New Jewish Feminism

New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future
by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein
Published by and available from Jewish Lights, 439 pp., $24.99 U.S.

Reviewed by Allan Gould

Who doesn’t recall that devastating scene in Citizen Kane, so often chosen as the greatest film of all time, in which the title character, played by Orson Welles, finishes typing a scathingly negative review by his closest friend, in which he had eviscerated the operatic skills of Kane’s mistress?

I was saved from such horror by the sheer talent, guts and brains of Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, whose editing of her latest anthology, New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future, shows once again how a collection of essays on a once esoteric subject can be a joy and pleasure to read, if the authors which the rabbi has tracked down were up to the task. The vast majority were, and I am so very pleased—and relieved, recalling Citizen Kane—that this editing job was worthy of the very essential subject matter. The profound skills Goldstein showed in her excellent previous Jewish Lights anthologies (The Women's Haftarah Commentary; The Women's Torah Commentary) continue, and while not every page of this lengthy tome is bursting with insight (the fine author of the excellent feminist novel The Red Tent, Anita Diamant, writes a sweet but ultimately unprofound Foreword which concludes “Mazel tov to us and to our daughters and our sons. There has never been a better time to be a Jew. Can I hear a shehechiyanu?”) But through a goodly portion of the text, one’s mind is shaken, challenged, heartened, moved. As Rabbi Goldstein wisely states in her moving and deeply personal introduction, “This book looks back and ahead. When you are in the middle of the revolution you can’t really plan the next steps. But now we can. This book is meant to spur discussion. It is intended to open up a dialogue between the early Jewish pioneers and the young women shaping Judaism today. . . .” (By the way, this volume was just named as a finalist of the National Jewish Book Awards for this year; kudos to all the writers and editor.)

As a life-long feminist and proud father of a daughter, I was endlessly moved to tears by this book. Professor Judith Plaskow raised my consciousness when she refers to a work I did not know, by Melissa Raphael, The Female Face of God in Auschwitz: “Her own contribution to Holocaust theology begins with women’s memoirs of internment and explores the ways in which women managed to be present to each other in acts of washing, holding, and covering bodies. . . .” I was shaken as well by Dr. Idana Goldberg, who writes in her essay “Orthodoxy and Feminism,” “The position of women in Orthodox Judaism today, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg has suggested, does not allow women to realize their potential as tzelem elohim [having moral sense, free will, and intellect]. Women are asked to sacrifice their uniqueness and individual worthiness as Jews for the good of the community.”

Many of the concepts in this book are fairly well known, but it is helpful to find the sources, as one does in Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s essay: “[T]he biblical prohibition against sexual relations with a menstruant carries a long textural history in which women are depicted as evil and polluting—the dark, corrupting force that must be controlled. . . . ‘if a menstruous woman passed between two men—if it is at the beginning of her menstruation, she will cause one to die (Pesachim 111a)’” But the book is also overflowing with hope, for which I shall conclude with a quotation from a marvelous, deeply affecting essay by Sara Hurwitz, “Orthodox Women in Rabbinic Roles.” This scholarly woman, who describes herself as a Madricha Ruchanit (Religious Mentor), admits that she is “not technically a rabbi, as I’m not yet officially ordained.” Our hearts break to read that the man who is arguably the greatest religious mind of our 3500-year history, Maimonides, wrote in the 12th century, “It is shameful for a woman to leave her home continually. . . .” But Hurwitz’s last paragraph fills one’s eyes with tears of joy, as the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States must have done to billions of men and women of colour in late January of this year:

As for becoming a rabbi de jure, I am certainly willing to accept the risks and responsibilities of ordination if it becomes available. Even if the majority of the Orthodox Jewish community is not entirely ready for a woman to assume a public role in the synagogue, despite halakhic sources permitting these roles, I am prepared and I am ready. . . . . I believe the barriers to women being accepted as rabbis will be removed. Then the community at large will benefit from a large untapped supply of talent, and will be able to turn to qualified professionals for comfort, advice, and halakhic guidance, regardless of gender.

Wonderful. I only wish I could quote dozens of other highlights of this important, indispensable work of scholarship. As we used to say back in grade school when concluding a “book report,” “if you want to know the ending, read the book.” Tzay Ulmad—go and study. Bravo, Rabbi Elyse.