About This Issue
Janet Jakobsen
This issue of Scholar and Feminist Online began with an
insight: the growing realization of the importance of Jewish women in
the history of feminism in the United States. When it comes to
improving women's lives, in many instances it is Jewish women who are
changing America.
This insight is now coming to the fore of scholarship on American
feminism, as scholars reflect back on many decades of change, and
particularly on the founders of what is generally called the "second
wave" of American feminism, which began in the 1960s and continued
through the twentieth century. Even in the first wave of activism,
running roughly from the mid-nineteenth century through the suffrage
movement of the 1920s Jewish women were not absent. Ernestine Rose, a
Jewish immigrant from Poland and political activist, is generally
credited as being one of the first women to speak in public to "mixed"
audiences of both men and women in the United States. By the late 1960s
and early 1970s, however, the role of Jewish women in U.S. feminism is
unmistakable with leaders like those named by Letty Cottin Pogrebin at
the conference as "Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, [and] Gloria Steinem".
The members of the planning committee for the first major conference
sponsored by Barnard's Ingeborg, Tamara and Yonina Rennert Women in
Judaism Forum were struck by this fact, and they wanted to investigate
what it might mean for both Jewish women and American feminism. The
Ingeborg, Tamara and Yonina Rennert Women in Judaism Forum brings to
Barnard scholars, artists, and activists - and this conference brought
together all three - whose work promotes understanding of the complex
roles of sex, gender, and sexuality in Judaism today and through
history. How had Jewish women's activism enabled what the Jewish
Women's Archive calls, "the feminist revolution?" How had their work
changed Jewish communities and religious institutions? What was the
impact of Jewish feminism on both mainstream and Jewish culture? How
had Jewish women affected mainstream American society, including
mainstream politics? The Barnard Center for Research on Women and S&F
Online are grateful for the generous support of the Ingeborg, Tamara
and Yonina Rennert Women in Judaism Forum. This is the second issue of
S&F Online that the Rennert Forum has made possible, and we invite
you to also visit one of our first issues, "Changing Focus: Family
Photography and American Jewish Identity." We are also deeply
indebted to the hard work of the members of the planning committee,
Flora Davidson, Irena Klepfisz, and special conference consultant Miriam
Peskowitz.
Those of us working at BCRW have not been the only ones to come to
the conclusion that the relationship between Jewish women and feminist
social change in the United States is significant, and we have been
particularly happy to work with the Jewish Women's Archive as our
partner for both the conference, "Jewish Women Changing America" and
this issue of S&F Online. JWA has for the past few years been
working on an exhibit on the history of Jewish women and feminism that
is now available online at jwa.org/feminism.
They have also been
collecting oral histories of Jewish women's experiences with feminism,
and the conference provided them with opportunity to collect oral
histories with members of the conference audience both young and old.
As this collaboration makes clear, we had hit on a topic whose time
had come. And as JWA's oral histories show, the connection between
Jewish women and feminism is living history at its best, where the now
"historical" efforts of feminists who came to prominence in the early
second wave (when they themselves often were quite young) is being met
by the activities of a new and exciting set of young feminists working
in a variety of venues and media. If we are to explore Jewish women
changing America, we must consider the work of this next generation as
well. As befits an educational institution with a long history of
feminism, BCRW has often been a site for exchange between generations of
feminist activists. While always provocative and sometimes difficult,
such conversations have produced insights into both the commonalities
and the differences that drive successive generations of activity.
"Jewish Women Changing America" is no exception to this rule. In
this issue we offer summaries of each of the conference panels, as well
as the full transcripts from the conference. The record of these
conversations shows difficult exchanges and real disagreements, along
with sustaining continuities and surprising connections. You can also
watch video clips of each of the panelists and of some general
discussion, so that you can get a sense of the energy and enthusiasm
that pervaded the exchanges. Each panelist at the conference brought up
interesting issues that extend well beyond what could be covered in a
single panel, and so this issue of S&F Online includes just a few
samples of the types of materials through which one might explore these
questions further: poetry by Maya Barzilai and Irena Klepfisz,
a play by Rachel Havrelock, and a song by
Metropolitan Klezmer. We also include the fruition of our
collaboration with JWA: an essay on their oral history project along
with striking images from their Online Exhibit, "Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution."
In addition to these images, we also include a slideshow of photographs
by Joan Roth, as well as a slideshow featuring the series of Women of Valor
Posters developed by JWA.
This material is as inspiring as it is informative. Conversations
not just across generations but among materials - activist and artistic,
oral and print - provide us with insight into a world of activity, debate
and social movement that is dynamic and vibrant. No wonder Jewish women
are changing America.
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