Orthodox Jewish religious practices shape gender roles

Jewish feminist theology

Jewish feminist theology is a critical theology that analyses feminist concepts in Jewish texts, imagery, and activities. Particularly, it has been highlighted that biblical, rabbinic, and mystical Jewish theology has representations of the divine that are at least ostensibly feminine, such as Hochmah, Wisdom, and the Shekhinah, the divine presence that dwells within creation. Elliot Wolfson has lately examined the qabbalistic view of Shekhinah as a feminine aspect of God who interacts with the world (1995). Jewish feminists have envisioned the mending (tikkun) of history and of the cosmos itself as a result of the mystical longing for the unity of the masculine and female aspects within God. The use of more gender-neutral words for God, such as HaMakom (the Place) and HaShem (the Name), also contributes to the tradition-based nature of Jewish feminist theological study. But before it is a doctrinal religion, Judaism is a practical religion, hence few Jewish women would give theology a prominent role in feminist Jewish Studies.

Jewish feminism, however, has both a first and second wave period, just like other feminisms. Following the rise of Jewish modernity in the early nineteenth century, the Reform movement's insistence on the individual's right to freely choose the kind and level of their Jewish commitment gave rise to a number of distinct types of Jewish feminism that were linked by a focus on justice and relational values. Prior to the Holocaust, political, educational, and humanitarian organisations that were frequently maternalist in nature served as the conduit for Jewish women's protofeminist or first wave activism. Disillusionment with early twentieth-century Jewish politics in the trade union, communist, and Zionist movements in Europe and North America as well as in the new settlements in Palestine, all of whose political radicalisms had largely failed to offer women the leadership roles their rhetoric of equality had seemed to promise them, was a major contributing factor to the second wave of Jewish feminism in the late 1960s. Jewish feminism had grown significantly by the end of the 1980s and was present across the observant spectrum, with the exception of the more exclusive Ultra-Orthodox communities.

Since an elderly Jewish woman from an Ethiopian or Kurdish Jewish community in Israel may not find the same things freeing, what a young Jewish woman from London or New York may find liberating may not be the same. An ideal Jewish man in the post-biblical Diaspora is one whose openness to and orientation toward family has defied and still challenges Western ideas of masculine violence and domination, making him the object of desire for Jewish women. While never effeminate, the ideal male Ashkenazi Jew has always been scholarly, otherworldly, and compassionate. This is still true in some Ultra-Orthodox communities today. Instead of masculine physical prowess or being the primary provider in the family, Jewish men are typically judged on the standing of their religious learning. By being depicted as God's (at times adulterous) wife, Israel's people have likewise undergone feminisation. On the other hand, it is widely believed that the Israeli establishment has justified its militarism by "feminising" diasporic victims of persecution, particularly Nazi survivors, and by defining the male Jew as the tough Israeli soldier—a secular reincarnation of the Israelite warrior of the biblical era.