Jews and Feminism
The Ambivalent Search for Home
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:2nd Jul '97
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£37.99(9780415914451)
This book examines the Jewish immigrant experience and the complexities of identity, particularly for Jewish women, in America. Jews and Feminism offers a critical perspective on belonging.
The book Jews and Feminism delves into the complex immigration journey of Jews from Eastern Europe to America, highlighting their quest for stability within various Jewish religious and cultural traditions. It presents an insightful exploration of how these traditions intersect with the broader themes of identity and belonging in a new homeland. The narrative examines the ambivalence experienced by Jewish feminists as they navigate their identity in relation to America, a place they both embrace and critique as home.
Laura Levitt, the author, interrogates the notion of America as a promised land for Jews, particularly in the context of citizenship and the liberal state. She raises critical questions about the social contract that implies security and acceptance for Jews, women, and particularly Jewish women within this framework. By linking the contractual nature of belonging to historical legacies, such as marriage, Levitt sheds light on the precarious position of Jewish women in society.
Through her analysis, Jews and Feminism offers a rich account of the interplay between Jewish identity, feminism, and the immigrant experience. Levitt's work encourages readers to reflect on the challenges and contradictions faced by Jewish women as they seek to carve out a space for themselves in a country that promises both opportunity and uncertainty. This book serves as a vital contribution to discussions on identity, culture, and the immigrant experience in America.
"Levitt's ability to range among the theologies of Borowitz and Plaskow, feminist theorists, and tractate Ketuboot reshapes the reader's understanding of the meaning of inclusion and equality...It is particularly impressive that Levitt can deliver such incisive and global critiques and still maintain models of hope and liberation." -- Shofar
"Laura Levitt's Jews and Feminism crosses boundaries and breaks rules to offer a visionary possibility for a feminist, Jewish cultural studies. This genuinely experimental work juxtaposes theology, a feminist analysis of liberalism, and a Jewish cultural analysis of emancipation to construct an original reading of being a Jew and a Jewish woman in the United States. Levitt's ability to create dialogues between feminist theory, the critical study of identity, and Jewish texts in order to investigate the meaning of "home" makes this work a major contribution to women's studies, cultural studies and Jewish studies. Jews and Feminism announces that Jewish, feminist cultural studies has come of age." -- Riv-Ellen Prell University of Minnesota
"Laura Levitt's Jews and Feminism is an eminently modern reading of the gender asymmetries that haunt the heart of Judaism. Original and imaginative, personal and theoretical, Levitt challenges her readers to reconsider what it means to be a feminist and a Jew at the end of the twentieth century. This book may not answer all the questions posed by its provocative title, but it asks them." -- Nancy K. Miller, The Graduate School and Lehman College, CUNY
"... an original and powerful contribution to Jewish feminist literature." -- Choice
"... very subtle ... [Levitt] remind[s] us of the complex texture of the many ideas which make up our personal and cultural identity ... Coming from the cutting edge of feminist and cultural studies, Jews and Feminism forces us to recognize the very specific and local content of all that we do." -- David Blumenthal, Emory University
ISBN: 9780415914444
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 476g
240 pages