Women of Valor

Karen E. H. Skinazi

Published by Rutgers University Press 2018

Women of Valor

Orthodox Jewish Troll Fighters, Crime Writers, and Rock Stars in Contemporary Literature and Culture

Karen E. H. Skinazi

https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813596051

Overview
Contents

About this book

Media portrayals of Orthodox Jewish women frequently depict powerless, silent individuals who are at best naive to live an Orthodox lifestyle, and who are at worst, coerced into it. Karen E. H. Skinazi delves beyond this stereotype in Women of Valor to identify a powerful tradition of feminist literary portrayals of Orthodox women, often created by Orthodox women themselves. She examines Orthodox women as they appear in memoirs, comics, novels, and movies, and speaks with the authors, filmmakers, and musicians who create these representations. Throughout the work, Skinazi threads lines from the poem “Eshes Chayil,” the Biblical description of an Orthodox “Woman of Valor.” This proverb unites Orthodoxy and feminism in a complex relationship, where Orthodox women continuously question, challenge, and negotiate Orthodox and feminist values. Ultimately, these women create paths that unite their work, passions, and families under the framework of an “Eshes Chayil,” a woman who situates religious conviction within her own power.

Author information

KAREN E. H. SKINAZI is a senior teaching fellow and the director of Liberal Arts at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. She is a scholar of multiethnic, American, and women’s literature and published a critical edition of Marion: The Story of an Artist’s Model.

Reviews

"This fascinating and engaging book is a significant contribution to the study of contemporary Jewish literature and culture."

— Wendy Zierler, Sigmund Falk Professor of Modern Jewish Literature and Feminist Studies, Hebrew Union College

"Skinazi delivers a richly insightful, sensitive, and wide-ranging exploration of religious identity, women’s agency, and autonomy, providing genuinely illuminating perspectives on both the individual and the collective."

— Ranen Omer-Sherman, JHFE Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Louisville

“This wonderfully wise, sensitive and beautifully written study is a book I’ve been waiting for. Skinazi’s nuanced rendering of Orthodox Jewish women sees them at long last dodge their popular and academic stereotypes to appear as the agents and storytellers of their own lives.”

— Devorah Baum, author of Feeling Jewish: (A Book for Just About Anyone)

"Women of Valor is eye-opening, energetic and intellectually adventurous. Drawing on a wide range of written, pictorial and cinematic sources, it brings to life a hitherto forgotten group of women."

— Bryan Cheyette, author of Diasporas of the Mind: Jewish and Postcolonial Writing and the Nightmare of History

"Orthodox Jewish women 'erased' by popular culture, research finds"

— Phys.org

"Today's narratives by and about Orthodox women are an engaging, at times provocative, counterargument to the mainstream media's picture of the Gitl of the twenty-first century. They are in constant battle with that picture, often manage to reinforce it, and have not emerged as the dominant image – or images."

— Sir Read A Lot

"Jew in the City" interview with Karen E.H. Skinazi

— Jew in the City

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Dedication Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
An Unorthodox Guide To Orthodox Judaism Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
A Woman Of Valor (Proverbs 31:10–31) Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction: She Puts Her Hand To The Distaff Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. A G-D-Fearing Woman, She Should Be Praised: Exposure, Dialogue, And Remedy In “Off-The-Derech” Narratives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
2. A Woman Of Valor Who Can Find: Crime Fiction As Primers Of Orthodoxy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
3. She Opens Her Mouth With Wisdom: This Bridge Called My Voice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
4. She Senses That Her Enterprise Is Good: Representations Of Orthodox Businesswomen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
5. She Will Be Praised At The Gates By Her Very Own Deeds: The Orthodox Artist And The Fruit Of Her Hands Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
Coda: Many Daughters Have Attained Valor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269

Language: English
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 315
Illustrations
- Other: 15 b-w figures
Keywords: Orthodox; Jewish; women; literature; culture; religion; Women of Valor; Allegra Goodman; Hasidic; Bulletproof Stockings; agency

eBook

Published: September 7, 2018
ISBN: 9780813596051