of the same mitzvot as men and, when performing mitzvot, to do so in the same manner.^[121][122]

The first Sigal and the Blumenthal responsa were considered by CJLS as part of its decision on prayer roles in 1973. They argued that women had always had the same obligations as men.^[123][124] The first Sigal responsum used the Talmud's general prayer obligation and examples of cases in which women were traditionally obligated to say specific prayers. They inferred from them a public prayer obligation identical to that of men. The Blumenthal responsum extrapolated from a minority authority that a minyan could be formed with nine men and one woman in an emergency. CJLS declined to adopt either responsum. Rabbi Sigal reported to the Rabbinical Assembly membership that many on the CJLS, while agreeing with the result, found the arguments unconvincing.

The Rabinowitz, Roth, and second Sigal responsa were considered by JTSA faculty as part of its decision to ordain women as rabbis in 1983. The Rabbinowitz responsum sidestepped the issue of obligation, arguing that a community representative was no longer needed in prayer and hence the question of whether a woman can perform halakhic was moot. CJLS stated that an argument potentially undermining the value of community and clergy was unconvincing: "We should not be afraid to recognize that the function of clergy is to help our people connect with the holy." The Roth and second Sigal responsa accepted that time-bound mitzvot were traditionally optional for women, but argued that women in modern times could change their traditional roles. The Roth responsum^[125] argued that women could voluntarily assume the same obligations as men, and that women who do so (e. g., pray three times a day regularly) could count in a minyan and serve as agents. JTSA accordingly required female rabbinical students wishing to train as rabbis to personally obligate themselves. Synagogue rabbis, unwilling to inquire into individual religiosity, found this impractical. The second Sigal responsum^[126] called for a takkanah, or rabbinical edict, "that would serve as a halakhic ERA", overruling all non-egalitarian provisions in law or, in the alternative, adopet an approach to halakhic interpretation independent of legal precedents. CJLS, unwilling to take either an intrusive approach or repudiate the traditional legal process, did not adopt either and let the JTS faculty vote stand unexplained.

In 1993, Professor Judith Hauptman of JTSA issued an influential paper^[127] arguing that women had historically always been obligated in prayer, using more detailed arguments than the Blumenthal and first Sigal responsa. The paper suggested that women who followed traditional practices were failing to meet their obligations. Rabbi Roth argued that Conservative Judaism should think twice before adopting a viewpoint labeling its most traditional and often most committed members as sinners. The issue was again dropped.

In 2002, the CJLS returned to the issue and adopted a single authoritative approach, the Fine responsum,^[115] as the definitive Conservative halakha on role-of-women issues. This responsum held that although Jewish women do not traditionally have the same obligations as men, Conservative women have collectively and voluntarily undertaken them. Because of this, the Fine responsum held that Conservative women were eligible to serve as agents and decision-makers for others. The Responsum also held that traditionally minded communities and individuals could continue traditional practice without sinning. By adopting this Responsum, CJLS was able to provide a considered Jewish-law justification for its egalitarian practices, without having to rely on potentially unconvincing arguments, undermine the religious importance of community and clergy, ask individual women intrusive questions, repudiate the halakhic tradition, or label women following traditional practices as sinners.

Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism believes in the equality of men and women. It rejects the idea that halakha is the sole legitimate form of Jewish decisionmaking, and holds that Jews must consider their conscience and ethical principles inherent in the Jewish tradition when deciding upon a right course of action. Consensus is widespread among Reform Jews that traditional distinctions between the role of men and women violate the deeper ethical principles of Judaism. This has enabled Reform communities to allow women to perform many rituals traditionally reserved for men, such as:

• Publicly reading the Torah w(ba'al kriah)
• Being part of the minyan
• Being called for an aliyah to read the Torah
• Serving as a cantor (shalich tzibbur)
• Serving as rabbi and halakhic decisor (posek)
• Wearing a tallit and tefillin

Concerns about intermarriage influenced the Reform Jewish position on gender. In 1983, the

In 2008, Stacy Offner became the first female vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism.^[136][137] In 2015, Daryl Messinger became the first female Union chair.^[138]

Reform approaches to change

Reform Judaism generally holds that the various differences between the roles of men and women in traditional Jewish law are not relevant to modern conditions and no longer applicable. Accordingly, legal arguments were not needed.

