There Used to Be a Jewish Women, There Is No More Jewish Woman Now (Była Żydówka, nie ma Żydówki)

AbstractRabbinical courts in Israel serve as official courts of the state, and state law provides that a Jewish couple can obtain a divorce only in these courts, and only strictly according to Jewish law. By contrast, in the Western world, especially the United States, which has the largest concentration of Jews outside of Israel, the Jewish halakha is not a matter of state law, and rabbinical courts have no official status. This article examines critically the common argument that for a Jew committed to the halakha, and in particular for a Jewish woman who wants to divorce her husband, a state-sponsored halakhic system is preferable to a voluntary one. This argument is considered in light of the main tool that has been proven to help American Jewish women who wish to obtain a halakhic divorce from husbands refusing to grant it: the prenuptial agreement. Many Jewish couples in the United States sign such an agreement, but only a few couples in Israel do so, primarily because of the opposition of the rabbinical courts in Israel to these agreements. The article examines the causes of this resistance, and offers reasons for the distinction that exists between the United States and Israel. It turns out that social and legal reality affect halakhic considerations, to the point where rabbis claim that what the halakha allows in the United States it prohibits in Israel. The last part of the article uses examples from the past to examine the possibility that social change in Israel will affect the rulings of rabbinical courts on this issue.

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Women in Crusader Valencia: A Five-Year Core Sample, 1265–1270

Medieval Encounters ◽

10.1163/157006706777502569 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 37-47

Author(s):

Robert Burns

Keyword(s):

Jewish Woman ◽

Women's History ◽

Core Sample ◽

The Other ◽

Women Prisoners ◽

Holy Land ◽

Jewish Women ◽

Christian Women ◽

Muslim Communities ◽

Shed Light

AbstractThis study surveys the presence of women in the crown registers of the medieval Realms of Arago-Catalonia for the period 1265-1270. Approximately five hundred charters pertaining to the crusader kingdom of Valencia cover both the apogee of the reign of Jaume the Conqueror and the scandal created when he aborted his Holy Land crusade, purportedly because of a woman. While women's history may not seem an apt subject in this period of conquest and crusade, in fact these charters offer a suggestive sample of women, especially as landowners, not only in the Christian cities and courts but also in the parallel Jewish and Muslim communities. Women played active roles in this frontier society, as the crown sought to encourage Christian settlement in conquered lands. The charters shed light on the life of Jaume's formally inducted concubine and other women in the royal entourage. At the other end of the spectrum, information emerges about prostitutes and women prisoners. Several documents pertain to the economic lives of nuns, while others concern the rights of widows: notably, one whose son has "become a Saracen." Women played roles as settlers along the frontier between Christian and Muslim realms, with Christian women assuming obligations to reside on lands for a period of years, while Muslim women's lands are confiscated. Among businesswomen, several own baths. One Jewish woman is exempted from certain sumptuary laws. Other documents reveal that Jewish women, like men, paid taxes. Several women receive royal pensions. Women dog handlers appear; one, with her dog, receives the same pay as a fighting man.

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Między filarami opieki społecznej, pracy na polu kultury, upolitycznienia i feminizmu. Syjonistyczne „Koło Kobiet Żydowskich” we Lwowie (1908–1939)

Studia Judaica ◽

10.4467/24500100stj.21.016.15071 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 377-405

Author(s):

Angelique Leszczawski-Schwerk

Keyword(s):

