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.
