scholarly journals Yidishe tates forming Jewish families

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-40
Author(s):  
Mercédesz Czimbalmos
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Jewish Woman ◽  
Orthodox Judaism ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Patrilineal Descent ◽  
Mother To Child ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Do So

Jewish communities often do not endorse the idea of intermarriage, and Orthodox Judaism opposes the idea of marrying out. Intermarriage is often perceived as a threat that may jeopardise Jewish continuity as children of such a relationship may not identify as Jews. When a Jewish woman marries out, her children will in any case become Jewish by halakhah – the Jewish law – by which Judaism is inherited from mother to child – and thus usually faces less difficulties over acceptance in Jewish communities. Even though the Torah speaks of  patrilineal descent, in post-biblical times, the policy was reversed in favour of the matrilineal principle, and children of Jewish men and non-Jewish women must therefore go through the conversion process if they wish to join a Jewish congregation according to most Jewish denominational requirements. The aim of this article is to analyse what happens when Jewish men, who belong to Finland’s Orthodox communities, marry out. Do they ensure Jewish continuity, and raise their children Jewish, and how do they act as Yidishe tates – Jewish fathers? If yes, how do they do so, and what problems do they face? These questions are answered through an analysis of thirteen semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with male members of the Jewish Community of Helsinki and Turku in 2019–20.

scholarly journals JEWISH LAW, STATE, AND SOCIAL REALITY: PRENUPTIAL AGREEMENTS FOR THE PREVENTION OF DIVORCE REFUSAL IN ISRAEL AND THE UNITED STATES

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-88
Author(s):  
Amihai Radzyner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Jewish Woman ◽  
Main Tool ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western World ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
State Law ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
The Common ◽  
Official Status

AbstractRabbinical courts in Israel serve as official courts of the state, and state law provides that a Jewish couple can obtain a divorce only in these courts, and only strictly according to Jewish law. By contrast, in the Western world, especially the United States, which has the largest concentration of Jews outside of Israel, the Jewish halakha is not a matter of state law, and rabbinical courts have no official status. This article examines critically the common argument that for a Jew committed to the halakha, and in particular for a Jewish woman who wants to divorce her husband, a state-sponsored halakhic system is preferable to a voluntary one. This argument is considered in light of the main tool that has been proven to help American Jewish women who wish to obtain a halakhic divorce from husbands refusing to grant it: the prenuptial agreement. Many Jewish couples in the United States sign such an agreement, but only a few couples in Israel do so, primarily because of the opposition of the rabbinical courts in Israel to these agreements. The article examines the causes of this resistance, and offers reasons for the distinction that exists between the United States and Israel. It turns out that social and legal reality affect halakhic considerations, to the point where rabbis claim that what the halakha allows in the United States it prohibits in Israel. The last part of the article uses examples from the past to examine the possibility that social change in Israel will affect the rulings of rabbinical courts on this issue.

Staying and Critiquing

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-130
Author(s):  
Valeria Seigelsheifer ◽  
Tova Hartman
Keyword(s):  
Orthodox Judaism ◽  
Orthodox Jewish ◽  
Women Filmmakers ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Cultural Resistance ◽  
The Past ◽  
Public Voice ◽  
Do So

Over the past two decades, Israeli Orthodox Jewish women filmmakers have used film to speak in a public voice about various subjects that were previously taboo. Although there are aspects of Orthodoxy to which these filmmakers object, they do so as ‘devoted resisters’. Rather than expressing heretical opposition, the women stay committed to Orthodoxy precisely because they are able to use filmmaking to resist. In their negotiations of voice used to ‘justify’ their decision to become filmmakers, the women position themselves as ‘accidental’ filmmakers, thereby remaining within Orthodoxy while critiquing it through their films. Cultural resistance in this case is not carried out as defiance to Orthodox Judaism but rather out of a relationship with it, featuring a form of resistance that insists upon devotion to multiple commitments.

The Litigious Gerusha: Jewish Women and Divorce in Imperial Russia*

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
ChaeRan Y. Freeze
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Woman ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
State Court ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Imperial Russia ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
Good Reputation ◽  
Criminal Charges ◽  
The Impact

When Ita Myshkind learned that her husband had remarried before delivering the official get (bill of divorcement), she filed criminal charges against him in state court. “My husband,” she claimed, “Wishing to use my capital and valuable possessions, married me with the premeditated intention of divorcing me.” She complained that a few months after their marriage, he deserted her and married a certain Dveira Rafaelovich; and it was only after this blatant violation of the law that her husband hastily drew up the get without any rabbinic supervision. Efroim Myshkind, however, sharply contested his wife's account, asserting that he had sent a messenger to deliver the writ of divorce in the presence of two witnesses. “It is not at all difficult for a Jew to divorce his wife,” he wrote, “especially if she does not have a good reputation like Ita Kreines [here he used her maiden name], who spent an entire year abroad with different acquaintances.” But at the trial, the husband failed to prove that the get had satisfied all the requirements of Jewish law, much less that his wife had actually received the document. More important in the state's view, he had violated Russian civil law, which required a “spiritual authority” (in this case, a state rabbi) to supervise the divorce procedure. In October 1884, the Minsk court convicted the husband of bigamy and sentenced him to five months and ten days in prison.Although Ita Myshkind did not achieve all her objectives (namely, forcing her husband to divorce his second wife), she did prevail on two important issues: securing material support and ensuring that her husband would not go unpunished for his crime. That a provincial Jewish woman could utilize the Russian legal system to obtain justice raises two important questions: first, when and why did some women begin to resort to the state; and second, how effective were their efforts and what was the impact on Jewish women and their society as a whole?

