Social Justice – Page 3

The Agunah Problem and Its Solutions in Israel: A Descriptive Analysis

In the search for universal solutions to the agunah problem, one must keep in mind that although there may be various halakhic solutions, because the problem arises under varying conditions, the approaches and application of solutions differ vastly from locale to locale. Therefore, it is instructive to understand the similarities and differences between the conditions, […]

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Women of the Wall: Fighting for the Right to Pray

Geffen Feldman

On December 1, 1988, a group of about seventyfive Israeli, American, and Canadian women had a life-altering experience at the Kotel, the reverberations of which are with us still. We were attending the American Jewish Congress’s International Conference for the Empowerment of Jewish Women. I was invited to speak about Orthodox women’s prayer groups, which

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Women in Israel: From Illusion of Equality to Exclusion

Geffen Feldman

Any serious discussion of the present situation of women in Israel is bound to start with, and pay tribute to, the 2012 emergence of the “new” phenomenon of “women’s exclusion.” Israeli media were shocked to report on women’s exclusion from public buses, sidewalks, checkout lines in supermarkets, and faces on billboards; on the banning of

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Tradition and Equality in Jewish Marriage: Beyond the Sanctification of Subordination

Geffen Feldman

Jewish marriage resides at the confluence of two ideologically oppositional commitments that modern Jewish women and men struggle to navigate in their everyday lives, and will not readily abandon: exclusionary religious practices and modern ethical systems, such as feminism. Gender inequalities embedded in religious authority, practice, and marriage per se further present a moral problem,

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93Queen: Documenting Change within a Hasidic Community

Geffen Feldman

What’s 93Queen? It’s the internal ambulance code that the Fire Department of the City of New York assigned to Ezras Nashim, the Big Apple’s first all-volunteer female ambulance service. It’s also the name of a documentary describing how that service came to be. 93Queen is the first feature film by director/cinematographer Paula Eiselt, who obtained

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#MeToo and Sexual Harrassment: A Familiar Mishnah through a New Lens

Geffen Feldman

Harassment: An Assault of Human Dignity Following the headlines of the #MeToo movement, one might think that the horrors of sexual harassment had just been discovered. Remarkably, though, already in the second century ce, Rabbi Akiva taught some of the basic lessons of the movement. A close reading of a single mishnah can help us

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Gender and Communication in the Workplace

Geffen Feldman

For more than a year, we have seen frequent exposés of senior professionals who have harassed or assaulted subordinates. The current wave of actions addressing this workplace misbehavior is overdue and critical for supporting healthy work environments. But I believe that, for most people, the types of misbehaviors experienced at work are less severe than

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Medieval Jewish Businesswomen and Their Christian Clients: A Model for Religious Coexistence Today?

Geffen Feldman

Despite a steady growth in scholarly interest in the subject over the past two decades, many details of the lives of Jewish women in medieval England remain elusive. Their ways of worship, their minhagim (customs), and their interpersonal relationships are subjects of conjecture. However, one aspect of their lives in particular sheds vital light on

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From Left to Right: Lucy Dawidowicz, the New York Intellectuals, and the Politics of Jewish History

Geffen Feldman

Lucy Dawidowicz was not a feminist, nor was she Orthodox, yet much in her life experience and in her intellectual contributions will resonate with JOFA readers. She was often the only woman in a room filled with opinion-shaping men. She was sometimes given lesser recognition for her work than her contributions to a project deserved.

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The Politics of Abortion

Geffen Feldman

The typical pro-choice and anti-abortion positions in debate in American society today do not line up well with halakhic views on abortion. Halakhah never frames the issues in terms of individual choice, nor does halakhah talk in absolutes around the theology of when life begins. Rather, the issues are framed in terms of the value

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