Reconstructionist Judaism

The equality of women and men is a central tenet and hallmark of Reconstructionist Judaism. From the beginning, Reconstructionist Jewish ritual allowed men and women to pray together. It was on this basis that Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan called for the full equality of women and men, despite the obvious difficulties reconciling this stance with traditional Jewish practice.^[139] The Reconstructionist Movement always allowed women to be ordained.^[140] In 1968, women were accepted into the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, under Ira Eisenstein's leadership.^[141] The first ordained female Reconstructionist rabbi, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, served as rabbi of the Manhattan Reconstructionist Congregation in 1976, and gained a pulpit in 1977 at Beth El Zedeck congregation in Indianapolis. Sandy Eisenberg Sasso was accepted without debate or subsequent controversy.^[142] In 2005, 24 of the movement's 106 synagogues in the US had women as senior or assistant rabbis.^[143] In 2013 Rabbi Deborah Waxman was elected as the President of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.^[144][145] She was the first woman and first lesbian to officially to lead a Jewish congregational union, and the first female rabbi and first lesbian to lead a Jewish seminary; the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College is both a congregational union and a seminary.^[144][146]

The Reconstructionist Community began including women in the minyan and allowing them to come up to the Torah for aliyot. They also continued the practice of

Prominent members of the Reconstructionist community focused on issues such as domestic violence.^{[159][160][161][162]} Others devoted energy to helping women gain the right of divorce in traditional Jewish communities.^[163][164] Many have spoken out for the right of Jewish women to pray aloud and read from the Torah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, particularly members of the Women of the Wall group.^[165]

When the roles of women in religion change, men's roles may also change. With their acceptance of patrilineal descent in 1979, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association supported the principle that a man can pass Judaism on to the next generation as well as a woman.^[166]

Jewish Renewal

Jewish Renewal describes itself as "a worldwide, transdenominational movement grounded in Judaism's prophetic and mystical traditions".^[167] The Jewish Renewal movement ordains women and men as rabbis and cantors. Lynn Gottlieb became the first female rabbi in Jewish Renewal in 1981, and Avitall Gerstetter became the first female cantor in Jewish Renewal (and the first female cantor in Germany) in 2002.^[168] In 2009 and 2012 respectively, OHALAH (Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal) issued a board statement and a resolution supporting Women of the Wall.^[169][170] OHALAH's Statement of Principles states, "Our local communities will embody egalitarian and inclusive values, manifested in a variety of leadership and decision-making structures, ensuring that women and men are full and equal partners in every aspect of our communal Jewish life."^[171] In 2014 OHALAH issued a board resolution stating, "Therefore, be it resolved that: OHALAH supports the observance of Women's History Month, International Women's Day, and Women's Equality Day; OHALAH condemns all types of sexism; OHALAH is committed to gender equality, now and in all generations to come; and OHALAH supports equal rights regardless of gender."^[172] Also in 2014, ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal issued a statement stating, "ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal supports the observance of Women's History Month, International Women's Day, and Women's Equality Day, condemns all types of sexism, is committed to gender equality, now and in all generations to come, and supports equal rights regardless of gender, in recognition and allegiance to the view that we are all equally created in the Divine Image."^[173]

Humanistic Judaism

Sofrot is the feminine plural of Sofer.[179] A Sopher, Sopher, Sofer STaM, or Sofer ST"M (Heb: "scribe", סופר סת״ם) is a Jewish scribe who is able and entitled to transcribe Torah scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot, and other religious writings. (ST"M, סת״ם, is an abbreviation for Sefer Torahs, Tefillin, and Mezuzot. The masculine plural of sofer is "sofrim" סופרים).

Forming the basis for the discussion of women becoming sofrot,

• Bat-Kohen (daughter of a priest)
• Bat Levi
  (daughter of a Levite)
• First World Congress of Jewish Women, 1923
• Jewish feminism
  • List of Jewish feminists
• Women as theological figures
  • Women rabbis and Torah scholars
  • Rebbetzin (Yiddish) or Rabbanit (Hebrew) (Orthodox rabbi's wife)
  • List of women in the Bible
• Bais Yaakov (schools for Haredi girls)
• Niddah (menstruation laws)
• Soferet
  (female Jewish scribe who can transcribe religious documents)
• Gender and Jewish Studies
• Gender separation in Judaism
  • Ezrat Nashim
  • Tzniut (modest behavior)
  • Negiah (guidelines for physical contact)
  • Yichud (prohibitions of secluding oneself with a stranger)
• Jewish views on marriage
  • Shidduch (finding a marriage partner)
  • Shalom bayit (peace and harmony in the relationship between husband and wife)
  • Zeved habat or Simchat Bat (Jewish baby naming ceremony for girls)
• Minyan (quorum of at least ten Jews acceptable for the recitation of certain prayers)
  • Partnership minyan (a movement to give women more roles in prayer services)
• Agunah (a woman who wishes to divorce her husband, but her husband refused to provide her with a Jewish divorce contract)
• Women in Israel
• Women's Torah Project
  • Women of the Wall

