Jews and Feminism: The Ambivalent Search for Home (Paperback)

by Laura Levitt (Author) "Why marriage and the ketubbah, the rabbinic marriage contract?..." (more)
Key Phrases: Melanie Kaye, United States, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"... an original and powerful contribution to Jewish feminist literature." -- Choice

... an original and powerful contribution to Jewish feminist literature.
–Choice

... very subtle ... [Levitt] remind[s] us of the complex texture of the many ideas which make up our personal and cultural identity ... Coming from the cutting edge of feminist and cultural studies, Jews and Feminism forces us to recognize the very specific and local content of all that we do.
–David Blumenthal, Emory University

Laura Levitt's Jews and Feminism crosses boundaries and breaks rules to offer a visionary possibility for a feminist, Jewish cultural studies. This genuinely experimental work juxtaposes theology, a feminist analysis of liberalism, and a Jewish cultural analysis of emancipation to construct an original reading of being a Jew and a Jewish woman in the United States. Levitt's ability to create dialogues between feminist theory, the critical study of identity, and Jewish texts in order to investigate the meaning of home makes this work a major contribution to women's studies, cultural studies and Jewish studies. Jews and Feminism announces that Jewish, feminist cultural studies has come of age.
–Riv-Ellen Prell University of Minnesota

Laura Levitt's Jews and Feminism is an eminently modern reading of the gender asymmetries that haunt the heart of Judaism. Original and imaginative, personal and theoretical, Levitt challenges her readers to reconsider what it means to be a feminist and a Jew at the end of the twentieth century. This book may not answer all the questions posed by its provocative title, but it asks them.
–Nancy K. Miller, The Graduate School and Lehman College, CUNY

Laura Levitts Jews and Feminism crosses boundaries and breaks rules to offer a visionary possibility for a feminist, Jewish cultural studies. This genuinely experimental work juxtaposes theology, a feminist analysis of liberalism, and a Jewish cultural analysis of emancipation to construct an original reading of being a Jew and a Jewish woman in the United States. Levitts ability to create dialogues between feminist theory, the critical study of identity, and Jewish texts in order to investigate the meaning of home makes this work a major contribution to womens studies, cultural studies and Jewish studies. Jews and Feminism announces that Jewish, feminist cultural studies has come of age.
–Riv-Ellen Prell University of Minnesota

Laura Levitts Jews and Feminism is an eminently modern reading of the gender asymmetries that haunt the heart of Judaism. Original and imaginative, personal and theoretical, Levitt challenges her readers to reconsider what it means to be a feminist and a Jew at the end of the twentieth century. This book may not answer all the questions posed by its provocative title, but it asks them.
–Nancy K. Miller, The Graduate School and Lehman College, CUNY

Levitt's ability to range among the theologies of Borowitz and Plaskow, feminist theorists, and tractate Ketuboot reshapes the reader's understanding of the meaning of inclusion and equality...It is particularly impressive that Levitt can deliver such incisive and global critiques and still maintain models of hope and liberation.
–Shofar

Levitts ability to range among the theologies of Borowitz and Plaskow, feminist theorists, and tractate Ketuboot reshapes the readers understanding of the meaning of inclusion and equality...It is particularly impressive that Levitt can deliver such incisive and global critiques and still maintain models of hope and liberation.
–Shofar

Product Description
By interrogating America's promise of a home for Jews as citizens of the liberal state, Jews and Feminism questions the very terms of this social "contract." Maintaining that Jews, women, and Jewish women are not necessarily secure within this realm of the state, Laura Levitt links this contractual construction of belonging and acceptance to legacies of marriage as a contractual home for Jewish women.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (June 25, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415914450
• ISBN-13: 978-0415914451
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,013,524 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)