How many religious girls or women do you know who aspire to dance or to sing? Interestingly, although one would hardly expect such a trend in Israel today, more and more young women are blazing a trail to follow their dreams of becoming artists. Religious women are dancing, singing, painting, and acting; what is more, they are using their religious roots and deep Jewish knowledge to shape their artistic work. Thus, they are creating a unique Jewish aesthetic experience. Some perform for women-only audiences, others for mixed audiences. Each is finding her own way. The following is a taste of some of the established, as well as up-and coming female stars, who are using their identity as religious Jewish women to influence their work.
Bat Kol Ensemble
A combination of Hasidic storytelling, song, and dance is performed by a group of Orthodox Jewish women for women- and girls-only audiences. Bat Kol is a product of the beit midrash of Matan Hasharon and has been performing for more than eight years. The ensemble includes the well-known Torah lecturer Oshra Koren (director of the Ra’anana branch of Matan), singers Gabie Sykora and Holly Dinur, and dancers Maayan Koren and Leora Damlin. The combination of divrei Torah, dancing, and singing presents a powerful experience for the audience.
Midrashir
Dr. Pnina Neuwirth and Hagit Kfir combine their individual talents to create a powerful and inspiring experience. Dr. Neuwirth, a professor of law and lecturer on Jewish topics, delivers a shiur with intermittent songs sung by Kfir. Kfir, who holds an MA in musicology, sings selections from Jewish liturgy, including Kol Nidrei, as well as more modern musical adaptations of Jewish sources. The songs enhance the message of the shiur for the listeners. The duo perform for either women-only or mixed audiences.
Ruchama Ben Yosef
Ruchama Ben Yosef, age 27, just put out her first album, “עוד לך יהיה,” “For You There Will Be More.” Her music contains a combination of styles, including soul, ethnic, and rock, yet it has a gentle sound. The lyrics are based on Jewish sources as well as modern Israeli poetry. Ruchama felt the need to start composing music and singing while she struggled with infertility for five years before having her first child. For a long time, Ruchama did not consider singing publicly, but now she feels that God has directed her toward this calling. Her songs can be sampled through her website, ruchamabenyosef.com (Hebrew).
Nechama Golan
Nechama Golan is a prominent Israeli religious artist. In one controversial piece of her art, she created a high-heeled shoe made out of photocopied pages of the Talmud tractate Kiddushin, which she glued together. Rabbi David Sperber analyzed the shoe as follows, “Juxtaposing the uncomfortable shoe that limits women and regulates their image as objects of desire with the Talmudic text on marriage and its traditional view of it as ownership, the work is a metaphor of the rules and tenets imposed on women by the patriarchal culture—both religious and secular.”1 Her work was recently part of the Matronita exhibit at the Museum of Art in Ein Harod, the first major exhibit in Israel of Jewish feminist art produced by women from traditional backgrounds.
Raise Your Spirits Theater
This group of women from Efrat and Alon Shvut began performing in 2001, during the difficult days of the second intifada, to raise people’s spirits and to mark the memory of the victims of terror attacks. Raise Your Spirits has produced shows about several biblical heroes and heroines, including Joseph, Esther, Ruth and Naomi, Noah, and Michal. Raise Your Spirits is an entirely by women for-women production.
Etti Ankri
Etti Ankri is an accomplished Israeli singer and songwriter, with a beautiful, moving voice. Ankri produced her first album in 1990, and in 2001 she became a ba’alat teshuvah. This change in her personal life had an effect on her music. Her spirituality is expressed most clearly in her latest album, Beshirei Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, in which she puts to music the poetry of medieval poet Yehuda Halevi. During concerts Ankri also shares moving Jewish stories with her audiences.