Description: What does it mean to be a Jewish woman today? To an Orthodox woman,
it means living a religious way of life in which serving God totally
defines her self-perception and her role as wife and mother. For the
secular woman, it means having a sense of belonging, although not
necessarily to a specific Jewish community. Most contemporary Jewish
women fall somewhere in between, but at the core of all of their
identities is a complex interweaving of religious and ethnic
elements, a shared history, and a collective memory of periods of
prejudice, persecution, wandering, and resettlement.
Focusing on Jewish women in the United States and Britain, Adrienne
Baker examines such issues as women's role in religious law, the
spectrum of synagogue observance, the mother's role as conveyor of
tradition, conversion and inter- faith marriages, and sexuality. In
particular, the book examines the impact of feminism on Jewish women
and their culture, uncovering the counterinfluences of tradition and
new freedoms on women's lives.
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