Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics by Rachel Adler, David Ellenson

Product Details

Synopsis

Winner of the 1998 National Jewish Book Award—the summation of a life's work by a mother of Jewish feminist theology




How can women's full participation transform Jewish law, prayer, sexuality, and marriage? What does it mean to "engender" Jewish tradition? Pioneering theologian Rachel Adler gives this timely and powerful question its first thorough study in a book that bristles with humor, passion, intelligence, and deep knowledge of traditional biblical and rabbinic texts. Engendering Judaism challenges both mainstream Judaism and feminist dogma and speaks across Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox movements as well as to Christian theologians and feminists. Beacon's paperback edition of this major work brings it to a wide audience for the first time.
"Summarizing the thinking of a lifetime, [this] is the first major work of feminist Jewish theology since Plaskow's Standing Again at Sinai."


—Alicia Ostriker, Lilith
"Both builds on and departs from earlier feminist work, creating a theology and ethics that are dazzling in their inventiveness and analytic power. . . . [A] rich brew that many progressive Jews will find nourishing and usable, and many non-Jewish feminists will find an important model of the combination of theory and practice."


—Judith Plaskow, The Women's Review of Books
"Will surely be the major text of the new Jewish feminism."


—Arnold Jacob Wolf, Judaism

Biography

Rachel Adler is one of the mothers of feminist Jewish theology. She holds a joint appointment at the University of Southern California and Hebrew Union College and lives in Los Angeles, California.