Rachel's Daughters: Newly Orthodox Jewish Women

by Debra Renee Kaufman

Book Overview

Debra Kaufman writes about ba'alot teshuva women who have returned to Orthodox Judaism, a form of Judaism often assumed to be oppressive to women. She addresses many of the most challenging issues of family, feminism, and gender. Why, she asks, have these women chosen an Orthodox lifestyle? What attracts young, relatively affluent, well-educated, and highly assimilated women to the most traditional, right-wing, patriarchal, and fundamentalist...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813516382
• ISBN13: 9780813516387
• Release Date: April 1991
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

An insightful read

If you're interested in becoming an Orthodox Jewish woman, or are simply curious why young women have turned to the Jewish Orthodoxy, this book is for you. Also, if just you feel that you cannot fathom the highly-structured world of Orthodox Judaism, this book is a great starting place for you. The writer, inspired by her own sister's choice to (re)turn to Orthodox Judaism, wondered why women would want to subject themselves to a way of life that seems so patriarchal on the surface. In a time when many women were turning to women's liberation movements, the women who Debra Kaufman studied were becoming more religious. They weren't trying to gain the same kind of equality with men that other women wanted. The interviewees were seeking more defined spiritual and social roles that were different from men's roles, but equally important and meaningful. Above all, these women, like all other people have done, were looking for meaning in their lives. Kaufman compares and contrasts these women's views to those of other women who joined other religious and non-religious groups. I liked this book overall because it was sociologically-inspired, and not at all preachy.