Women Judaism

As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. Yet in spite of her repressive upbringing, Deborah grew into an independent-minded young woman whose stolen moments reading about the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott helped her to imagine an alternative way of life among the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

With nearly a century of life behind her, Stella Levi had never before spoken in detail about her past. Then she met Michael Frank. He came to her Greenwich Village apartment one Saturday afternoon to ask her a question about the Juderia, the neighborhood in Rhodes where she’d grown up in a Jewish community that had thrived there for half a millennium. Probing and courageous, candid and sly, Stella is a modern-day Scheherazade whose stories reveal what it was like to grow up in an extraordinary place in an extraordinary time—and to construct a life after that place has vanished.

Abby Stein was raised in a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, isolated in a culture that lives according to the laws and practices of 18th century Eastern Europe, speaking only Yiddish and Hebrew and shunning modern life. Stein was born as the first son in a dynastic rabbinical family, poised to become a leader of the next generation of Hasidic Jews. But Abby felt certain at a young age that she was a girl. She orchestrated a personal exodus from ultra-Orthodox manhood to mainstream femininity - a radical choice that forced her to leave her home, her family, her way of life.

Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman in Vienna when the Gestapo forced her into a ghetto and then into a slave labor camp. When she returned home months later, she knew she would become a hunted woman, so she went underground.

The phenomenal impact of The Prayer of Jabez is shown by reports of changed lives, expanded ministries, and spiritual breakthroughs among believers everywhere. Now women have their own unique version, shared by Bruce Wilkinson's lifetime partner in marriage, which is full of significance for women's roles and ministry opportunities in God's kingdom.

Rose Zar was 19 years old when the Nazis invaded her native Poland. Her father urged her to save herself by hiding “in the mouth of the wolf” - or within the enemy itself. She managed to obtain false papers, secretly changing her identity and surviving the Holocaust as a maid and nanny for a Nazi SS colonel.

Author Jennifer Rothschild has a story for you. It's about an unlikely couple, an unusual courtship, a beautiful wedding, and an illicit affair. Despite this situation, the marriage did not fail. It flourished. Here is the story of Hosea's love for Gomer - a woman who might have disappeared into her transgressions if not for the love of her husband. It's a beautiful illustration of the story of God and Israel.

When it comes to queens in the Bible, we know the good one, Queen Esther, and the bad one, Queen Jezebel. But what about the wise one, the queen of Sheba? This wealthy royal from antiquity who longed to observe for herself the wisdom of Solomon offers a storehouse of treasures for her modern sisters, showing us how to seek truth, ask the right questions, keep an open mind, give generously, and honor God above all.

Almost forty years after the end of the war, Claire Baum opens a package from a stranger in Rotterdam, unleashing a flood of repressed memories from her childhood. As Claire delves into her past, she uncovers the personal sacrifice and bravery of her parents, the Dutch resistance and the families that selflessly gave shelter to her and her sister, Ollie. The Hidden Package portrays Claire’s years spent in hiding and pays tribute to all those who played a part in saving her life and ensuring a future for the next generations of her family.

A razor-sharp, hilarious, and poignant memoir about growing up in the closed world of the ultraorthodox Jewish community. The third of six children in a family that harks back to a gloried Hassidic dynasty, Judy Brown grew up with the legacy of centuries of religious teaching and the faith and lore that sustained her people for generations.

God did not curse Eve or limit women in any way. Sadly, modern translations of Genesis 3:16 make it look like God did both. God didn't curse Adam either, but God did speak to him in a way exactly parallel to the other rebel in the Garden of Eden, the serpent-tempter. And two curses were imposed by God because of them.

Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir supplemented with prodigious research, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, professional historians and Holocaust experts, have uncovered the full story of this remarkable woman. They interweave Mehlberg’s sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative.

This collection of biographies of brave and brilliant Jewish female role models - selected in collaboration with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and including an introduction written by the iconic Supreme Court justice herself - provides young people with a roster of inspirational role models, all of whom are Jewish women, who will appeal not only to young people but to people of all ages, and all faiths.

In this memoir, written at age ninety-five, Fanny recounts her inspirational and emotional story, its historical context, and her observations on the human condition. She narrates her heartbreaking and triumphant memories, her belief in miracles, and the insights and meaning she draws from those experiences. Fanny's mission is to ensure the Holocaust is never forgotten and never repeated. Never again should hate drive human behavior to devalue human life. Never again should the world stand by and observe such atrocities.

Using Szold's copious letters, diaries, and essays, along with other archival documents, Francine Klagsbrun traces Szold's life and legacy with an eye to uncovering the person behind the Zionist icon. She reveals Szold as a complex human being who had to cope with controversy and criticism, a workaholic with an outsized sense of duty, and an idealist who fought for her beliefs even as she questioned her own abilities. With deep insight, Klagsbrun introduces listeners to this extraordinary woman, whose impact on women's lives as well as on education and health systems still resonates.

The daughter of an Auschwitz survivor, author Bracha Horovitz spent her childhood surrounded by people who worked fervently to establish the fledgling nation of Israel after its 1948 independence. Inspired by their resilience and fortitude, Bracha set her heart on living a life that would honor her family, her community, and her heritage. At eighteen, Bracha joined the Israel Defense Forces. Alongside other female soldiers, she parachuted from planes, marched through hot deserts, and learned to shoot machine guns. Intense military training taught her that women, too, can be fierce fighters.

The struggles and humiliations of adolescence are told in an unflinching, funny, surprisingly universal tale of one good Jewish girl's battle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

This young listeners’ edition tells the remarkable story, largely forgotten until now, of the young Jewish women who became resistance fighters against the Nazis during World War II. It has already been optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture....

What does it mean to be a Jewish woman in America? In a gripping historical narrative, Pamela S. Nadell weaves together the stories of a diverse group of extraordinary people - from the colonial-era matriarch Grace Nathan and her great-granddaughter, poet Emma Lazarus, to labor organizer Bessie Hillman and the great justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to scores of other activists, workers, wives, and mothers who helped carve out a Jewish American identity.

Where would the Jewish people be without the discernment and wisdom of Jewish women - qualities they possess far in excess of men? Time and again, holy text and real-life experience prove this.