Challenge and Conformity

Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz received her doctorate from University College London. She recently held a research fellowship at the Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester, and has been a lecturer at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, SOAS, King’s College London, and at Vassar College, New York. She is a research fellow and teaches at the London School of Jewish Studies, and has presented at international conferences in the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, and the UK. In 2021 she received Orthodox rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Maharat, New York.

• Introduction1. Studying Jewish WomenThe Double Invisibility of Orthodox Jewish WomenThe Scope of Women’s Religious LivesOverlapping Worlds I: The Intersection of Men’s and Women’s Religious LivesOverlapping Worlds II: Living in Jewish and Western ContextsPower and Patriarchy: Do Orthodox Women Have Agency?2. Setting the Scene: The Jewish LandscapeJews in London: Historical BackgroundCommunity, Communities, Networks, and IdentityThe Development of British Orthodoxy and the British Jewish LandscapeJewish Religious Topography TodayChanging Moods among British Jewish WomenDefining Terms: Talking about the Anglo-Jewish CommunityPrevious Research on British Orthodox Women3. The View from the Ladies’ Gallery: Women’s ‘Official’ Life in the CommunityWomen and the SynagogueThe Changing Place of Women in Other Communal Arenas4. Contested Prayers and Powerful Blessings: Women’s ‘Unofficial’ Life in the CommunityCreating Sacred SpacesNuturing the CommunityNew Developments: Sharing the Sacred with Men5. Women’s ‘Official’ Life in the FamilyThe SabbathFood and KashrutPassoverMikveh and ‘Family Purity’ModestyVisiting the DeadPrayer and Relationship with God6. Red Threads and Amulets: Women’s ‘Unofficial’ Life in the FamilyQuestioning the Community: Limitations and CaveatsDefinitions and Status of PracticesTesting Stereotypes and AssumptionsWhat Customs Are Practised?Who Practises These Customs?Age as a Factor in Knowledge and Performance of CustomsOrigins and DevelopmentThe Question of ‘Magic’Women’s Understanding of Customs and PracticesConclusionAppendices: Background DataBibliographyIndex

'Challenge and Conformity opens up for our understanding a subject of immense importance to Judaism and the Jewish community. The religious lives of Orthodox women is a topic that has previously attracted little research. Taylor-Guthartz approaches it with academic skill and real empathy for the women she interviews and their communities. We learn of the great variety of women’s beliefs, customs and practices that are spread across the Orthodox Jewish world and, through Taylor-Guthartz’s eyes, we gain a greater understanding and appreciation of Jewish life that might otherwise have remained hidden.'Neville Teller, The Jerusalem Post