Yentl's Revenge:
Danya Ruttenberg (ed.), Seal Press, 230 pp.

Reviewed by Allan Gould

Review

The word “essay” comes from the French “essai,” meaning “to try.” And what editor Danya Ruttenberg has done with her recent anthology of twenty essays by Jewish women in the wittily-named YENTL’S REVENGE (Seal Press, 230 pp., $27.50—but much cheaper from an Internet bookstore) is a noble attempt.

The sub-title makes it clear: this collection is about “The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism,” and it is certainly an eclectic, even dangerous wave, depending upon your religious background and leanings. So, we get Emily Wages writing about her insistance on wearing a kippah all over the world—except Israel (“Openly expressing my religious observance challenges others to reexamine their view of spirituality; wearing a kippah challenges me to translate my deepest beliefs into compassionate action.”)

Yet less than two hundred pages away, we get Jennifer Bleyer’s “From Riot Grrl to Yeshiva Girl, or How I Became My Own Damn Rabbi,” about a rather intriguing journey from punk rocker to ba’ale teshuvah in Israel, which is both vulgar and revolutionary. (In her concluding paragraph, she insists, “We are allowing ourselves to be Jewish in a way that riot grrls [sic] taught us to be feminist—explosively, boundlessly, beyond definition and with an almost erotic hunger for transcendence.”

As with any collection of essays, there is a wide range of opinions, styles and quality: women—and men—struggling to be serious Jews may be deeply moved and even inspired by Haviva Ner-David’s thoughtful “Parenting as a Religious Jewish Feminist” (“I do not want her [daughter] to grow up feeling, as a Jewish female, resentful of her religion, or marginalized and irrelevant, all of which I often felt as a child and young woman.”) The editor’s own study of menstruation in Jewish thought (“Blood Simple”) is scholarly and respectful. Karen Levy’s strangely named “Sexy Rabbi” appears shallow at first glance—she resents and is troubled by all the sexist comments of men who have trouble with her physical attractiveness—but then she tosses off a moving thought: “The job of a rabbi, while still new to women, is actually quite ‘feminine’: we care for people and nurture their growth; we reach out to them in times of change or pain and try to be good listeners.” Yet several other essays on intermarriage, marriage, and Zionism are infantile and lack much value.

Still, these are remarkable times for women in our ancient faith, as many doors open and others remain shut. As I re-read these uneven, but often powerful essays a second time (the magnificent one by Yiskah Rosenfeld, “You Take Lillith, I’ll Take Eve” is worthy of a Masters degree), I thought of how any collection of essays is like a buffet. And then I noticed the last paragraph of the editor’s introduction, and laughed, and agreed: “As this anthology will show you, there are about as many ways to see this stuff as there are blintzes at a bat mitzvah buffet. Nu, please. . .sit down, dig in. Taste the Jewish flavors of tomorrow.”

Allan Gould is the author of over two dozen books, including the humourous THE UNORTHODOX BOOK OF JEWISH RECORDS AND LISTS and the serious WHAT DID THEY THINK OF THE JEWS? He is a long-time supporter of and student at Kolel.