Gender and discrimination in Judaism Flashcards Preview

A level Religious Studies. > Gender and discrimination in Judaism > Flashcards

Flashcards in Gender and discrimination in Judaism Deck (19)
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1
Q

Who was Regina Jonas?

A
  • Regina Jonas was born in Berlin on 3rd August 1902.
  • She was the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi and was killed in Auschwitz.
  • Early on, Regina Jonas felt her rabbinic vocation.
2
Q

What is her standpoint?

A
  • Jonas combines a halakhic line of argument with a modern attitude.
  • Rather, she wanted to deduce gender equality from the Jewish legal sources.
  • This proves Jonas’s independence both from Orthodoxy, which held equality as incompatible with halakha.
3
Q

What does she embrace?

A
  • Since rabbinic literature did not deal with ordination per se, Jonas embraces the halakhic literature which relates more generally to women’s issues.
  • She quotes negative Talmudic statements about women.
4
Q

What is a key issue in her argument?

A
  • A key issue in her argument is the ideal of modesty.
  • In her opinion, a female rabbi should not marry.
  • In Jonas’s opinion, women are especially fit to be rabbis.
5
Q

Who was Jonas Neuberger?

A
  • She is a member of the British House of Lords. She formerly took the Liberal Democrat whip.
  • Neuberger was Britain’s second female rabbi.
  • She was rabbi of the South London Liberal Synagogue from 1977 to 1989 and is president of the West Central Liberal Synagogue.
6
Q

What are her opinions on female rabbis?

A
  • One of the leading voices calling for gay marriage.
  • Her community has started giving sanctuary to Muslim asylum seekers.
  • Committed to charity work.
  • West London Synagogue.
  • Active, inclusive community of progressive Jews.
7
Q

What is Rosh Chodesh?

A
  • Rosh Chodesh, the first day of each month is a minor festival.
  • There is a custom that women do not work on Rosh Chodesh.
  • The holiday was taken away from men and given to women.
8
Q

What are the women’s mitzvots?

A
  • In Jewish tradition, there are three mitzvot that are reserved for women.
  • Nerot {lighting candles}.
  • Challah{ separating a portion of dough}
  • Niddah{ sexual separation during a women’s menstrual period}
9
Q

What are the debates about the role of women in leadership in the synagogue?

A
  • Because women are not required to perform certain mitzvot, their observance of those mitzvot does not count for group purposes.
  • The second thing that must be understood is the separation of men and women during prayer.
10
Q

Women’s ordination as rabbis.

A
  • Most women today have been ordained from Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionists seminaries. But a few Orthodox women have also become rabbis.
11
Q

Reform movement.

A

The role of women changed drastically throughout the 20th century. They were allowed to be rabbis.

12
Q

What did the Conservative movement think about this development?

A
  • The Conservative movement founded on the theory that halakha is binding yet evolving.
13
Q

What did the reconstructionist movement think about the development?

A

The Reconstructionist movement ordained women from the start.

14
Q

What did Orthodox women do?

A
  • Orthodox women began pursuing a role in the rabbinate several decades later but their enthusiasm has been continuously squelched by prominent Jewish leaders.
15
Q

Does all Jewish practice discriminate against women?

A
  • Orthodox Jews believe that the role of women in traditional Judaism has been misunderstood - women are seen as separate but equal in Judaism.
  • Women’s obligations and responsibilities are different from mens, but no less important.
  • Men and women are created in the image of God.
  • Traditional Jews belive that women are seen with a greater level of binah than men.
  • 10 commandments require respect for both fathers and mothers.
  • The opinions of Beruya, were accepted on the Halakah by her male contemporaries.
  • Many rabbis consult females over laws that affect them, such as menstrual cycle.
16
Q

To what extent are women treated unfairly in a Jewish divorce?

A
  • Power of divorce rests with the husband - must be in a legal document.
  • The traditional procedure is based on the Code of Jewish law.
  • The Rabbi asks the husband if he gives the bill of divorce of his own free will.
  • The Get is written on parchment in Aramaic.
  • Since it is the husband who must give the bill of divorce to the wife, if he cannot be located then there is an obstacle to the procedure.
  • In Reform Judaism, a civil divorce is regarded as valid.
17
Q

What does Judith Plaskow say about this?

A
  • Women’s movement in Judaism is drfined by secularism.
  • Conflict between different communities, cultures and traditions with Jewish identity.
  • Therefore, feminism and Judaism = conflict in identities.
18
Q

What does Mary Daly say about this?

A
  • Written traditions.
  • Halakah.
  • Bible.
  • Jewish philosophy.
  • Liturgy.
    All in the hands of men.

M.Daly - our power of naming in religion is stolen from women.

  • God brought animals to Adam in the Garden of Eden to see what he would call them = through the words of men.
  • Male power of naming has oppressed and excluded women.
  • Jewish women are excluded by law - their place is in the home.
  • God = he - imagine him male terms which is inaccurate.
  • How do women remain true to themselves and remain in contiunity with tradition.
19
Q

What does Carol Christ say about this?

A
  • Carol Christ: offers a new version of an Elie Wiesel God-man dialogue in which a man’s anger leads to a new relationship and love; here the woman in her dialogue frees God from “bondage to patriarchal history”.
  • She retells Wiesel’s story A Town Beyond The Wall - a story about God and man changing places.
  • C.Christ - God and woman change places to elicit how ‘she’ too has had the power of naming stolen from her.
  • The liberation of both God and woman depends on their renewing an ancient dialogue.
  • C.Christ wants God to experience the suffering of women who do not exist - even for God.
  • Women need to liberate themselves from a patriarchal tradition to bring him out of his alienation from woman.
  • The major emphasis is on what Rachel Janait calls a “dialectical tension” between Jewish values and the mores of modern society in the light of women’s liberation.