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NEXTBOOK FEATURE
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"Based on a True Story": Popular Imaginings among American Jews of Gender in Ultra-Orthodox Society
Nora Rubel, doctoral student in religious studies, UNC-Chapel Hill
I'm interested in the issues liberal Jews have. When I'm talking about liberal Jews, I mean Conservative Jews and even some modern Orthodox. Naomi Ragen has this formula: This beautiful young naive woman grows up in this religious community and is oppressed by her father, her husband, and her community, and ends up in the arms of a Jewish—but not haredi—man. She rejects the feminized Yeshiva identity and ends up with, like, a carpenter. It's feminist, but also embracing more traditional values.
I'm only giving one real example in my talk: A Price Above Rubies. That's Renee Zellweger. In A Price Above Rubies, her husband isn't so bad, but she ends up having an affair with her husband's brother, which is sort of abusive but also liberating, because he gets her a job. Ultimately she ends up having a relationship with this Puerto Rican jewelry clerk who's also an artist.
I was really interested in convent tales of the 19th century. The Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery takes place in Montreal. It's an exposé: a young Protestant woman decides to enter a convent, they put her though this really weird initiation, the convent is really a brothel where they serve the priests. This came out in the 1830s and it was huge, the only book that outsold it was Uncle Tom's Cabin. Of course it was false; it was ghostwritten by this committee of Protestant men. So I was very interested in this idea of “this is a true story of what goes on behind this walls in this community.” We don't like this group, so we'll point to the way they treat women, and this is a nice way to attack the group.
More from the AJS Conference:
American Jews and Marriage Counseling, 1920-1945
Bi'ur Hametz and the Ancient Semitic Magic
Confronting the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the Jewish Studies Classroom"
Gefilte Fish and Beautiful Shoes: Soviet Jews Describe the Ideal Jewish Woman
Jewish Identity at Work
Lekhu ve-nelekhah (Come Ye and Let Us Walk): The Jewish Students of
Kazimir Malevich
Money in Jewish Eyes: Object of Desire or Derision?
Mothers' Dreams, Daughters' Choices: Envisioning Mothers of Ba'alot Teshuvah
and their Daughters
The "Normal" Mysticism of Jewish Meal Rituals
Piracy, Politics, and Product Placement: Hasidic Book and Magazine
Publishing Today
The Rise of the Ladino Theater in the Ottoman Empire
About the Conference
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