At the “To Be a Jewish Woman” religious feminist conference, sponsored by Kolech in Jerusalem in 1999, I interviewed Blu Greenberg, the founder of Jofa, about her vision for the “bloodless revolution” she had described at the conference. She asked for my thoughts about the conference and the issues raised, and I shared my concerns about the challenges of girls’ Jewish religious education: the need for a curriculum to address some of the assumptions about women and girls in Jewish learning and for a greater focus on female figures and the roles of women and girls in Judaism. Blu asked me to send her an outline of what I had in mind, which I did; this eventually developed into the Gender and Orthodoxy Curriculum Project for Jewish day schools.
Development and Implementation
Blu Greenberg and Jofa empowered me to take my idea to fruition with thinking outside of the box, mentorship, and professional support. Two of the key questions that underlay this project were:
• What female leadership role models are girls exposed to and learn about in their Jewish education?
• How are these models integrated into the curriculum?
Although these questions are familiar ones today, they nonetheless remain relevant. Jofa played a critical role both in raising these issues and in finding and providing the resources and influence to give voice to ways that these questions could be addressed through a curriculum.
The Gender and Orthodoxy Curriculum was developed in order to explore how the value of gender equality fits into teaching in Jewish schools, so as to enable all Jewish children to be educated with the message of being created in the image of God. I also wanted teachers, parents, and leaders to become more gender sensitive by developing more nuanced materials and policies within the schools and setting goals for achievement of gender awareness and discussion.
It was exciting to embark on incorporating the new materials of the Jofa Gender-Sensitive Ḥumash curriculum into the traditional Ḥumash curriculum, with the goal of promoting gender-positive images. With the support of the Covenant Foundation, this curriculum was developed over a period of three years, and in 2006, it was integrated into the Ḥumash curriculum in a number of American Jewish schools. A professional advisory board guided the development of curriculum; the authors of the Bereishit and Shemot curricula included the late Chaya Gorsetman, Amy T. Ament, Sara Hurwitz, Amy Jo Swirsky, Tammy Jacobowitz, and Judith Talesnick. Teachers reported that the curricular materials helped to bring our ancestors into their students’ lives in a novel way, as real human beings and as models for their behaviors and values. A mentoring component was a critical factor in the success of the project. It encouraged students to ask questions, as well as providing tools for responses that opened multiple avenues of discussion.
The Gender and Orthodoxy Curriculum is still valuable today for educators and should be shared more widely in Jewish day schools to explore the value of gender equality.
After the successful launch of the U.S. pilot in four tri-state area Jewish day schools, where they were enthusiastically received by teachers and principals alike, I introduced this Jofa curriculum into UK schools, to use as a supplement to the traditional Bible curriculum. I also used the curriculum as a tool to raise gender awareness with UK teachers and school leaders by bringing materials and midrashim that demonstrate the different ways by which a particular female figure can be approached in the biblical text.
If we want our teachers and leaders to address issues of gender awareness, then we need to raise the issues with them first. Teachers often have set values or ideas that they teach. By exposing them to different viewpoints on a particular character or idea, they might consider a new approach. More importantly, they may realize that there are other valid approaches to consider. For example, Leah’s eyes have often been interpreted as weak. However, in our module the students explore the biblical text, commentators, and talmudic passages that highlight Leah’s strong resolve in the face of a difficult situation (in the beginning of Bereishit 29).
The Jofa curriculum was also a springboard for a wider discussion about gender awareness within Jewish schools. It opened doors. We were providing valuable concrete material for the teachers to use in a nonthreatening manner, as the materials constitute biblical texts and midrashim that fall within the framework of an Orthodox Jewish school. The teachers and leaders realized that raising gender awareness did not mean promoting ideas and values which they might perceive as foreign to Torah teaching.
Questions
My goal in developing the curriculum was for schools, teachers, and leaders to ask questions regarding the gender messages being transmitted within their schools through their materials, events, and activities, in both the Jewish and secular spheres. These include the following questions—some of which may seem antiquated, because of the successful proliferation of gender awareness since 2006, when the project began, but many of which are still relevant today:
• What roles do we provide for Jewish ritual leadership and participation for the girls and the boys in Jewish schools?
• What gender stereotypes are prevalent in Jewish educational settings? Where do we see issues of gender in the daily school framework?
• What does it mean today for girls and boys to study texts that appear offensive to modern sensibilities?
• What texts and stories do we choose to study and consider in our educational institutions, and what might they teach us about ourselves and our relationships, continuity, values, and observance?
• How do we teach about and relate to the women who are left out of the biblical and Judaic stories?
• How do we teach about the exceptional women in the biblical and talmudic legacy?
• What is the impact of lay leadership in setting policy on gender issues in schools?
• When a school Pesah seder focuses on the four sons ̣ rather than four children, have the professional staff considered how this might affect the girls and how they see themselves and their roles at the seder?
• When we neglect to discuss the essential roles of the midwives, Miriam, Pharaoh’s daughter, and Yokheved in the redemption of the Jewish people in Egypt, what messages are we sending the girls and boys about female Jewish leadership?
• When the Kabbalat Shabbat assembly depicts the Jewish family with the mother cleaning the house and preparing the chicken soup while the father is studying and praying, what messages are we sending our children about gender roles?
• When a boy is encouraged to become a rabbi or Jewish leader after delivering a d’var Torah and a girl who gave an equally, if not more, erudite d’var Torah is told that her d’var Torah was just good, what is the message we are sending about future Jewish leaders and Torah scholars?
Finally, I wanted the teachers, parents, and leaders to become more gender sensitive by developing more nuanced materials and policies in schools and setting goals for achievement of gender awareness and discussion.
Activities
Beyond the specific Jofa curriculum that focuses on Ḥumash, I have used a number of other mechanisms to raise gender awareness in Jewish schools. Different approaches will work in different schools.
I was invited into one school to work with the student council to address issues of gender awareness. I asked the children to brainstorm about Jewish leaders. They mentioned many male biblical leaders and modern Israeli figures. Then one of the girls suddenly asked if they could also name girls as leaders. I repeated that I had asked them to brainstorm about Jewish leaders. The girls and then the boys named female characters in the Bible and in contemporary Jewish and Israeli history. Through this exercise, the teacher working with the student council was made aware that there was a question as to whether girls could be included in the category of Jewish leaders.
Another school in which I was involved was motivated by parents raising awareness of the importance of inclusive language to add a female perspective to the school Haggadah project by changing the traditional four sons to four children. The process of getting approval for this change raised gender awareness for the teachers and leaders involved.
In yet another case, the following rap song was added to a play that constituted part of a Pesah seder, raising consciousness about the role of Miriam in the Pesaḥ story.
Bursting in during Moses’ final rap, Miriam says:
Yo bro. Sorry to stop
the flow Mo.
But if you dis your sis that’s like sexist.
My poetry not totally Shakespearian; my name is
Miriam.
And the benefits of a Jewish feminist are specialist.
If it wasn’t for the women, there’d be no singing.
So just let me intervene. Don’t let our part go
unseen.
Faith in Hashem on the tambourine was quite
serene … if unforeseen.
So don’t be so typical. Let’s stick to what is biblical.
The Gender and Orthodoxy Curriculum is still valuable today for educators and should be shared more widely in Jewish day schools to explore the value of gender equality, so that all children are educated with the message of being created in the image of God.