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Feminism

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Collage of Illustrated Women Facing the Western Wall

"We Hear Us": Finding My Voice in Response to Sexism at the Western Wall

Mallie Lifsitz

The woman who helped me onto the benches that day at the Western Wall helped me to begin to find my voice.

Sara Hurwitz

Sara Hurwitz was the first Orthodox woman to be publicly ordained and serve in an Orthodox synagogue, the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. She went on to co-found, with Rabbi Avi Weiss, Yeshivat Maharat, the first institution to provide a credentialed pathway for Orthodox women to be ordained and serve as rabbis.

Sarah Silverman

Sarah Silverman is an American stand-up comedian, writer, and actor known for her sharp, detached stage persona and boundary-pushing material that often deals with themes of Jewish identity.

Collage of Michelle Wu standing in front of an orange line train

Michelle Wu: The Power of Community Activism and a Hopeful Future for Boston

Talia Bloom

As I look back on my Jewish feminist foremothers and their respective activist efforts, I see many parallels with Michelle Wu’s work on the Orange Line in Boston.

Passover-Themed Collage Featuring Matzah and Decorative Bowl

My Charoset Bowl: From Female Ancestors, to My Mom, to Me

Mira Eras

Mira Eras describes how a charoset bowl passed through generations of women in her family keeps her feeling connected to her mother's love for holiday traditions.

Topics: Feminism, Food, Passover
Illeana Douglas as Denise Waverly in Grace of My Heart

You Probably Missed This Film When It Came out 25 Years Ago. Don’t Let That Happen Again.

Sarah Jae Leiber

This holiday season, skip the blockbusters and watch Grace Of My Heart instead.

Collage of Images From Georgia Fried's Bat Mitzvah

Fighting to Include the Imahot at My B'nai Mitzvah

Georgia Fried

I decided that I, a thirteen year old, would convince the rabbi of my synagogue to change a rule no one else had successfully challenged.

The Intimacy Experiment Book Cover (cropped)

Finally, a Positive, Feminist Jewish Take on Sex

Zia Saylor

This new book offers a sex-positive perspective often lacking in Jewish spaces.

Outlined Women Sitting in Forefront; Background of Outlined Hands Holding Protest Signs

Radical Self-Acceptance as a Jewish Lesbian Feminist

Lilly Rochlin

I’ve gathered that—to some—my presence as an openly Jewish, queer, feminist person is interpreted as a disruption that needs to be fixed.

Savoy Curry Making Cholent

Love Your Crockpot? You Have Cholent to Thank for its Existence.

Savoy Curry

Without cholent, the crockpot might never have been invented.

Illustration for "With All Your Heart" Weekly Prayer Book: Image drawn with crayon of woman with red hair, bordered by color blocking in blue and maroon

A Young Feminist's Siddur

Elle Rosenfeld

When I stared down at my siddur for the first time, the one I would come to memorize, I ran my pudgy fingers over the fiery red woman featured on its glossy cover.

Topics: Feminism, Prayer
Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp and Annaleigh Ashford as Paula Jones

FX’s Impeachment: A Study in Caricature and Misogyny

Sarah Jae Leiber

By putting some of the show’s female stars in prosthetics, FX’s Impeachment is guilty of the same misogynistic behavior for which it faults the media.

Photo of Maddie Nowack with Camp Havaya Friends Over Background with Pomegranate Pattern

Marking My Growth as a Feminist, Asian, and Jewish Woman with My Camp Shirts

Maddie Nowack

My camp shirts represent a timeline of my growth into a proud, strong Chinese and Jewish woman.

Women with arms around each other, backs turned

Jewish Feminists, History, and the HUC Report

JWA Staff

JWA responds to the recent report on the investigation into sexual misconduct at HUC. 

Episode 67: E. Lockhart's New Jewish Superhero (Transcript)

Episode 67: E. Lockhart's New Jewish Superhero

Episode 67: E. Lockhart's New Jewish Superhero

It's a bird...it's a plane...it's Willow Zimmerman! Willow is a social justice-minded Jewish teenager. She loves a hot salty reuben, bakes her own rugelach, and enjoys hanging out with a stray dog named Leibowitz. She’s also the latest Gotham City superhero. In this episode of Can We Talk?, producer Jen Richler talks with novelist E. Lockhart about creating Willow for DC Comics.

Girl Holding #MeToo sign

It’s Time Schools Took Sexual Assault Seriously

Rena Kosowsky

By failing to educate students about sexual boundaries, my high school perpetuated a culture of assault.

Episode 65: Regendering the Torah (Transcript)

Episode 65: Regendering the Torah (Transcript)

Gail Twersky Reimer

Gail Twersky Reimer is a teacher, writer, editor, passionate advocate for the humanities, and visionary pioneer of Jewish feminism. Reimer founded the Jewish Women’s Archive in 1995 to ensure that Jewish women’s stories would become integral parts of the historical record. Under her leadership, JWA pioneered the use of virtual technology in collecting, chronicling, and transmitting knowledge of Jewish women’s lives.

Episode 65: Regendering the Torah

Yael Kanarek wanted a more direct relationship with the Divine than she experienced through male-centric Jewish sacred texts—so she rewrote the Torah.  In Toratah, or Her Torah, Yael has switched the genders of each character.  The result is a familiar text that resonates very differently, with a new set of matriarchs and patriarchs, and stories that draw new connections and pose new questions.

Photo of Books Arranged in an S-Shaped Pattern Across a Blue Background

Confronting Harmful Themes in Young Adult Fiction

Lily Pazner

The themes in the YA fiction I read in middle school fueled my internalized misogyny.

Topics: Feminism, Fiction

Jewish Women in Screendance

Jewish women made overwhelming contributions to the creation of the field of Screendance.  Maya Deren, Amy Greenfield, Anna Halprin, Yvonne Rainer, Meredith Monk, and others have created a legacy of socially conscious dance for the screen that collectively exhibits and performs principles of Jewish ritual and practice. Many of these artists share a focus on social justice and a collective approach to what might be called a feminist Jewish art form.

Rita Arditti

Rita Arditti was an Argentinian Sephardic scientist, feminist, educator, and activist who spent most of her adult life working for social justice and human rights while living in the United States. She co-founded Science for the People, New Words Bookstore, and the Women’s Community Cancer Project. She co-edited anthologies on science and politics and reproductive technologies and wrote a book about the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina.

Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz

Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz (1945-2018) was a lesbian-feminist writer and editor. She made multiple theoretical contributions to understanding Judaism, lesbianism, and feminism as intersectional identities, extended an awareness of class and economic justice through a Jewish lens, and made visible racial differences within Jewish communities. She advocated Radical Diasporism as a progressive alternative to Zionism.

Judith Herman

Dr. Judith Herman was a pioneer in identifying the frequency with which sexual abuse of female children occurs within the family, in the treatment of victims of abuse, and in psychotherapeutic confrontations of abusers.

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