Book Reviews

For those interested in traditions of female mysticism in Judaism parallel to those found in Christianity and Islam, this is a fascinating book. Ada RapoportAlbert, Reader in Jewish history at University College, London, has been a strong proponent of the view that the Hasidic movement was not gender-egalitarian and neither promoted women’s spirituality nor lent […]

High school student Tamar Lindenbaum wrote a beautiful piece in the JOFA Journal Bat Mitzvah issue about her great grandmother and her courageous stand on behalf of striking local miners in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1932. Now we have a whole volume of diary extracts written by that same deeply religious and independent woman, Bina

Although many know of the contribution to the education of Jewish girls by Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov network that began in Cracow in the 1920s, the private schools for Jewish girls that developed in Russian lands from 1831 to 1881 are far less familiar, This gap in Jewish history is rectified with Eliyana

In this highly readable volume, Sandra Rapoport retells and explores six biblical episodes in which the sexuality of the female characters is “used or abused.” The women in the stories vary, but all have, in the author’s words, “stepped outside their expected roles.” The stories are those of Lot and his daughters, Dinah and Shechem,

With aliyah and extended stays in Israel on the upswing, as well as international assignments for professional advancement becoming common, members of our community will have much use for the practical wisdom amassed in this advice-packed book. The author, a social worker, came to her subject because of the aliyah of her older son and

This large compendium tells you everything you wanted to know about davening but were afraid to ask. It is useful in clarifying what to say and how to move at every prayer opportunity, public and private, daily and seasonal. The book is, unfortunately, less helpful when it comes to women and prayer. The author observes,

Elana Sztokman’s book The Men’s Section peeks across the mehitza of the partnership minyan to examine the ways in which men are affected by Orthodox feminism. Whereas the majority of feminist literature questions women’s changing roles, Sztokman aims to give men and women the language to explain masculine identity. She examines how men have been

Editor’s Note: The third study guide in JOFA’s Ta Sh’ma series deals with the complex and emotionally fraught topic of a daughter’s obligation or permissibility to say mourner’s kaddish. Because the question has a long and fascinating history, this volume gives a more extensive presentation of sources than did its predecessors. The primary source material

Keep Your Wives Away from Them is a compelling anthology/ collection of stories by fourteen women who have come out as lesbian or transgender in a variety of Orthodox communities. The anthology’s greatest strength is that it allows the reader access to the authors’ personal thoughts as they negotiate the complex intersection between homosexuality and