Spirituality and Religious Life

Content type
Collection

Dina Rosenfeld

Project
Meet Me at Sinai

Jayne Guberman interviewed Dina Rosenfeld on February 8th, 2015, in New York, New York, as part of the Meet Me at Sinai Oral History Project. Rosenfeld talks about immigrating to Boro Park, becoming involved in Jewish feminism through Ezrat Nashim, confronting the Jewish Theological Seminary, and discussing the impact of the movement on women's religious participation.

Toby Reifman

Project
Barnard: Jewish Women Changing America

Judith Rosenbaum interviewed Toby Reifman on October 30, 2005, in New York, New York, as part of the Barnard: Jewish Women Changing America Oral History Project. Reifman talks about her journey of growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, her experiences with gender dynamics and inequalities in Judaism, her involvement in Jewish feminist movements, and her evolving commitment to feminism and personal fulfillment throughout her life.

Vivian Cahn

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Vivian Cahn on October 21, 2006, in New Orleans, Louisiana as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Cahn tells her experiences of growing up in the South, moving to New Orleans, evacuating during Hurricane Katrina, and the challenges and recovery efforts faced by the Jewish community in rebuilding the city after the storm.

Ellen Bender

Project
Meet Me at Sinai

Jayne Guberman interviewed Ellen Bender on February 8, 2015, in New York, New York, as part of the Meet Me at Sinai Oral History Project. Bender discusses her childhood in New York, her mother's influence on her feminism, and how it shaped her religious practice, highlighting the impact of Jewish feminism and her vision for gender equality in Judaism and Jewish life.

Judith Kates

Project
Barnard: Jewish Women Changing America

Judith Rosenbaum and Jayne Guberman interviewed Judith Kates on October 20th, 2005, in Brookline, Massachusetts, as part of the Jewish Women Changing America: Barnard Conference Oral History Project. Kates talks about her Orthodox upbringing, her struggle for gender equality within Judaism, her education, involvement in the women's movement, teaching women's studies, her gabbai position at a synagogue, and the impact of feminism on Judaism.

Nancy Sargon

Project
Adult Bat Mitzvahs

Shayna Rhodes interviewed Nancy Sargon on December 23, 2004, in Newton, Massachusetts, as part of the Adult Bat Mitzvahs Oral History Project. Sargon discusses her family background, her Jewish upbringing in a Conservative family, her experiences with Jewish education, her career path in social work, and her bat mitzvah experience in 2000, emphasizing her commitment to Jewish education and ritual practice for herself and her children.

Anne Kahan

Project
Adult Bat Mitzvahs

Shayna Rhodes interviewed Anne Kahan on February 2, 2005, in Brookline, Massachusetts, as part of the Adult Bat Mitzvahs Oral History Project. Kahan discusses her family's immigration, Jewish education, synagogue involvement, marriage, disillusionment with traditional roles for women, involvement with Minyan Shaleym, and personal growth through her Bat Mitzvah and engagement with Torah and prayer.

Sonia Saltzman

Project
Adult Bat Mitzvahs

Shayna Rhodes interviewed Sonia Saltzman on December 21, 2004, in Newton, Massachusetts, as part of the Adult Bat Mitzvahs Oral History Collection. Saltzman reflects on her childhood in Chile, her determination to have a bat mitzvah, her family's move to New Jersey, her personal growth through studying Hebrew and preparing for her bat mitzvah with her son, and the transformative power of her bat mitzvah experience.

Ruth Anna Putnam

Project
Adult Bat Mitzvahs

Shayna Rhodes interviewed Ruth Anna Putnam on December 20, 2004, in Arlington, Massachusetts, as part of the Adult Bat Mitzvahs Oral History Project. Putnam reflects on her journey with Judaism, including her memories of living in Germany during Nazi rule, her parents' immigration to America, her evolving relationship with Judaism, and her experience of having an adult bat mitzvah at the age of seventy.

Carol Michael

Project
Adult Bat Mitzvahs

Shayna Rhodes interviewed Carol Michael on February 23, 2005, in Brookline, Massachusetts, as part of JWA’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Oral History Project. Michael recounts her family background, her disconnection from Judaism, her son's disabilities, and her rediscovery of Judaism through her daughter's bat mitzvah, leading to her active participation in Jewish practices and community.

Hadassah Blocker

Project
Adult Bat Mitzvahs

Shayna Rhodes interviewed Hadassah Blocker on November 3, 2004, in Newtonville, Massachusetts, as part of the Adult Bat Mitzvahs Oral History Project. Blocker discusses her Orthodox Jewish background, her role in Torah learning, and her advocacy for women's participation in synagogue services and adult Jewish education.

