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Judith Plaskow

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First National Conference of Jewish Women Poster

First Second Wave Jewish Feminist Conference in North America Begins

February 16, 1973

In February 1973, 500 women gathered in the McAlpin Hotel in Manhattan for the first second-wave Jewish feminist conference in North America. Speakers and attendees discussed Jewish religious observance, issues of sexuality, duties of community service, inequality in Jewish movement organizations, and experiences of growing up in Jewish families. The conference brought Jewish women of many backgrounds together under a shared feminist identity.

https://jwa.org/thisweek/feb/16/1973/first-second-wave-jewish-feminist-conference-north-america-begins
Martha Ackelsberg from the chest up smiling to the camera

Martha Ackelsberg

Martha Ackelsberg is a Jewish feminist lesbian anarchist activist, community leader, and academic. She is a leading scholar of anarchism and of anarchist women’s organizations of the Spanish Civil War. A founder and/or early leading visionary in pivotal United States Jewish developments, Ackelsberg has been a key voice shaping feminist, lesbian, and havurah contributions to twentieth- and twenty-first century Jewish life.

Rising Voices Retreat Workshop
February 20, 2018

Addressing #MeToo with Jewish Teens

Larisa Klebe

If you work with teens in any number of settings, you know that for many of them, the #MeToo movement is at the forefront of their minds ... Although it’s not our primary role as educators to provide counseling for teens who may be struggling with their own #MeToo experiences, we can play a part in helping them navigate this complex and multi-faceted conversation, and in a Jewish context.

Topics: Civil Rights, Feminism, Reproductive Rights, Jewish Education, Women’s and Gender Studies
https://jwa.org/blog/addressing-metoo-with-jewish-teens
"Burney Relief" or "Queen of the Night"

Lilith Evolved: Writing Midrash

Interrogate the notion of midrash using "The Coming of Lilith" by theologian Judith Plaskow as an example of how contemporary Jewish feminists have created their own midrashim—retellings of biblical stories—to incorporate women's viewpoints into the traditional texts of Judaism.

https://jwa.org/teach/golearn/sep07
Judith Plaskow
February 4, 2015

Meet Me at Sinai: An Interview with Judith Plaskow

Judith Rosenbaum

JWA's Executive Director Judith Rosenbaum spoke to Judith Plaskow about her groundbreaking work as a Jewish feminist, the unfinished work of feminism, and what she would change about Standing Again at Sinai were it published in 2015.  

Topics: Feminism, Bible, Midrash and Aggadah, Theology
https://jwa.org/blog/meet-me-at-sinai-interview-with-judith-plaskow
B'not Esh Jewish Feminist Spirituality Collective Founding Letter, March 30, 1981

Judith Plaskow

B'not Esh has provided a model for how separatist feminist spaces can generate ideas and energy that spill over in to a larger community.

https://jwa.org/feminism/plaskow-judith
Feminist Seder, 1991

Spirituality in the United States

Jewish women’s spirituality developed historically within the confines of a patriarchal tradition. Over time, feminists have developed rituals and created spaces that honor the unique experiences of women.

Judith Plaskow, 2004

Judith Plaskow

Judith Plaskow is the first Jewish feminist to identify herself as a theologian. Deeply learned in classical and modern Christian theology yet profoundly committed to her own Judaism, Plaskow created a distinctively Jewish theology acutely conscious of its own structure and categories and in dialogue with the feminist theologies of other religions.

Gerda Lerner

Women's Studies in the United States

Jewish women were instrumental in creating women’s studies as an academic discipline and contributed significantly to its growth and evolution. They have been critical not only as political activists, administrators, and editors of the key women’s studies journals, but also as prominent thinkers in the field’s intellectual debates.

Feminist Seder, 1991

Feminist Jewish Ritual: The United States

Ritual behavior is one of the fundamental pillars of Judaism, and of all religions, whose concern is precisely with ultimate meaning and purpose. Since the 1970s, Jewish feminists have gained access to male-identified rituals, developed a wide variety of new rituals, and feminized core male rituals.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin with Bella and Eve Abzug, 1990

Jewish Feminism in the United States

Challenging all varieties of American Judaism, feminism has been a powerful force for popular Jewish religious revival. The accomplishments of Jewish feminists have transformed American Jewish life, even as the ultimate goal of gender equity and shared power has yet to be fully realized.

Gender Identity In Halakhic Discourse

Jewish law is based on an assumption of gender duality, and fundamental mishnaic texts indicate that this halakhic duality is not conceived symmetrically.

Feminist Theology

Jewish feminist theology focuses on central Jewish categories, themes, and modes of expression—for example, God, prayer, Torah, and halakhah—and asks who created them and whose interests they reflect. It raises meta-questions about Jewish tradition.
October 26, 2007

Strangeness and Home, Rock and Water

Jordan Namerow

On Tuesday evening, I attended a reading (co-sponsored by the Jewish Women’s Archive) by scholar/writer/activist Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz from her new book The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism. There’s a lot in this book—too much to discuss in one blog entry. In sum, it examines historical and contemporary views on Jews and whiteness and the complexities of African/Jewish relations.

Topics: Non-Fiction
https://jwa.org/blog/strangeness-and-home
September 12, 2007

Midrash for a new year

Judith Rosenbaum

As we prepare to herald the new year and celebrate the creation of the world, I thought I’d call your attention to JWA’s new edition of our educational resource, Go & Learn. This edition focuses on the midrashic figure of Lilith -- the first woman, imagined by the rabbis as a demon -- and Judith Plaskow’s early feminist reclaiming of her as a woman who demanded equality.

Topics: Rosh Hashanah, Midrash and Aggadah
https://jwa.org/blog/new-year-midrash

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