ABSTRACT

The feminist critiques of traditional understandings of Jewish societies, religion, and culture, which have emerged during the last two decades, are primarily the work of the increasing numbers of women who have entered various fields of Jewish scholarship in recent years, and reflect their receptivity to the concurrent growth of women’s studies scholarship. The analytical essays in DAVIDMAN and TENENBAUM, which are rich in bibliography, examine the impact of these feminist perspectives, so far, on such Jewish studies specialties as biblical studies, rabbinics, theology, philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, and literature, and find mixed results. Despite significant advances in several fields, authors suggest that a continuing lack of integration of feminist perspectives in such areas as rabbinics, Jewish philosophy, and sociology has to do with the conservative and almost hermetic nature of these specialties, as well as with traditionally negative Jewish attitudes toward women’s involvement in intellectual pursuits.