Publication date:
17 August 2012Length of book:
262 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9780739167854
This engaging feminist approach to Judaism blends the interpretation of primary Jewish sources with contemporary social change. Bonna Devora Haberman shares her first-hand account of the “Women of the Wall” and a feminist approach to traditional Judaism, while interacting with ancient Jewish texts. In a rich network of sources, seaming together scholarship with activism, Haberman analyzes the sacred, with attention to power and gender. While much religious and national culture focuses on death and sacrifice, Haberman proposes an alternative model for a Jewish theology of liberation: birth—no less universal than death. Life-giving rather than life-taking is the nucleus of this work, reformulating performances of gender in a realm of exaggerated sexual difference. Using her experiences with the “Women of the Wall” movement interwoven in scripture, Haberman contributes toward liberating religious culture from its gender oppressions, and rendering religion a liberating force in society.
Israeli Feminism Liberating Judaism: Blood and Ink offers readers a unique opportunity to learn about the group and its history from a core founder. Bonna Devora Haberman writes beautifully about her motivations and ideology, in part through the story of Women of the Wall and in part by drawing on the collective experiences of the Jewish people, and especially Jewish women, across time. These essays engage with a broad spectrum of religious theologians and secular philosophers to construct Haberman’s theology of equality for women, which is both relevant to understanding the events at the Western Wall as well as insightful and meaningful for the activist soul. Even more compelling, Haberman presents her writing using a technique that frequent readers of feminist academic literature will recognize and welcome. The narrative is flowing and surprising, and intensely personal. . . . Haberman moves expertly from the Biblical Exodus of Moses, Miriam, of Sarah and Joseph, culminating in a personal yet universal analysis of birthing and being. And—all the more so–the subsequent chapters are intensely personal as the author describes the stories of her children’s births.