Judaism in the Kitchen: Ritual Space of the Mountain Jewish Women of Dagestan

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-393
Author(s):  
Varvara Redmond
Keyword(s):  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Ritual Space ◽  
Ritual Process

The article investigates the gender and ritual roles of the Mountain Jewish women of Dagestan. The research is based on fieldwork conducted by the "Sefer" Center in 2018. The author suggests that in the Mountain Jewish communities the central component of ritual life is a collective feast, but not the synagogue as it is in many other Jewish communities. Since traditionally women are responsible for preparing food, they shape and pass on the traditions of the Mountain Jews. They organize community celebrations and rites of passage. During Soviet times, the power over the ritual process transferred from the centralized male system, the synagogue, to the female sphere.

The Modern Boy’s Rite of Passage and the Lacking Component of Transcendental Death Acknowledgement

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-233
Author(s):  
Elias Hage
Keyword(s):  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Rite Of Passage ◽  
Memento Mori ◽  
Insight Into

This article explores the historical tendencies of male rites of passage and the modern expression of rite of passage as lacking the central component of transcendental death acknowledgement (Memento Mori) as seen for years past in various cultures. This article examines the necessity of developing an attunement toward objective transcendentalism among youth upon which an understanding of death may be appropriately developed. Without such a foundation, Memento Mori formulates hopelessness and fear within the boy, stunting his rite of passage into manhood. After offering cultural examples of death acknowledgement, we shall enter an analysis of Memento Mori on today’s cultural relativistic subjectivism to underscore the importance of objective transcendentalism before the incorporation of death acknowledgement within the rite of passage of the boy. This article concludes by offering insight into modern incorporation of Memento Mori within local communities.

scholarly journals Thresholds, musics and liminality: professional Rom musicians and their liminal roles in nuptial rites of Bergama regionEşikler, müzikler ve liminalite: profesyonel Roman müzisyenler ve Bergama yöresi evlilik ritüellerindeki liminal rolleri

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 375
Author(s):  
Hasan Devrim Kınlı ◽  
İbrahim Yavuz Yükselsin
Keyword(s):  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
The Other ◽  
Professional Musicians ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
The Core ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Ritual Process ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
New Phase

<p>Three days lasting nuptial rites as examples of <em>rites of passage</em> take on a new significance with the contributions of professional musicians in Bergama’s surrounding country-side like elsewhere in Turkey. These musicians living in Bergama are often ‘Roma’. Leading the profession of musicianship up until today, these local musicians provide basically two different kinds of musical service: to encode certain stages with certain tunes over the course of the ritual and to guide the transition. As a female-centered activity, the core of the marriage ritual is a process of <em>liminality</em> in which the bride enters a new phase in her life by the help of the other women around (aunts, musicians, etc.). Unlike the relationship between the male musicians and the groom, female Rom musicians locally named ‘dümbekçiler’ stand by the bride in almost all stages of this transition and guide her to cross the inner tresholds of the ritual properly. This article aims to contribute to the understanding of the ‘liminal’ roles of the male and female Rom musicians in their company consequently to the bride, the groom and all the other members of communitas during the ritual process.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Özet</strong></p><p>Geçiş ritüellerinin (<em>rites of passage</em>) üç güne yayılan bir örneği olan evlilik ritüelleri, bugün Türkiye’nin pek çok yerinde olduğu gibi Bergama kırsalında da profesyonel müzisyenlerin katkılarıyla anlam kazanır. Bergama özelinde bu müzisyenler, büyük çoğunlukla bölgede yaşayan ‘Roman’lardır. Müzisyenlik mesleğini geçmişten günümüze profesyonel olarak sürdüren bu yerel müzisyenler, ritüel kapsamında temelde iki farklı müzik hizmeti sunarlar: Ritüel akışı boyunca belirli aşamaları belirli havalarla kodlamak ve geçişe rehberlik etmek. Kadın merkezli bir etkinlik olan evlilik ritüeli özünde gelinin; çevresindeki diğer kadınların (yengeler, müzisyenler vb.) yardımıyla yaşamının yeni bir evresine adım atmaya hazırlandığı bir eşiksellik <em>(liminality)</em> sürecidir. Yörede ‘dümbekçiler’ olarak adlandırılan Roman kadın müzisyenler bu süreçte, erkek müzisyenlerin damatla kurduğu ilişkiden farklı olarak hemen her aşamada gelinin yanında bulunarak ritüel içi eşikleri uygun bir biçimde geçmede ona rehberlik de ederler. Bu makale erkek ve kadın Roman müzisyenlerin ritüel süreci boyunca, başta gelin olmak üzere damada ve diğer tüm komünitas üyelerine eşlik ederken sergiledikleri ‘liminal’ rollerin anlaşılmasına katkı sunmayı amaçlar.</p>

Rites of Passage: Conversionary in-Marriages in the Finnish Jewish Communities

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Mercédesz Czimbalmos
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
The United States ◽  
European Countries ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Jewish Communities

Abstract Debates over intermarriages and conversions are at the heart of Jewish concerns today. International studies outline a growing number of intermarriages or their considerations within several European countries and the United States. Yet, the Nordic context in general and the Finnish context specifically are understudied. The current study seeks to fill the gap in the existing research by contributing to the field of conversion studies in general and the research in Jewish intermarriages and conversions in particular in Europe and in Finland by analyzing newly gathered ethnographic materials from the years 2019–2020 through adapting Sylvia Barack Fishman’s typology on conversionary in-marriages to the Finnish context.

