Jewish Women Pioneering the Frontier Trail

by Abrams, Jeanne E.

• ISBN13: 9780814707197
• ISBN10: 081470719X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-29
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

What does it mean to be a Jewish woman today? To an Orthodox woman, it means living a religious way of life in which serving God totally defines her self-perception and her role as wife and mother. For the secular woman, it means having a sense of belonging, although not necessarily to a specific Jewish community. Most contemporary Jewish women fall somewhere in between, but at the core of all of their identities is a complex interweaving of religious and ethnic elements, a shared history, and a collective memory of periods of prejudice, persecution, wandering, and resettlement.Focusing on Jewish women in the United States and Britain, Adrienne Baker examines such issues as women's role in religious law, the spectrum of synagogue observance, the mother's role as conveyor of tradition, conversion and inter- faith marriages, and sexuality. In particular, the book examines the impact of feminism on Jewish women and their culture, uncovering the counterinfluences of tradition and new freedoms on women's lives.

Author Biography

Jeanne E. Abrams is a professor at Penrose Library at the University of Denver and the longtime director of the Beck Archives and the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical society.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction: A View from the West	1	(20)
1 From the Old Country to the New Land: "Going West"	21	(17)
2 Building a Foundation	38	(21)
3 From Generation to Generation	59	(27)
4 Religious Lives of Jewish Women in the West	86	(24)
5 From "Women's Work" to Working Women	110	(25)
6 Scaling the Ivy Walls and into the Professions	135	(29)
7 Entering the Political World	164	(20)
Conclusion: Opening New Doors	184	(11)
Notes	195	(40)
Bibliography	235	(24)
Index	259	(20)
About the Author	279