References

Further reading

• ISBN 978-0-8143-2091-4
  .
• Biale, Rachel (1984). Women and Jewish Law. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
  ISBN 0805238875
  .
• ISBN 978-0-8047-4553-6
  .
• ISBN 978-0-87334-041-0
  .
• Hauptman, Judith (1993). "Women and Prayer: An Attempt to Dispel Some Fallacies". Judaism. 42: 94–103.
• ISBN 978-0-8133-3400-4
  .
• Heshelis, Devorah (2006). The Moon's Lost Light: A Torah Perspective on Women from the Fall of Eve to the Final Redemption. Targum Press.
  ISBN 978-1-56871-377-9
  .
• ISBN 978-0-8070-3649-5
  .
• OCLC 1037810222
  .
• Taitz, Emily; Sondra Henry; Cheryl Tallan (2003). The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 B.C.E.-1900 C.E.. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.
  ISBN 0827607520
  .

Middle Ages

• ISBN 0-691-05787-7
  .
• S2CID 143121150
  .
• Cohen, Mark R. (2008). Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  ISBN 978-0691139319
  .
• ISBN 978-1-58465-391-2
  .
• Marcus, Ivan G (Spring 1986). "Mothers, Martyrs, and Moneymakers: Some Jewish Women in Medieval Europe". Conservative Judaism. 38 (3): 34–45.
• Melammed, Renee Levine (November 2009). "Women in Medieval Jewish Societies". In Greenspahn, Frederick E. (ed.). Women and Judaism: New Insights and Scholarship. NYU Press.
  ISBN 978-0-8147-3218-2
  .
• Steinberg, Theodore L. (2008). Jews and Judaism in the Middle Ages. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers.
  ISBN 978-0275985882
  .

Orthodox Judaism and women

• Berman, Saul; Magnus, Shulamith (1981). "Orthodoxy Responds to Feminist Ferment". Response. 12: 5.
• ISBN 978-1-57181-239-1
  .
• Fishbane, Simcha (1993). "In Any Case There Are No Sinful Thoughts: The Role and Status of Women in Jewish Law as Expressed in the Arukh Hashulhan". Judaism. 42 (4): 492–503.
• ISBN 978-0-275-99154-8
  .
• ISBN 978-1-58465-658-6
  .
• Reisman, Levi M. (1998). "Feminism - A Force That Will Split Orthodoxy?". The Jewish Observer. Vol. 31, no. 5. pp. 37–47.
• Ross, Tamar (1993). "Can the Demand for Change In the Status of Women Be Halakhically Legitimated?". Judaism. 42 (4): 478–491.
• ISBN 978-1-58465-389-9
  .
• Shenhav, Sharon (1999). "Human Rights, Jewish Women, and Jewish Law". Justice. 21.
• Stern, Marc D. (2002). "On Egalitarianism and Halakha". Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought. 36 (2): 1–30.
  ISSN 0041-0608
  .
• ISBN 978-0-88125-719-9
  .
• ISBN 978-0-88125-574-4
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Judaism and women.

General

• Chabad.org: The Jewish Woman
• Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
• Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse
• Na'amat USA
• Orthodox Union: The Women's Initiative
• Women's League for Conservative Judaism
• Women of Reform Judaism

Publications

• Jewish Women's Archive
• Lilith Magazine a Jewish feminist journal
• Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary eJournal by Dina Ripsman Elyon an online peer-reviewed journal covering women in Judaism, with a special emphasis on history, but also including book reviews and fiction.

Particular issues

• Spots of Light: Women in the Holocaust an online exhibition by Yad Vashem
• The Kiddushin Variations A Directory of Halakhic Possibilities For A More Egalitarian Kiddushin Ritual.
• "Qeri'at ha-Torah by Women: A Halakhic Analysis, Shapiro, Mendel. Edah 1:2, 2001" (PDF).
• "Congregational Dignity and Human Dignity: Women and Public Torah Reading, Sperber, Daniel. Edah 3:2, 2002" (PDF).
• "Women and Prayer: An Attempt to Dispel Some Fallacies", Judith Hauptman, Judaism 42 (1993): 94–103.
• "Women and the Minyan" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-11-27. (194 KB), Fine, David. Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative), 2002
• Egalitarian Jewish Services A Discussion Paper
• "Women and Minyan" Archived 2019-09-12 at the Wayback Machine, Tradition, 1988. Summary of Orthodox arguments regarding women counting in minyan for certain purposes
• "Women's Prayer Services Theory and Practice" Archived 2019-09-12 at the Wayback Machine, Tradition, 1998. Summary of Orthodox arguments for and against women's prayer groups
• Elissa Strauss, Women Who Write Torah, A New Generation of Female Scribes Makes History. The Jewish Daily Forward, November 19, 2010.
• Mordecai Kaplan, Jewish Women's Archive, 2005