The field of Jewish studies has expanded significantly in recent years, with increasing numbers of women entering the field. These scholars have brought new perspectives from studies of women, gender, and sexuality. Yet they have also faced institutional and individual obstacles. In this book, Susannah Heschel and Sarah Imhoff examine the place of women and nonbinary people in Jewish studies, arguing that, for both intellectual and ethical reasons, the culture of the field must change.
Heschel and Imhoff explore quantitative data regarding women as editors of and contributors to academic journals and anthologies, examine data regarding citations of women’s scholarship, and scrutinize women’s presence on panels at academic conferences. They analyze the wider context of the contemporary academy, discussing what is distinctive about Jewish studies. They trace the history of the field, its connections to traditional religious studies, and its growth in US institutions, interspersing this with stories of scholars in the field who have experienced harassment and gender discrimination. Finally, they offer suggestions for a reparative path forward.
Susannah Heschel is the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor and chair of the Jewish Studies Program at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus and The Aryan Jesus (Princeton). Sarah Imhoff is the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University Bloomington. She is the author of Masculinity and the Making of American Judaism and The Lives of Jessie Sampter.
“It has been almost half a century since second-wave feminism started to make inroads into Jewish studies, especially in the US. Heschel and Imhoff show how far the field has come, but also where inequity persists, sometimes surprisingly so. The Woman Question in Jewish Studies is interdisciplinary in method, highly accessible, and important.”—Charlotte Fonrobert, Stanford University
“Trenchant, bracing, and unsparing, The Woman Question in Jewish Studies charts the many structural and personal traces of sexism that continue to afflict the field. With historical depth and an unwavering moral standard, the authors do not only admonish; they also provide concrete guidelines to reimagine Jewish studies into a domain shorn of misogyny, bias, and favoritism. It is a must read for scholars and students of all ranks.”—David Myers, author (with Nomi Stolzenberg) of American Shtetl
“Heschel and Imhoff are to be richly commended for their courage to tell the parts of the story of our field that are usually left out or whispered. This is an enormous task, and this book takes it on with much historiographical detail, methodological care, and judicious analysis. It is hoped that this will mark the beginning of a bigger conversation about reshaping Jewish studies to be more rigorous and more inclusive. Every department chair or program head in Jewish studies, and every scholar who teaches and trains students in this area, could benefit from reading and reflecting on this book.”—Annette Yoshiko Reed, Harvard Divinity School
