Gender in Judaism: Tradition and Transformation
with Sarah Imhoff
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When
Wednesdays - 8 Weeks
7:00-8:30 pm ET
4:00-5:30 PM PT
Starts October 30, 2024
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This course will ask Jews throughout North American history lived out sexual difference. We will think about how Judaism shaped their ideas about gender, as well as how their ideas about gender shaped Judaism. Many of our questions will be historical. What did it mean to be a Jewish man or woman in different eras? And what did it mean for Jews who did not fit neatly into this gender binary? Were Jewish gender roles different from those of their non-Jewish neighbors? What roles did Jewish texts have in creating expectations about what Jews of different genders should do? If men studied religious texts while women were breadwinners, who was the head of the household? Were gender roles different in Europe and Israel/Palestine than they were in the US?
We will also think about stereotypes: Why did people think of Jewish men as weak and brainy, rather than athletic and strong? When did the idea of brash and pushy Jewish women begin? We will consider contemporary religious issues. Some of these are often framed as halakhic questions, such as ordaining women as rabbis, having women count as part of a prayer quorum, the “agunah” or Jewish woman who cannot get a divorce, and women’s place in Hasidic life. Others transcend halakhah. How do trans and non-binary Jews find or create Jewish rituals? How can the history of issues of women’s inclusion inform broader gender inclusion today, and what is distinctive from that history and thus needs new approaches?
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This class will be recorded and available to enrolled students to watch later.
Cost
This course is available at a sliding scale cost of $359 (the true cost), $299 or $239.
If you can afford the full price, we hope you will choose that option, which allows us to continue to offer lower rates and scholarships to those who otherwise would not be able to access this learning because of financial barriers.
If you need financial aid beyond the sliding scale, please fill out this simple form, and we will get right back to you.
About the art: This class graphic uses Chloe Sherman's iconic 1994 photograph "Kindred Spirits". To learn more, check out this interview with Sherman in Lillith Magazine.
with Sarah Imhoff
—
When
Wednesdays - 8 Weeks
7:00-8:30 pm ET
4:00-5:30 PM PT
Starts October 30, 2024
—
This course will ask Jews throughout North American history lived out sexual difference. We will think about how Judaism shaped their ideas about gender, as well as how their ideas about gender shaped Judaism. Many of our questions will be historical. What did it mean to be a Jewish man or woman in different eras? And what did it mean for Jews who did not fit neatly into this gender binary? Were Jewish gender roles different from those of their non-Jewish neighbors? What roles did Jewish texts have in creating expectations about what Jews of different genders should do? If men studied religious texts while women were breadwinners, who was the head of the household? Were gender roles different in Europe and Israel/Palestine than they were in the US?
We will also think about stereotypes: Why did people think of Jewish men as weak and brainy, rather than athletic and strong? When did the idea of brash and pushy Jewish women begin? We will consider contemporary religious issues. Some of these are often framed as halakhic questions, such as ordaining women as rabbis, having women count as part of a prayer quorum, the “agunah” or Jewish woman who cannot get a divorce, and women’s place in Hasidic life. Others transcend halakhah. How do trans and non-binary Jews find or create Jewish rituals? How can the history of issues of women’s inclusion inform broader gender inclusion today, and what is distinctive from that history and thus needs new approaches?
—
This class will be recorded and available to enrolled students to watch later.
Cost
This course is available at a sliding scale cost of $359 (the true cost), $299 or $239.
If you can afford the full price, we hope you will choose that option, which allows us to continue to offer lower rates and scholarships to those who otherwise would not be able to access this learning because of financial barriers.
If you need financial aid beyond the sliding scale, please fill out this simple form, and we will get right back to you.
About the art: This class graphic uses Chloe Sherman's iconic 1994 photograph "Kindred Spirits". To learn more, check out this interview with Sherman in Lillith Magazine.
with Sarah Imhoff
—
When
Wednesdays - 8 Weeks
7:00-8:30 pm ET
4:00-5:30 PM PT
Starts October 30, 2024
—
This course will ask Jews throughout North American history lived out sexual difference. We will think about how Judaism shaped their ideas about gender, as well as how their ideas about gender shaped Judaism. Many of our questions will be historical. What did it mean to be a Jewish man or woman in different eras? And what did it mean for Jews who did not fit neatly into this gender binary? Were Jewish gender roles different from those of their non-Jewish neighbors? What roles did Jewish texts have in creating expectations about what Jews of different genders should do? If men studied religious texts while women were breadwinners, who was the head of the household? Were gender roles different in Europe and Israel/Palestine than they were in the US?
We will also think about stereotypes: Why did people think of Jewish men as weak and brainy, rather than athletic and strong? When did the idea of brash and pushy Jewish women begin? We will consider contemporary religious issues. Some of these are often framed as halakhic questions, such as ordaining women as rabbis, having women count as part of a prayer quorum, the “agunah” or Jewish woman who cannot get a divorce, and women’s place in Hasidic life. Others transcend halakhah. How do trans and non-binary Jews find or create Jewish rituals? How can the history of issues of women’s inclusion inform broader gender inclusion today, and what is distinctive from that history and thus needs new approaches?
—
This class will be recorded and available to enrolled students to watch later.
Cost
This course is available at a sliding scale cost of $359 (the true cost), $299 or $239.
If you can afford the full price, we hope you will choose that option, which allows us to continue to offer lower rates and scholarships to those who otherwise would not be able to access this learning because of financial barriers.
If you need financial aid beyond the sliding scale, please fill out this simple form, and we will get right back to you.
About the art: This class graphic uses Chloe Sherman's iconic 1994 photograph "Kindred Spirits". To learn more, check out this interview with Sherman in Lillith Magazine.
Meet Sarah
Sarah Imhoff (she/her) is Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University. She writes about religion and the body with a particular interest in gender, sexuality, race, and disability. She is author of Masculinity and the Making of American Judaism and The Lives of Jessie Sampter: Queer, Disabled, Zionist (a National Jewish Book Award finalist) and, with Susannah Heschel, The Woman Question in Jewish Studies. She is the founding co-editor of the journal American Religion.
