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"Women
are the key to renewal, revival and re-invigoration of Judaism in our time.
Long relegated to a position of inferiority and even excluded from religious
study and leadership, they are at last making their mark on the Jewish
community in Israel and in the Diaspora. Knowledge is power!"
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Alice Shalvi
Past President and current member of Executive Board
Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies
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Women and Judaism - Programs and Publications The
feminist movement is without doubt one of the major social forces of our time.
Jewish women have been instrumental in establishing the movement and today play
crucial roles in furthering the goals and aspirations of feminist theory and
action around the world. Women like Alice Shalvi, past
president of the Schechter Institute, and today Chair of its Executive Council,
believe in the connection between Judaism and feminism, for Judaism has
traditionally championed equality, justice and human rights. Serious interdisciplinary
study of the two fields is a recent and positive development that is enriching
the field of Jewish Studies.
The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies
is Israel's leading center for academic study and public outreach
in the area of Women's Studies and Jewish Studies.
Unique
M.A. Degree
Jewish Studies: Women's and Gender Studies
The
Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies offers a unique M.A.
degree, Jewish Studies: Women's
and Gender Studies. Most Israeli universities have established
departments and programs for women's studies, but the Schechter
Institute is the first to integrate women's studies with
a specific Jewish emphasis. Program Head, Dr. Renée
Levine Melammed, award-winning scholar whose latest book
on crypto-Jewish women in Spain won the National Jewish
Book Award, supervises a two-year program which boasts a
rich curriculum.
Center
for Women in Jewish Law
The
Center for Women in Jewish Law conducts
and publishes advocacy research in the area of women and
Jewish Law. Since its inception in 1999, efforts have been
directed at finding Jewish Law solutions to the problems
of modern-day agunot (anchored women) whose husbands refuse
them a religious divorce. The Center has broadened its
mandate to include publishing legal decisions in other
areas of Jewish Law affecting women, and educating the
broader public concerning the rights of women within Jewish
Law.
Jewish
Law Watch - Agunot
Since 1999, the Center for Women in Jewish Law has published six case studies on agunot in its bi-annual Jewish
Law Watch, a journal which offers alternative halakhic opinions to those of the Orthodox rabbinic courts in cases of agunot.
To Learn and To Teach
To Learn and To Teach is a popular series of pamphlets published by the Schechter Institute's Center for Women in Jewish Law that provide information on the halakhic status of women in the synagogue.
Nashim
A Journal for Jewish Women's Studies and Gender Issues
Nashim
is a respected forum for the latest interdisciplinary work
on Judaism and gender. A leading voice of Jewish feminism
and scholarship, Nashim highlights the struggle to
redefine the place of women in Jewish tradition in ways
that incorporate female creativity and spirituality.
International
Conferences
Deeply
committed to raising public awareness in the area of women's
and Jewish studies, the Schechter Institute hosts international
conferences with the world's leading scholars in the field.
Past conferences have been on "The Teaching of Gender Studies and Judaica," "The Impact of Women's and Gender Studies on Jewish Studies," and "Changes and Directions in Women's Studies." .
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