On the Perils of Pregnancy: A Letter to Rivkah

Nov 29, 2024 By Rabbi Annie Lewis | Commentary | Toledot

Before you bravely took leave of your family, they blessed you that through your line would come thousands upon thousands of descendants. When you struggled to conceive, Yitzhak pleaded with God for you to bear children.

The Torah records how the boys thrashed about in your womb. וַיִּתְרֹצְצוּ הַבָּנִים בְּקִרְבָּהּ. You cried out, אִם־כֵּן לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי, “If this is how it is, why do I exist?” (Gen. 25:22).

Henrietta Szold’s Zionism and Ours

Nov 11, 2024 By Shuly Rubin Schwartz | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Henrietta Szold, JTS’s first female student, was the most learned Jewish woman in America in the first half of the last century. Attracted to the Zionist dream as a teen in Baltimore, she channeled her intellect and love for the Jewish people into Hadassah. Defying gender norms and expectations, she transformed the way Jewish women thought about their capabilities and the way many Jews approach their relationship to Zionism.

Innovations in Ritual and Halakhah (Law) Around Jewish Divorce

Jul 22, 2024

What are the essential components of an egalitarian marriage ceremony and divorce?  How can we ensure that the Conservative/Masorti movement’s ways of Jewish marriage and divorce reflect our spiritual values and ethical ideals?  Rabbi Pamela Barmash, PhD and Rabbi Karen Weiss Medwed, PhD discussed the progress that has been achieved in this area and the challenges that remain.

Religious Misconceptions: American Jews and the Politics of Abortion

Jun 24, 2024

We begin by tracing the history of how American Jews contributed to reproductive politics by developing first amendment-based arguments for abortion rights. We also discuss the ways in which reproductive politics transformed American Judaism. In particular, we look at the many rituals that Jewish feminist leaders developed to support people undergoing abortion care and galvanize activists working for reproductive rights.  

Gender, the Bible, and the Art of Translation

May 20, 2024

How should English translators of the Hebrew Bible approach questions relating to gender? When should gender-inclusive language (such as “God” or “person”) be used for references to God and human beings, and when is gendered terminology (such as “King” and “man”) called for historically and linguistically? What does it mean to faithfully render biblical Hebrew into contemporary English, and how can translators share their methodologies and choices with readers and communities? We explore these questions, focusing on the newest Bible translation released by The Jewish Publication Society, THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition.

Who among Us Is Holy? 

May 10, 2024 By Talia Kaplan | Commentary | Kedoshim

When God instructs Moses to tell the Israelites קדשים תהיו, “You shall be holy,” the injunction is to be delivered אֶל־כָּל־עֲדַ֧ת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל, “to the entire community of Israel” (Lev. 19:2). This week’s parashah opens with a message that seems easy to get behind. The question, though, of what it actually means to be holy, is answered by commentators in a way that paints a more complicated picture. Rashi explains that being holy entails refraining from forbidden sexual relations and transgressive thoughts, which are delineated both in this and the previous parashah.

Between the Lines: Between Two Worlds

Mar 20, 2024 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video | Video Lecture

Facing the harrowing task of rebuilding a life in the wake of the Holocaust, many Jewish survivors, community and religious leaders, and Allied soldiers viewed marriage between Jewish women and military personnel as a way to move forward after unspeakable loss. Proponents believed that these unions were more than just a ticket out of war-torn Europe: they would help the Jewish people repopulate after the attempted annihilation of European Jewry. Historian Robin Judd, whose grandmother survived the Holocaust and married an American soldier after liberation, introduces us to the Jewish women who lived through genocide and went on to wed American, Canadian, and British military personnel after the war.

The Work of Her Hands: The Art of Lynne Avadenka and the Craft of Jewish Women Printers

This exhibit featured a selection of rare books printed by Jewish women from the earliest days of Hebrew publishing alongside new artwork created by American artist/printmaker Lynne Avadenka.