What is this blog about?

I'm a Sephardi woman raised Ashkenazi (modern Orthodox to be specific). The older I get; the closer I draw to my roots- and the more distant.

When people talk about feminism, or Jewish feminists, they don't conjure of images of Sephardi women. Just try googling Sephardi feminism and you'll see it- nearly a blank page. Because Sephardim are supposed to be traditional, and feminism is untraditional. On this blog, I try to figure out if I can be both.

לעילוי נשמת שולטנה בת שרה. תהא נפשה צרורה בצרור החיים.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Agunah is an invented problem

Image
  Thoughts on Agunot from a Perspective of Loyalty To Tradition written originally to an activist friend  Nowadays as  before we hear alot on the need to find a halachic solution for get refusal I have a different approach  Halachic authorities will find their own solution only when we the people stop depending on them and take matters into our own hands In my opinion we don't need a halachic solution since the whole thing is an articially created problem that does not arise from a the Torah. Yeah, I said its not from the Torah. Not interpreted straightforwardly anyway There is no such thing as an agunah in the Torah.  No such concept. No idea that two people who live completely separate lives should be considered married because of the presence or lack of a piece of paper. The elevation of a piece of paper over and above actual reality is not from the Torah and does not fit our lived experience  There is an obligation for a man to write...
Read more

A Single Rabbanit?

Image
As previously discussed; everyone agrees that Rabbis are male, right? And so the great debate arose amongst liberal jewry on what to call the anomaly of a female rabbi in hebrew. I once heard someone referred to as "Reb Jill." The conservative movement insisted that a woman rabbi was a rav. As in "הרב תעביר דרשה".  The Liberal Orthodox came up with a number of obscure phrases, such as "congregational intern," and then "Maharat (an acronym of something for other)." But it seems the Reform movement won out in the end with their most grammatically correct "Rabbah." Of course they beat out the bunch because they had the following Biblical prooftext supporting them: "רבות בנות עשו חיל, והטלית על כולנה". But all these women candidates for female religious leadership had one thing in common. They all agree that they are not Rabbaniyot. And that's too bad. Traditionally, the Rabbanit is the Hebrew word for the Rabbi...
Read more

Jacob Biderman; DARVO, and Why Did She Go Back

Due to recent sexual misconduct allegations; a common question has come up: Why Did She Go Back? See, in many cases; the alleged victim has gone back and continued a relationship with the perpetrator. And that is considered a reason to disbelieve her testimony. Because of course if she had been an unwilling; she wouldn't have gone back. There are enough personal testimonies out there countering this line of thought. Mine, as traumatic as it was to me, is probably atypical, because the type of sexual exploitation that occurred to me is atypical, was essentially legal, and did not include the use of force. But what it shares in these accounts is that like the others, the part of the story in which we participated willingly; however small, however brief; silences us from coming forward. Holding him accountable falls by the wayside; as the brunt of the blame and accusation now falls on us- even in our own minds, let alone everyone else's. In fact I believe that this is what ...
Read more