Yentl's Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism

by A.C. Hall, Sarah Coleman, Danya Ruttenberg, et al.

Book Overview

Thanks in large part to the struggles of their activist foremothers, today's young Jewish women have a dizzying array of spiritual options. Yentl's Revenge chronicles a range of experiences lived by an entire generation of women, from Judeo-pagan witches to young Orthodox mothers, from rabbis to sex educators.

Contributors ponder Jewish transgenderdom, Jewish body image, Jewish punk, the stereotype of the Jewish American Princess,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580050573
• ISBN13: 9781580050579
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Seal Press (CA)
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Jewish doesn't always equal Yiddish and bagelz

I was deeply moved by this provocative and absolutely necessary book. Ruttenberg has done a great job in selecting these essays. However, i was able to identify strongly with one specific essay. The one by Loolwa Khazoom, a jewish woman of iraqi descent. Being a jew from yemeni origin, i have found myself constantly struggling to preserve my yemenite jewish upbringing and redefining Jewishness for myself. Living in North America makes it even more difficult to communicate that we are Jews and yet entitled to our Middle Eastern difference. And that we are Arabs and yet entitled to our religious difference, like Arab Christians and Arab Muslims. For me, jewishness wasn't always ashkenazi. I never heard of a dreidel, even though I love bagels i don't understand a word of yiddish. To me, jewishness was almost always inextricably linked to middle-easterness.For those of us who don't hide our Middle Easterness under one Jewish "we," it becomes tougher and tougher to exist in an American context hostile to the very notion of Easterness. As an Arab Jew, I am often obliged to explain the "mysteries" of this oxymoronic entity. That we have spoken Arabic, not Yiddish; that for millennia our cultural creativity, secular and religious, had been largely articulated in Arabic(as well as judeo-arabic and aramaic. Maimonides being one of the few middle-eastern Jewish intellectuals to "make it" into the consciousness of the West. His famous "Guide to the perplexed" was written in arabic under the title "Dalalat Al-Hai'reen"); and that even the most religious of our communities in the Middle East and North Africa never expressed themselves in Yiddish-accented Hebrew prayers, nor did they practice liturgical-gestural norms and sartorial codes favouring the dark colours of centuries-ago Poland. Middle Eastern women similarly never wore wigs; their hair covers, if worn, consisted of different variations on regional clothing (and in the wake of British and French imperialism, many wore Western-style clothes). If you go to our synagogues, even in New York, Montreal, Paris or London, you'll be amazed to hear the winding quarter tones of our music which the uninitiated might imagine to be coming from a mosque.I strongly recommend this book!

Jewish doesn't always equal tiddish and bagelz

I was deeply moved by this provocative and absolutley necessary book. Ruttenberg has done a great job in selecting these essays. However, i was able to identify strongly with one specific essay. The one by Loolwa Khazoom, a jewish woman of iraqi descent. Being a jew from yemeni origin, i have found myself constantly struggling to preserve my yemenite jewish upbringing and redefining Jewishness for myself. Living in North America makes it even more difficult to communicate that we are Jews and yet entitled to our Middle Eastern difference. And that we are Arabs and yet entitled to our religious difference, like Arab Christians and Arab Muslims. For me, jewishness wasn't always ashkenazi. I never heard of a dreidel, bagel and don't understand a word of yiddish. To me, jewishness was almost always inextricably linked to middle-easterness.For those of us who don't hide our Middle Easterness under one Jewish "we," it becomes tougher and tougher to exist in an American context hostile to the very notion of Easterness. As an Arab Jew, I am often obliged to explain the "mysteries" of this oxymoronic entity. That we have spoken Arabic, not Yiddish; that for millennia our cultural creativity, secular and religious, had been largely articulated in Arabic(as well as judeo-arabic and aramaic. Maimonides being one of the few middle-eastern Jewish intellectuals to "make it" into the consciousness of the West. His famous "Guide to the perplexed" was written in arabic under the title "Dalalat Al-Hai'reen"); and that even the most religious of our communities in the Middle East and North Africa never expressed themselves in Yiddish-accented Hebrew prayers, nor did they practice liturgical-gestural norms and sartorial codes favoring the dark colors of centuries-ago Poland. Middle Eastern women similarly never wore wigs; their hair covers, if worn, consisted of different variations on regional clothing (and in the wake of British and French imperialism, many wore Western-style clothes). If you go to our synagogues, even in New York, Montreal, Paris or London, you'll be amazed to hear the winding quarter tones of our music which the uninitiated might imagine to be coming from a mosque.I strongly reccomend this book!

A welcome and seminal contribution to feminist studies

Deftly compiled and edited by Danya Ruttenberg, Yentle's Revenge: The Next Wave Of Jewish Feminism is an impressive collection of essays by women in their 20s and 30s who are changing the very meaning of what it is to be Jewish. The range of thoughtful, informative, and challenging contributions offer a range of perspectives from former riot grrls to judeo-pagan witches to young Orthodox mothers. The wide ranging and diverse issues covered include circumcision, intermarriage, and the stereotype of the Jewish American Princess. Also chronicled are searches for faith, detailed intolerance, and defying expectations. Enhanced with a preface by Susannah Heschel (editor of "On Being A Jewish Feminist) and a glossary of Yiddish and Hebrew terminology, Yentl's Revenge is a welcome and seminal contribution to feminist studies in general, and the changing roles and perceptions of Jewish women entering the 21st Century in particular.

Ruttenberg Rocks! Yentl's Revenge is great.

This book is a wonderful collection of thinking and sharing. The essays are written from a wide variety of views and personal backgrounds. It made me think outside the box, it challenged me, it intrigued me, I was moved to tears, I laughed out loud, I felt motivated to examine my own process of categorizing and change it. I loved reading this book and highly recommend it.

an excellent collection

Ruttenberg has collected 20 well-crafted essays dealing with a broad range of Jewish feminist concerns. Many are thoughtful responses to the obvious sexism of Jewish law; others range more widely, from Eve vs. Lilith to an examination of what, exactly, a Jewish sexual ethics might entail. Required reading for any Jewish feminist (no matter how secular), and sure to be of interest to many others as well.