World War I ◽

Jewish Woman ◽

Vital Role ◽

Cultural Work ◽

Jewish Women ◽

World War ◽

Women's Associations ◽

The Holocaust ◽

History Of ◽

The City

Between the Pillars of Welfare, Cultural Work, Politicization, and Feminism: The Zionist “Circle of Jewish Women” in Lviv, 1908–1939 The Circle of Jewish Women (“Koło Kobiet Żydowskich”), founded in Lemberg/Lviv in 1908 and active until 1939, played a vital role in the organization of Zionist women in the city and other places in Eastern Galicia. It was founded, among others, by Róża Pomeranc Melcer, one of the pioneers of Zionist women’s associations in Galicia and the first and only Jewish woman parliamentarian in the Second Polish Republic. Nevertheless, the history of the Circle, as well as the work of its many active members—many of whom perished in the Holocaust—has been almost forgotten and is rarely explored. The author of the article argues that this organization not only represents social welfare, but it also embodies elements of social support, cultural work, politicization, and feminism. Therefore, the author emphasizes the role the Circle played in the process of organizing Zionist women in Lviv and Galicia before World War I and especially during the interwar period in the Second Polish Republic, and how it contributed to women’s emancipation. Thus, the history of one of the most important Zionist women’s organizations is reconstructed and its versatile work facets explored in more detail.

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Między kamuflażem a stereotypem. Postać Żydówki w dramacie Gabrieli Zapolskiej Nerwowa awantura

Studia Judaica ◽

10.4467/24500100stj.21.006.14608 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 153-173

Author(s):

Katarzyna Trębacka

Keyword(s):

Jewish Woman ◽

Female Characters ◽

Jewish Women ◽

Literary Output ◽

Feminist Movements

Between Camouflage and Stereotype: The Portrayal of a Jewish Woman in Gabriela Zapolska’s Drama “Nerwowa awantura” [The Nervous Row] The article is an attempt to analyze Gabriela Zapolska’s drama entitled Nerwowa awantura [The Nervous Row], first published in 2012. The aim of the study is to answer the question whether Zapolska, while adding Peruwianka to other figures of Jewish women in her literary output, succumbed to popular opinions and provided her with stereotypical features. Or, on the contrary, perhaps she created her protagonist in an innovative, unprecedented way? The author is trying to answer the question whether the ideas of emancipation and feminist movements, so close to the writer, an attempt to fight the existing patriarchal order and Victorian bourgeois customs, also resonate in Nerwowa awantura. The analysis shows that there are no figures of Jewish women in Zapolska’s oeuvre who are clearly burdened with stereotypical traits or are completely free of them. However, none of the Jewish female characters created by the playwright is so independent, liberated and able to achieve her goals as Peruwianka, and as a result she can be perceived as a new figure on the literary and theatrical map.

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The Litigious Gerusha: Jewish Women and Divorce in Imperial Russia*

Nationalities Papers ◽

10.1080/00905999708408491 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 89-101 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

ChaeRan Y. Freeze

Keyword(s):

Jewish Woman ◽

Civil Law ◽

State Court ◽

Jewish Law ◽

Jewish Women ◽

Imperial Russia ◽

Spiritual Authority ◽

Good Reputation ◽

Criminal Charges ◽

The Impact

When Ita Myshkind learned that her husband had remarried before delivering the official get (bill of divorcement), she filed criminal charges against him in state court. “My husband,” she claimed, “Wishing to use my capital and valuable possessions, married me with the premeditated intention of divorcing me.” She complained that a few months after their marriage, he deserted her and married a certain Dveira Rafaelovich; and it was only after this blatant violation of the law that her husband hastily drew up the get without any rabbinic supervision. Efroim Myshkind, however, sharply contested his wife's account, asserting that he had sent a messenger to deliver the writ of divorce in the presence of two witnesses. “It is not at all difficult for a Jew to divorce his wife,” he wrote, “especially if she does not have a good reputation like Ita Kreines [here he used her maiden name], who spent an entire year abroad with different acquaintances.” But at the trial, the husband failed to prove that the get had satisfied all the requirements of Jewish law, much less that his wife had actually received the document. More important in the state's view, he had violated Russian civil law, which required a “spiritual authority” (in this case, a state rabbi) to supervise the divorce procedure. In October 1884, the Minsk court convicted the husband of bigamy and sentenced him to five months and ten days in prison.Although Ita Myshkind did not achieve all her objectives (namely, forcing her husband to divorce his second wife), she did prevail on two important issues: securing material support and ensuring that her husband would not go unpunished for his crime. That a provincial Jewish woman could utilize the Russian legal system to obtain justice raises two important questions: first, when and why did some women begin to resort to the state; and second, how effective were their efforts and what was the impact on Jewish women and their society as a whole?

