Happy Women’s History Month! Help JWA continue to lift up Jewish women’s stories, this month and every month, by making a gift today!
Close [x]

Show [+]

Judaism-Orthodox

Content type
Collection
Collage of Twitter bird on blue sky background

Twitter Taught Me How to Love Judaism

Ava Cohen

Jwitter, or Jewish Twitter, helped me reshape how I viewed my place in a Jewish community.

Collage of flowers and Jewish objects on a variety of orange torn papers

Learning to Lead Prayers, and My Community

Talia Waxman

I wanted my bat mitzvah to be a very public statement of my commitment to gender equality within Orthodox Judaism.

Collage of arms holding up a Jewish star on background of pages of Jewish text

Being Female and Orthodox Caused My Identity Crisis

Elah Tuchshnieder

When the topic of my bat mitzvah surfaced in my two households, it became evident that my bat mitzvah was not going to be like the ones my friends were having.

Rebecca Chernin

Project
Women Who Dared

Elise Brenner interviewed Rebecca Chernin on December 19, 2004, in Sharon, Massachusetts, as part of the Women Who Dared Project. Rebecca discusses her family, childhood, and Jewish identity, highlighting her advocacy efforts to combat teen violence and support domestic violence victims within the Jewish community; she also shares her personal experience as an Orthodox teen survivor of an abusive relationship, her work with REACH Beyond Domestic Violence, and her outreach efforts to address domestic violence within the Jewish community, guided by the Jewish value of shalom bayit, and reflects on her ongoing advocacy goals.

Collage of drawings of skirts and pants on periwinkle background

Is the Future of Modern Orthodox Women In Pants?

Aviva Schilowitz

For some Modern Orthodox Jewish women, skirts versus pants gets tricky.

Hadassah Blocker

Project
Women Who Dared

Elise Brenner interviewed Hadassah Blocker on December 16, 2004, in Newtonville, Massachusetts, as part of the Women Who Dared Oral History Project. Blocker shares her upbringing in Massachusetts, her Orthodox background, challenges to gender roles in Judaism, and her dedication to teaching and promoting women's equal participation.

Lech by Sara Lippman Book Cover

"Lech" Complicates Familial Relationships

Chanel Dubofsky

As Lippmann's characters in Lech excavate their lives in search of clarity, they're ultimately left with this truth: what we're told to believe about ourselves and the world is never all there is.

Collage of Milla Jovavitch in The Fifth Element on a blue sparkling background

Finding Tzniut in The Fifth Element's Futurist Costumes

Noa Karidi

The film The Fifth Element creates an aspirational society in which a woman does not feel exposed or sexualized because of what she wears. I want that for all of us. 

Collage of Miriam Ezagui over drawing of smartphone and hand on green background

Finding Jewish Empowerment on TikTok

Rosie Yanowitch

After Kanye West's latest antisemitic spiral, I searched Tiktok, hoping to seek solitude and comfort in Jewish creators succeeding at sharing their Jewish identity in ways that felt authentic, candid, and personal.

Collage of line drawing of a crowd of women on a deep purple background

Reclaiming "Like a Girl"

Adina Gerwin

I had to ask the question a 2015 Always ad poses: "why would I let ‘like a girl’ stop me?" Acting like a girl works, and is not something I need to be ashamed of.

Hadassah Blocker

Project
Adult Bat Mitzvahs

Shayna Rhodes interviewed Hadassah Blocker on November 3, 2004, in Newtonville, Massachusetts, as part of the Adult Bat Mitzvahs Oral History Project. Blocker discusses her Orthodox Jewish background, her role in Torah learning, and her advocacy for women's participation in synagogue services and adult Jewish education.

Black and white photo of three women laughing in a kitchen

Let’s Fight for Gender Equality Across All Branches of Judaism

Savoy Curry

We shouldn’t assume that “progressive” branches of Judaism are always more feminist than traditional ones.

Karen Weissbecker Remer

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Karen Weissbecker Remer on September 27, 2006, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Remer discusses her transition from Conservative Judaism to modern Orthodox Judaism, her experience during Hurricane Katrina, and the impact it had on her life and community.

Shmutz Book Cover by Felicia Berliner

“Shmutz” Subverts the Traditional Ex-Orthodoxy Narrative

Chanel Dubofsky

Felicia Berliner's debut novel Shmutz upends the notion of a binary choice so frequently seen in literature concerning Jews living unhappily in insular communities.

Malka Lew

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Malka Lew on October 12, 2006, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Lew talks about her Orthodox Jewish upbringing, her transformation to an observant lifestyle, surviving cancer surgery before Hurricane Katrina, evacuating to Houston, and finding strength in her faith.

Bluma Rivkin

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Bluma Rivkin on October 12, 2006, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Rivkin shares her Chabad upbringing, involvement in the New Orleans Jewish community, experiences during Hurricane Katrina, evacuation to Houston, spiritual guidance, return home to devastation, and joyful celebrations of Sukkot and Simchat Torah.

Lonnie Zarum (Schaffer)

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Lonnie Zarum, formerly Schaffer, on August 30, 2007, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Zarum reflects on her experiences growing up in a modern Orthodox Jewish family in London, her move to New Orleans, surviving Hurricane Katrina, the challenges faced by her synagogue, and her personal growth and gratitude in the aftermath of the disaster.

Ben Jaffe

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Ben Jaffe on September 6, 2006, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina’s Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Jaffe talks about his upbringing in the French Quarter of New Orleans, his family's contribution to the revival of traditional jazz through Preservation Hall, his experiences during Hurricane Katrina, and his efforts to rebuild and preserve the city's music culture.

Myron Goldberg

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Myron Goldberg on July 5, 2007, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Goldberg, a first-generation American from New Orleans, discusses his family history, involvement with Congregation Beth Israel, running a store, raising a family, experiencing Hurricane Katrina, and rebuilding his home and business.

Cecillia Etkin

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Cecillia Etkin on June 14 and August 1, 2001, at her home in Seattle, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women's Words project. Etkin discusses her childhood in Romania, her experiences in concentration camps, her work as a "mikveh lady," and her role in educating youth about the Holocaust, highlighting her resilience and dedication to preserving Jewish traditions and supporting her community.

Alice Siegal

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Roz Bornstein interviewed Alice Siegal on July 10 and July 19, 2001, in Seattle, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Siegal discusses her family, upbringing in Seattle, involvement in social justice, education, marriage, and career, reflecting on the changing Jewish community and her Jewish identity.

Reva Twersky

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Roz Bornstein interviewed Reva Twersky on June 19, 2001, in Seattle, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Twersky discusses her family's Russian roots, their Orthodox values, community life in Seattle, experiences during World War II, involvement in Jewish organizations, and her marriage.

Hanna Weinberg

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Jean Freedman interviewed Hanna Weinberg on June 10, 2001, in Baltimore, Maryland, as part of the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Weinberg shares her immigration story from Germany and Lithuania to the United States, her experiences growing up in various cities, her marriage to Rabbi Yaacov Weinberg, her community involvement, and her reflections on raising a large family and widowhood.

Helène Aylon

Helene Aylon was an American, New York-based, multimedia visual artist who began by creating process art in the 1970s, focused on anti-nuclear and eco-activist art by the 1980s, and subsequently devoted more than 35 years to the multi-partite installation The G-d Project. This last body of work’s often direct or indirect textuality resonates from and responds to Judaism’s traditionally male-dominated textuality as part of a larger commentary on women in Judaism.

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.

Donate

Help us elevate the voices of Jewish women.

donate now

Get JWA in your inbox

Read the latest from JWA from your inbox.

sign up now