Lubavitcher Women in America: Identity and Activism in the Postwar Era

by Bonnie J. Morris

Overview

Lubavitcher Women in America offers a rare look at the world of Hasidic women activists since World War II. The revival of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in the second half of the twentieth century has baffled many assimilated American Jews, especially those Jewish feminists hostile to Orthodox interpretations of women's roles. This text gives voice to the lives of those Hasidic women who served the late Lubavitcher Rebbe as educators and outreach activists, and examines their often successful efforts to recruit other Jewish women to the Lubavitcher community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Central to this book is how Lubavitcher women have "talked back" to American feminist thought. Arguing that American feminism cannot liberate Jewish women—that a specifically Jewish spirituality is more appropriate and fulfilling—Lubavitcher women have helped to swell the ranks of their Rebbe's followers by aggressively promoting the appeal of traditional, structured Jewish observance. The book thus offers a unique look at female anti-feminist religious rhetoric, articulately presented by Jewish "fundamentalists."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438413662
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	186
File size:	785 KB

About the Author

Bonnie J. Morris is Visiting Assistant Professor at George Washington University. Her previous work includes The High School Scene in the Fifties: Voices from West L.A.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: A Feminist Historian's Intentions

1. A Woman of Valor, Who Can Find?

2. Educate a Child According to His Ways

3. Ingathering Those That Were Far Away: The Neshei Chabad Conventions

4. Everything Emanates from the Woman

5. Whatever Is Happening in the Gentile World Is Reflected in the Jewish World: Reactions to Feminism

6. We Must Live with the Times

Glossary of Yiddish and Hebrew Terms

Notes

Hasidic Historiography

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

Morris carefully peels the layers of complexity and contradiction surrounding the ultra-Orthodox world in relation to secular society and feminism. Most importantly, she explains the tension between gender and ethnic affiliation in this Hasidic, post-Holocaust context. There is no room for dismissal of these women in Morris's writing, because she documents their struggle to seek fulfillment-surely a form of liberation-as they define it. The book is respectful, critical and analytical, and contains an armload of insight about the interplay of feminism and anti-feminism in this brief history of a community.— Jeanne Henry, Hofstra University

From the Publisher

Morris (George Washington U.) adds to the expanding literature on Orthodox Jewish women by focusing<-->from a Crown Heights, Brooklyn feminist historian fieldwork perspective<-->on what they consider their empowering experiences (as educators and outreach activists) within their prescribed roles, rather than on why they hold different values than hers. As Hasidic women consider themselves liberated from Christian-defined womanhood, the author dubs them counter- rather than anti-feminist. Includes historical context, and a glossary of Yiddish/Hebrew terms. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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