ABSTRACT
Gender constructs and gender roles have been largely shaped by both the Halakha and Zionism. The actions of the self-defined religious women illustrate how arbitrary Jewish law, henceforth referred to by its Hebrew name, Halakha, is in distinguishing between the private and public spheres, particularly in gender-related matters. Gush Emunim women, on the line of demarcation between observant and non-observant Israeli-Jews, carry out the demands of Halakha and the Israeli state by protecting the private realm. The religious and historical factors provided the synthesis for a volatile emotional force that would produce in Hebron an enterprise reasserting and relegitimating a Jewish presence in all of Palestine. Jewish leaders began to emphasize male and female involvement in charitable behavior and good deeds. During the nineteenth century, there was a regression in Jewish gender roles. The early economic roles of Jewish women transcended their "natural" function as caretakers, such as trading.