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Jewish Women’s Lives The Sacred Obligations of the Jewish Woman

Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement ◽

10.3828/liverpool/9781906764692.003.0014 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 328-336

Author(s):

Naomi Seidman

Keyword(s):

Jewish Woman ◽

Jewish Women ◽

Women's Lives ◽

Kosher Food

This chapter describes the sacred obligations of the Jewish woman. The mishnah of kinin deals with the problem of the bird sacrifices that a woman who has just given birth or other individuals who have experienced impurity are obligated to bring after they recover. This is connected with the issue of the beginning of a woman's ritually unclean period (menstruation). The chapter then considers the culture of modesty. The battle against immodest dress is at the very centre of the culture of modesty; the modesty of Jewish women saved the Jews from exile. Finally, the chapter focuses on the commandments of kashrut, explaining the necessity for Jewish women to learn the rules regarding kosher food.

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The Jewish Foundations

Hadassah ◽

10.3828/liverpool/9781874774839.003.0004 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 73-92

Author(s):

Mira Katzburg-Yungman

Keyword(s):

Jewish Woman ◽

Jewish Women ◽

Education Department ◽

Modus Operandi ◽

Basic Principles ◽

Zionist Movement ◽

American Jewish ◽

Fundamental Values

This chapter explores Hadassah's ideological foundations. One of Hadassah's basic principles was that it should be a mass Zionist movement for American Jewish women: that is, ultimately every American Jewish woman should be counted among its members. However, the fundamental values and principles that guided Hadassah were not formulated in explicitly ideological statements, and so for the most part must be traced through its publications and activities. Over the years, Hadassah's ideology was shaped by its leaders, who conveyed it to the rank-and-file members through the organization's publications, especially the official Hadassah Newsletter but also various other documents and pamphlets produced by the Education Department, and at the annual conventions. Here, ideology refers to the organization's ideas, values, and modus operandi, whether formulated explicitly or not.

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Yidishe tates forming Jewish families

Nordisk Judaistik/Scandinavian Jewish Studies ◽

10.30752/nj.97558 ◽

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.

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The Sublimity of the Jewish Type: Balzac’s Belle Juive as Virgin Magdalene aux Camélias

Jewishness ◽

10.3828/liverpool/9781904113454.003.0011 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 239-271

Author(s):

Judith Lewin

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

French Literature ◽

Jewish Woman ◽

Honore De Balzac ◽

Female Character ◽

Jewish Women ◽

Fictional Character ◽

Christian Women ◽

Mary Magdalene ◽

Christian Society

This chapter studies the Jewish female character in French literature. The Jewish woman's difference from feminized Jewish men and marriageable Christian women is not enough to delineate her specificity and hence her function as a fictional character. She is also seen through the lens of orientalism, because of the constructed image of her roots in the Middle East as a member of the ‘Hebraic’ or ‘Israelite’ race. The French Romantic writer Chateaubriand suggested that the treatment of Jews by Christian society varied according to their gender and physical appeal. He argued that Jewish women were exempted from perpetual misery and persecution by the grace Jesus accorded to Mary Magdalene, and that this was the root of Christian men's attraction to and sexual associations with Jewish women. The chapter then presents specific examples of representations of Jewish women: in this case the Jewish woman in Paris of the 1830s and 1840s as she appears in Honoré de Balzac, one of the nineteenth century's most popular and influential European writers. While Balzac had limited contact with actual Jewish women in Paris, the figures he created had a tremendous influence on the rhetoric of representing what has come to be known as la belle Juive.

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