The Women's Seder Sourcebook: Rituals and Readings for Use at the Passover Seder [Hardcover]

Sharon Anisfeld (Editor), Tara Mohr (Editor), Catherine Spector (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2002

The complete sourcebook for creating your own women's seder.

The Women's Seder Sourcebook provides the tools you need to bring women's voices to your Passover celebration, create a women's seder of your own, and share in the unique perspectives that contemporary Jewish women are bringing to our evolving understanding of this holiday. Organized according to the order of the seder, this comprehensive collection includes:

* Accessible and inspiring introductions to each part of the seder
* Overviews of how different aspects of the Passover ritual have been reinterpreted in a feminist context
* Readings, commentaries, blessings, and rituals from more than one hundred women, to serve as supplements to or substitutes for traditional passages of the haggadah
* Women's writings that can be incorporated into the family seder to bring new, thought-provoking voices to the table

This practical guide also includes discussion questions, texts, and exercises for further study, to help you transform the planning process for your women's or family seder into a Jewish learning experience.

Contributors include:
Dr. Rachel Adler
Rabbi Renni S. Altman
Dr. Rebecca T. Alpert
Zoe Baird
Dr. Evelyn Torton Beck
Susan Berrin
Senator Barbara Boxer
Dr. Esther Broner
Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Tamara Cohen
Anita Diamant
Dr. Carol Diament
Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, Ph.D.
Eve Ensler
Dr. Marcia Falk
Merle Feld
Rabbi Susan P. Fendrick
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone
Dr. Ellen Frankel
Nan Fink Gefen
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb
Dr. Susannah Heschel
Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar
Rabbi Naamah Kelman
Naomi Klein
Irena Klepfisz
Maxine Kumin
Rabbi Noa Rachel Kushner
Rabbi Joy Levitt
Hadassah Lieberman
Ruth W. Messinger
Dr. Faye Moskowitz
Dr. Alicia Suskin Ostriker
Dr. Judith Plaskow
Marge Piercy
Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen
Anne Roiphe
Danya Ruttenberg
Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
The Honorable Jan Schakowsky

Rabbi Susan Schnur
Rabbi Susan Silverman

Dr. Ellen M. Umansky
Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg
Dr. Chava Weissler
Cantor Lorel Zar-Kessler

Also Available:
The Women's Passover Companion:
Women's Reflections on the Festival of Freedom
6 x 9, 352 pp., Hardcover, ISBN 1-58023-128-4
The companion volume to The Women's Seder Sourcebook. Offers an in-depth examination of the roots and meanings of women's seders, and an exploration of the themes of Exodus and exile as they relate to women's lives today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1993, a group of Yale students gathered for an unprecedented event at the university: a women's Passover seder. In the decade since, students have revised and perfected the "Yale Women's Haggadah," a special liturgy for the women's seder. Rather than simply publishing this Haggadah of commentaries and alternative texts, the group (now stretching far beyond the bounds of New Haven) decided to write this sourcebook for planning women's seders. Some of the selections come from unpublished liturgies from campus Hillel groups, individual congregations and Jewish women's organizations, but most were solicited from female rabbis, scholars and other notables such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anne Roiphe, Lynn Gottlieb and Judith Plaskow. The manual closes with a practical appendix on how to plan a women's seder.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Tara Mohr, and Catherine Spector first worked together as organizers of Jewish Women at Yale and as leaders of Yale University's beloved and inspiring women’s seder. Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld is director of education and programming at Harvard Hillel. Tara Mohr is a writer, editor, and Koret Synagogue Initiative consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. Catherine Spector, a student at the University of Chicago Law School, was also part of the steering committee for Yale’s two national conferences on Jewish women.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580231365
• ISBN-13: 978-1580231367
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,889,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Judaism > Women and Judaism

More About the Author

Merle Feld is a widely published poet, award-winning playwright, peace activist and educator. She is the author of a new volume of poetry, "Finding Words," (URJ Press, 2011) and a highly acclaimed memoir, "A Spiritual Life: Exploring the Heart and Jewish Tradition" (State University of New York Press, revised edition 2007).

Merle's award-winning plays include "The Gates are Closing," which has offered hundreds of synagogue communities and university groups from Brooklyn to Beijing a powerful and moving introduction to the themes of the High Holidays. In "Across the Jordan" (published by Syracuse University Press in the anthology "Making a Scene"), Biblical characters share the stage with contemporary Israelis and Palestinians struggling for recognition and rapprochement.

Merle is a popular scholar-in-residence nationally; abroad, she has facilitated Israeli-Palestinian dialogue on the West Bank and at Seeds of Peace, and has traveled to collaborate with and support Jewish women activists in the former Soviet Union through Project Kesher. The Russian translation of "A Spiritual Life" enjoys a wide audience in the FSU; its publication occasioned a unique three-week book tour of Ukraine. Both her experiences facilitating dialogue on the West Bank and traveling across the FSU are detailed in the revised edition (2007) of "A Spiritual Life."

Since 2005 Merle has served as Founding Director of the Albin Rabbinic Writing Institute, guiding rabbinical students and rabbis from all denominations to develop and explore their own spiritual lives and to serve more effectively as spiritual leaders. Her prose and poetry (including her signature poem about women and men at Sinai) can be found in numerous anthologies and prayer books, most recently in the celebrated volumes "Mahzor Lev Shalem" and "The Torah: A Woman's Commentary." Merle and husband Rabbi Edward Feld make their home in Western Massachusetts.

Visit Merle's website www.merlefeld.com for further details about her books and plays, her speaking and teaching schedule and her guidance to begin or enrich your own spiritual writing practice.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Women and Passover, March 27, 2003

By 

Rachel (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Women's Seder Sourcebook: Rituals and Readings for Use at the Passover Seder (Hardcover)

This was an incredible book. The contributors were very passionate about Judaism and women's issues and incredibly well informed about Passover and connected themes. Some of the pieces were funny and some were serious, some were academic and other were more relaxed, creating a divere mix. This book was great because it can be useful for anyone who appreciates Passover -- religious or secular and everyone in between. It would make a great gift!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Contribution, March 29, 2003

By 

Jordi S. (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Women's Seder Sourcebook: Rituals and Readings for Use at the Passover Seder (Hardcover)

This book, together with its companion, The Women's Passover Companion, is a wonderful, wide-ranging compilation of beautifully composed thoughts, rituals, readings, and reflections by women from across an incredible spectrum of backgrounds. The two volumes represent not only a culmination of over thirty years of growth in the Jewish women's movement but can also stand alone as works that capture a breadth of Jewish women's voices at this particular moment in history.

The books are equally suitable for the Jewish professional and the Passover novice. No matter your age, religious affiliation, or political ideals, these books contain a multitude of readings that will resonate for you--and countless other readings from which you will learn and expand your understanding of the Passover holiday. I recommend them strongly no matter where you are on your journey through the wilderness.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and inspiring, May 7, 2003

By 

Elizabeth (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Women's Seder Sourcebook: Rituals and Readings for Use at the Passover Seder (Hardcover)

I didn't know as much as I would have liked about Passover, and these books were extremely helpful in becoming more familiar with it. Finding new perspectives on the traditional story and ritual was an exciting way to go about learning, and it really helped me connect to the holiday. In addition, the books just provide a great take on women's roles and accomplishments today. I would recommend this book and the Women's Passover Companion to everyone, whether you have thought a lot about Passover and are looking for fresh insights, or are just starting out and looking for meaning in the traditions of Passover.