Princess or Prisoner? Jewish Women in Jerusalem, 1840-1914

In this book, Margalit Shilo, a professor in the Land of Israel Studies Department at Bar-Ilan University and a leading scholar of women’s studies in Israel, opens up for the reader the world of Orthodox women in Jerusalem towards the end of Ottoman rule in the Holy Land. She gives us a rich and detailed picture of the religious life of women within a society which is usually seen from a male perspective. Although most of the female population was illiterate, Shilo uses women’s voices preserved in documents of the period and as well draws on diaries, memoirs, newspaper articles, letters, and community regulations written by men. She shows how there were more women than men in Jerusalem, particularly older women as many widows came to Jerusalem alone to spend the last years of their life. She discusses the particular relationship these women had with the Western Wall and other Holy Places, and their special identification with the biblical Rachel. The author examines accounts of a number of educated and learned women, and explores the role of education and family life within a context of great poverty and hardship. She describes women at the margins of society including agunot, and uses fascinating evidence from the hundreds of classified advertisements in the local Jerusalem newspapers. Through this book, both erudite and exciting, the reader learns about the unique quality of life in Jerusalem in this period, and how Jerusalem provided women with a special arena for a life of holiness.