scholarly journals Słuchająca „zamilkłych głosów” i jej opowieść. Myśl feministyczna Rachel Elior

2014 ◽  
pp. 175-195
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Kornacka-Sareło
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Women ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Jewish Mysticism ◽  
Feminist Literature ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Feminist Thought ◽  
The World ◽  
Hebrew University ◽  
Different Parts

The aim of this article is to present the feminist thought of Prof. Rachel Elior (the Hebrew University, Jerusalem), who is a world-known scholar working, mainly, in the field of Jewish mysticism in its different forms and aspects. Nevertheless, Prof. Elior dedicated some of her works also to the problem of Jewish women who, for centuries, have been, generally, absent, in social, religious and cultural life of Jewish communities living in different parts of the world. As the analysis of Elior’s feminist literature shows, the aforementioned absence of the women has been mainly caused by the patriarchal order, created “by men and for men”, by means of some male narratives and male mythology, in which women seem to be – usually - perceived as some inferior creatures or they are simply demonized.

6. Making a Jewish home

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Home Education ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Bodily Resurrection ◽  
Kosher Food

What does a Jewish home look like? ‘Making a Jewish home’ looks at everyday Jewish life including objects in the home, books likely to be found in the home, education, kosher food, sexual and personal relationships, and family. Traditional Jewish communities emphasize the importance of family. Jewish sociologists identify seven life stages marked by rites of passage: birth, growing up, marriage, parenthood, mid-life, old age, and death. Do Jews belief in a life after death? There has been debate as to whether life after death involves some form of bodily resurrection, or only the perdurance of the ‘soul’. Some believe life after death is a metaphor for continuing repute or influence.

scholarly journals Yidishe tates forming Jewish families

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-40
Author(s):  
Mercédesz Czimbalmos
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Jewish Woman ◽  
Orthodox Judaism ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Patrilineal Descent ◽  
Mother To Child ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Do So

Jewish communities often do not endorse the idea of intermarriage, and Orthodox Judaism opposes the idea of marrying out. Intermarriage is often perceived as a threat that may jeopardise Jewish continuity as children of such a relationship may not identify as Jews. When a Jewish woman marries out, her children will in any case become Jewish by halakhah – the Jewish law – by which Judaism is inherited from mother to child – and thus usually faces less difficulties over acceptance in Jewish communities. Even though the Torah speaks of  patrilineal descent, in post-biblical times, the policy was reversed in favour of the matrilineal principle, and children of Jewish men and non-Jewish women must therefore go through the conversion process if they wish to join a Jewish congregation according to most Jewish denominational requirements. The aim of this article is to analyse what happens when Jewish men, who belong to Finland’s Orthodox communities, marry out. Do they ensure Jewish continuity, and raise their children Jewish, and how do they act as Yidishe tates – Jewish fathers? If yes, how do they do so, and what problems do they face? These questions are answered through an analysis of thirteen semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with male members of the Jewish Community of Helsinki and Turku in 2019–20.

scholarly journals Ritualstruktur og ritualklassifikation

1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Peter Schjødt
Keyword(s):  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Horizontal Structure ◽  
Ritual Space ◽  
Victor Turner

The purpose of this article has been to evaluate some major contributions in the study of ritual in order to reach some strategy, according to which it will be possible to describe and classify the different categories of rituals. It is suggested that the description of the structure must include both the horizontal structure as investigated by van Gennep and the vertical including the opposition between liminal and non-liminal ritual space, as this has been outlined by Victor Turner. As to the classification it is proposed that the only structural criteria to match the functional division of rites of passage, calendrical rites and crisis rites is the relation between the quality of the level of the initial and the final phases.

Tikkun Olam to the Max

2020 ◽  
pp. 128-152
Author(s):  
Jodi Eichler-Levine
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Tikkun Olam ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Connection

This chapter examines examples of activism among crafters (also known as “craftivism”) from 2016-2019, with some earlier historical context. Some of these social justice actions, such as the hats accompanying the 2017 Women’s March, were created by Jewish women; others, like the Jewish Hearts for Pittsburgh, were created with specific Jewish communities in mind. All of these examples share the goal of building meaning and community through activism, a repair of the world in literal stitches and metaphorical, even mystical, ideas about human connection.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz
Keyword(s):  
Orthodox Jews ◽  
Orthodox Jewish ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Study Participation ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Default Position ◽  
Unique Context

This introductory chapter gives a brief background of the differences between Jewish communities in Israel, America, and Britain. Jewish denominational affiliation differs sharply in the two countries: in Britain, Orthodoxy — even if of a nominal kind — is still the default position of the majority of synagogue-affiliated Jews (69 percent), while in America Orthodox Jews are very much in the minority (10 percent). The chapter notes that trends in Israel typically take many years to filter into the Anglo-Jewish world. While women play a relatively larger role in Jewish practices in Jerusalem, Orthodox Jewish women are not only uninterested in greater ritual and study participation but are actively hostile to the idea. Though there have been some outstanding anthropological studies of Jewish women in both America and Israel, little research of this sort has yet been undertaken in Britain. The chapter elaborates that the book attempts to make a contribution to the understanding of current trends among Orthodox Jewish women worldwide by focusing on women in the unique context of British Jewry.

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