Karen Geggel

Project
Adult Bat Mitzvahs

Shanya Rhodes interviewed Karen Geggel on March 16, 2005, in Dover, Massachusetts, as part of the Adult Bat Mitzvahs Oral History Project. Geggel recounts her journey from growing up in a Catholic household, questioning her faith, exploring Eastern religions, experiencing a spiritual awakening while backpacking, and eventually converting to Judaism, which has influenced her life, family traditions, and spiritual fulfillment.

Episode 86: Fat Torah with Minna Bromberg

It all started at a preschool Hanukkah party a few years ago. That's when an offhand remark led Rabbi Minna Bromberg to start Fat Torah, a project to end fat stigma in Jewish communal life. In this episode of Can We Talk?, Judith Rosenbaum speaks with Minna in her home in Jerusalem about how fatphobia plays out in Israel versus the US, the ways it intersects with gender, and how Jewish tradition can teach us to be more body positive. 

Madalyn Schenk

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Madalyn Schenk on July 25, 2006, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Schenk talks about her upbringing in a tight-knit Jewish community in Chicago, her move to New Orleans, her leadership during Hurricane Katrina, and her involvement in civic organizations and fundraising for the city's rebuilding efforts, as well as her approach to Jewish identity through activism.

Selma Finstein

Project
Women Whose Lives Span the Century

Betsy Friedman Abrams and Roberta Burstein interviewed Selma Gross Finstein on September 30, 1997, in Waltham, Massachusetts, as part of Women Whose Lives Spanned The Century Oral History Project. Finstein discusses growing up in a predominantly non-Jewish area, her involvement in Temple Israel, her education at Boston Teacher's College and teaching at the Boston Public Library, her second career at Brandeis, and the influential people in her life.

Barbara Cole

Project
Women Whose Lives Span the Century

Rachel Alexander interviewed Barbara Cole on August 20, 1997, in Lexington, Massachusetts, as part of the Women Whose Lives Span The Century Oral History Project. Cole discusses her upbringing, Jewish cultural background, thoughts on religion, experiences at Smith College and work at Filene's, as well as her travels to the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia.

Meta R. Kaplan Buttnick

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Lavitt Brown interviewed Meta R. Buttnick on May 31, June 20, and July 17, 2001, in Seattle, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women’s Words Oral History Project. Meta, born in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1913, discusses her upbringing, education, marriage, and lifelong commitment to preserving Jewish history in Seattle through oral histories and archival projects.

Outlined drawing of high heels and Jewish stars on bright purple background

Finding My Hineni

Rosie Yanowitch

Hineni invites you to confront your own presence, and its unique and vital impact it has on any given point in time.

Outlined drawings of New York City skyline, Star of David necklace, and subway cars

Wearing My Star of David Necklace, Loud and Proud

Nora Auburn

The thought of wearing something that declared my Judaism felt strange.

Needlepointed tallit bag with hamsa on orange background

Stitching My Tallit Bag, Stitching My Identity

Clara Sorkin

With my grandmother and my mom in mind, I chose a design for my tallit bag that represents the influence that women have had throughout my life as a proud Jew.

View of mountain range on a pink checkered background

Why Do I Cry at Services?

Sonia Freedman

With all the joy in the room, I didn’t understand why my eyes would begin to water.

Collage of torah scroll, tallit fringes, and raised fists on a pink background

With My Tallit, Becoming a Jewish Woman

Tessa Cooperstein

There is a point of tension for me in both being valued in the Jewish community and being devalued by the Torah’s discussion and treatment of women. Owning my own tallit reminded me that I am valued twice.

Episode 82: When Jewish Women Talked to the Dead

In this season of ghosts and haunted houses, we’re taking you back to a time when communicating with the dead was a popular way to spend an evening. Séances were the main practice of the spiritualist movement, which is based on the belief that when people die, they survive as spirits, and that we can talk to these spirits with the help of a medium. The movement had its heyday in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Jews all over the world, from London to Brooklyn to Cairo, were at the forefront. Scholar Sam Glauber-Zimra explains why spiritualism had such appeal among Jews, what rabbis had to say about it, and why Jewish women were prominent as mediums. 

Collage of shelf and candles on blue background

L’dor V’dor: How Ritual Plays into Grief

Judy Ruden

This is how we grieve: crying, laughing, brisket and Yahrzeit candles. Again and again and again.

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