Setting the Scene: The Jewish Landscape

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-68
Author(s):  
Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Orthodox Jews ◽  
Orthodox Judaism ◽  
Orthodox Jewish ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Religious Geography ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Basic Parameters ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter examines the historical and sociological context of Orthodox Jewish women in London, and applies concepts of community to analyse the religious geography of Orthodox Jews in Britain. The term 'community' is used by British Jews, generally in one of two distinct senses: the first, refers to all Jews who identify as Jews and participate in Jewish activities, the second, indicates a particular subgroup, the members of a particular synagogue. Most Jews who identify as belonging to the Jewish community also belong to several of these 'subcommunities,' all of which overlap with family and social circles within the Jewish and wider communities, and most of which are not mutually exclusive. Community affiliation thus exists at several levels and in several modes, with an individual's particular combination of networks and community memberships providing basic parameters of his or her individual Jewish identity. This complex, layered character of modern Jewish identity complicates the definition of the term 'Orthodox'. Current denominations include Liberal Judaism and Reform Judaism; Masorti Judaism; and Orthodox Judaism. Earlier tensions between traditional expectations for women and new ideas about their role in the wider society were reflected in developments within the British Jewish community: the foundation of Liberal Judaism. Orthodoxy has been slow to respond. The very word 'feminist' carries negative connotations in most Orthodox communities, even among women who profess strongly feminist views in economic and political matters.

scholarly journals Parties beyond national borders: exploring the activities of Israeli political parties abroad

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Avital Friedman ◽  
Ofer Kenig
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
External Relations ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Do So ◽  
National Borders

AbstractIn recent decades it has become a common practice for political parties to have active branches operating outside of their countries. The main reason for this practice is to mobilize potential voters living abroad. Israel, however, is a country in which citizens cannot vote abroad yet some parties nevertheless invest resources for sustaining their activities and branches outside of the country. Using the Israeli case, we aim to uncover additional incentives for parties to be present and active abroad. To do so, we map the activities of Israeli parties abroad and analyse their incentives, relying on documents and in-depth interviews with the parties’ directors of external relations. We find that parties’ activities can be divided into two basic groups. The first one includes diaspora-oriented activities, focusing mainly on maintaining ties with the Jewish communities abroad and gaining control over the institutions of the Zionist organizations. The second is focused on the Israeli state, by both improving the position of the party domestically and promoting Israel internationally according to the party’s ideology.

Recollections of emerging hybrid ethnic identities in Soviet Central Asia: the case of Uzbekistan

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1026-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timur Dadabaev
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Senior Citizens ◽  
Adaptive Strategies ◽  
Ethnic Identities ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Ethnic Policy ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Do So

This paper is a contribution to the debate about how people in Central Asia recall Soviet ethnic policies and their vision of how these policies have shaped the identities of their peers and contemporaries. In order to do so, this paper utilizes the outcomes of in-depth interviews about everyday Soviet life in Uzbekistan conducted with 75 senior citizens between 2006 and 2009. These narratives demonstrate that people do not explain Soviet ethnic policies simply through the “modernization” or “victimization” dichotomy but place their experiences in between these discourses. Their recollections also highlight the pragmatic flexibility of the public's adaptive strategies to Soviet ethnic policies. This paper also argues that Soviet ethnic policy produced complicated hybrid units of identities and multiple social strata. Among those who succeeded in adapting to the Soviet realities, a new group emerged, known asRussi assimilados(Russian-speaking Sovietophiles). However, in everyday life, relations between theassimiladosand their “indigenous” or “nativist” countrymen are reported to have been complicated, with clear divisions between these two groups and separate social spaces of their own for each of these strata.

Judaism in the Kitchen: Ritual Space of the Mountain Jewish Women of Dagestan

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-393
Author(s):  
Varvara Redmond
Keyword(s):  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Ritual Space ◽  
Ritual Process

The article investigates the gender and ritual roles of the Mountain Jewish women of Dagestan. The research is based on fieldwork conducted by the "Sefer" Center in 2018. The author suggests that in the Mountain Jewish communities the central component of ritual life is a collective feast, but not the synagogue as it is in many other Jewish communities. Since traditionally women are responsible for preparing food, they shape and pass on the traditions of the Mountain Jews. They organize community celebrations and rites of passage. During Soviet times, the power over the ritual process transferred from the centralized male system, the synagogue, to the female sphere.

scholarly journals The Culture of Amateur Real Estate Investing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Garboden
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Investment Decisions ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Real Estate Investment ◽  
Real Estate Markets ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Do So

The majority of rental properties in the U.S. today is owned by small- to medium-sized investors, many of whom enter the trade with little prior experience. This paper considers the cultural factors that motivate these amateurs to purchase real estate–an investment with high risks and relatively poor returns. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 93 investors in three heterogeneous real estate markets, Baltimore, MD, Dallas, TX, and Cleveland, OH, combined with participant observation of 22 real estate investment association meetings (REIAs), this paper finds that amateurs who decide to become investors often do so during periods when their professional identities are insecure or they perceive their retirement portfolios to be insufficient. Through participation in real estate investment associations and other investor networks, they quickly internalize “investor culture,” embracing ideologies of self-sufficiency and risk. “Investor culture”—perpetuated by REIAs--motivates and legitimizes strategies of action that lead to increasingly leveraged investments. Third-party actors, including real estate gurus, paid mentors, and private “hard money” lenders exploit the intersection of insecurity and the propagation of investor culture to profit off amateurs’ investment decisions.

scholarly journals Avant Healthcare: Building Competitive Advantages From Customer Service

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Carrick
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
Competitive Advantages ◽  
Modern Economy ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Do So

This case examines the importance of customer service in the modern economy. In order to do so, it presents the findings from a case study on Avant Healthcare. In-depth interviews were conducted with two executives from the firm and then the interviews were systemically analyzed. The results give a clear example of how firms can build competitive advantages from customer service.

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