My Secret Life

by Phyllis Chesler
Pajamas Media
December 5, 2007

http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/241/my-secret-life

Excerpt:

I have a “secret” life. I study Jewish religious texts and observe the holy days. ‘Twas not always thus. There was a time when I fled from a Judaism that had no place for women in terms of religious learning and ritual. I returned to religion as a feminist and helped create many feminist Jewish, life-cycle and inter-faith rituals.

On December 1st, 1988, in Jerusalem, I was privileged to be among the Jewish women who prayed for the first time in the women’s section at the Western Wall (or Kotel). While there are no exact parallels, this was analogous to Catholic women officiating at an all-female Mass in the Vatican. On that day, I was asked to open the Torah for the women to read from and it wedded me faithfully to the ensuing struggle for Jewish women’s religious rights which involved grassroots activism, consciousness raising, fundraising, and a lawsuit in the Israeli Supreme Court. You may read about some of this in a book I co-authored with Rivka Haut, [1] Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism’s Holy Site.

Read the complete original version of this item...

Related Topics:  Judaism receive the latest by email: subscribe to phyllis chesler's free mailing list