You Are Hereby Renewed unto Me

Gender, Religion and Power Relations In the Jewish Wedding Ritual

By:

Irit Koren

Preview

“Halakhic marriage perpetuates a person’s status as property… This form of control over a woman’s sexuality is a type of terrorism that does not apply to men.” This statement expresses a modicum of the discomfort felt by modern religious women with respect to the traditional wedding ceremony. This book follows the efforts by these women to alter the traditional ceremony, challenging it and opposing it even while remaining a part of it. These women choose to express their agreement with and opposition to various elements of the tradition in a manner that reflects a worldview that values both equality and Orthodoxy. The social power relations between these women and their environment describe the revolution taking place in religious society, in the shadow of the intersections of tradition with modernity, and of Orthodoxy with feminism. Non-religious women who nevertheless struggle to accept various aspects of the Jewish wedding ritual will likewise find in this book an echo of the whispers in their hearts.

La'Isha, by Dina Halutz, February 2016
The Jerusalem report, by: Haviva Ner-David, January 2013
YNET, by: Rivka Lobitch, October 2011

“A riveting anthropological study of one of the significant crossroads in the life of the modern Orthodox woman. For the first time, the ways in which religious feminists stretch the boundaries of that which is possible and permissible within the bounds of Halakha and tradition are described and analyzed. A brilliant combination of an insider’s familiarity with this world with scholarly analysis leads to new insights into women and their societal milieu.” - Professor Tova Cohen, Chair of the Gender Studies Program, Bar Ilan University

“This book affords the reader a close look at the negotiation between sets of values within Israeli religious society, and provides a riveting set of tools for analyzing the juncture of ritual with identity and identification. This book will be an asset not only to those who are interested in religious feminism, but also to anyone who seeks to understand the ways in which religions function, change and preserve themselves in the modern world.” - Dr. Elisheva Baumgarten, Gender Studies Program, Bar Ilan University.

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You Are Hereby Renewed unto Me

Gender, Religion and Power Relations In the Jewish Wedding Ritual

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