I recently learned that women-only tefillah with a female prayer leader that is similar to the standard, mixed gender prayer synagogue service is not only a post 1960s phenomenon. There is a little bit of information about it in "A Jewish Woman's Prayer Book" by Aliza Lavie, but I know there must be better articles written. I think it would be a nice complement to this article to have further suggested reading on the history of public women's tefillah. I was very interested to learn about the history of Jewish prayer in practice by women. I think it is also important to record and acknowledge that women's public prayer is not only based on post-1960's feminism, but has a history before this time. This is neither to assert or deny that those earlier practices may have been (or may not have been) "feminist" in their own way, nor is it to minimize the innovation of the 1960's on the contemporary orthodox "scene". Perhaps other people can also recommend books or articles on this topic? Or maybe they are already in the Encyclopedia? I did a search and couldn't find anything, but that doesn't mean its not already in here.
I recently learned that women-only tefillah with a female prayer leader that is similar to the standard, mixed gender prayer synagogue service is not only a post 1960s phenomenon. There is a little bit of information about it in "A Jewish Woman's Prayer Book" by Aliza Lavie, but I know there must be better articles written. I think it would be a nice complement to this article to have further suggested reading on the history of public women's tefillah. I was very interested to learn about the history of Jewish prayer in practice by women. I think it is also important to record and acknowledge that women's public prayer is not only based on post-1960's feminism, but has a history before this time. This is neither to assert or deny that those earlier practices may have been (or may not have been) "feminist" in their own way, nor is it to minimize the innovation of the 1960's on the contemporary orthodox "scene". Perhaps other people can also recommend books or articles on this topic? Or maybe they are already in the Encyclopedia? I did a search and couldn't find anything, but that doesn't mean its not already in here.