Fall/Winter 77/78

In this issue: The population panic—why communal leaders want Jewish women to be fruitful and multiply. Menachem Begin wins in Israel and Israeli women lose their rights. An exclusive preview of a new siddur—a prayer book where God is female. Step outside and say that! Jewish women learn karate to throw off the pushover stereotype.

The Population Panic

by Shirley Frank

The current panic by communal leaders over more Jews having fewer children is more than coincidental, since the discovery of the demographic "crisis" follows close on the heels of the emergence of Jewish feminism.

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What’s a Jewish Mother?

by Susan Weidman Schneider

Jewish children have learned to expect their mothers to demonstrate their Jewishness primarily by being selfless, altruistic and preoccupied with their family’s well-being.

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Post-Election Blues

by Lesley Hazleton

The newly-elected Likud Government has no commitment to women’s equality, and its own leader, Menahem Begin, groups women together with children as beings who must be protected—-by men.

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The Jewish Establishment is NOT an Equal Opportunity Employer

by Amy Stone

A nation-wide (U.S.) study of professionals in Jewish community service documents what women have long sensed—-that in social work, fund-raising and administration, the men lead and the women follow—-far behind.

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Selections from a Prayerbook where God’s Image is Female

by Naomi Janowitz & Maggie Weing

Woman and man may both have been created in God’s image, but the God of the traditional prayerbooks is strictly male. In the new Sabbath prayerbook written by two members of the Brown University Women’s Minyan, the God language is female and is inspired by women’s experience.

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Karate

by Chana Forse

Jewish women, many of them Orthodox, are studying this martial art because "the Torah wants us to lead healthy and disciplined lives...and emphasizes hard work as the route to understanding."

Esther Broner

by Shebar Windstone

In a revealing interview, poet and novelist Esther Broner talks about rediscovering our mothers...the Jewish-Black rupture...how patriarchal Judaism excluded—-but did not demean--women...how women writers were told they "couldn’t handle men"... feeling more and more sensual under the Israeli sun... the growth of anti-Semitism... and much more.

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Hollywood Waters Down “Rose Garden”

by Rochelle Lefkowitz

Hollywood waters down "rose garden"

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