Sifting Through Tradition: The Creation of Jewish Feminist Identities

• Published in: Journal for the scientific study of religion Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 90 - 106
• Main Author: Resnick Dufour, Lynn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK and Boston, USA Blackwell Publishers Ltd 01.03.2000; Blackwell Publishers, Inc; Blackwell; Society for the Scientific Study of Religion; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: 1999 Presidential Address; Christianity; Females; Feminism; Feminist literary theory; Gender identity; History and sciences of religions; Identity; Israel; Jewish identity; Jewish people; Jews; Judaism; Modern and contemporary Judaism; Patriarchy; Religion; Religious identity; Social Identity; Sociology, ethnography; Spiritual belief systems; Spirituality; Tradition; U.S.A; Women; Women's movements; United States of America; Judaism; Choice; Feminism; Creation; Identity; Tradition
• ISSN: 0021-8294; 1468-5906
• DOI: 10.1111/0021-8294.00008

In recent decades, feminists have been questioning patriarchal religions. As a result, many find themselves ambivalent about their religious and spiritual identities. This paper presents a model of identity formation that addresses the processes by which potentially conflicted identities are integrated. This model is based on research about how women who identify themselves as both Jewish and feminist create unconflicted Jewish feminist identities. Through a process of sifting through their available options, they have chosen to identify with only those aspects of Judaism and feminism that satisfy their feminist, religious, and perhaps most importantly, their spiritual, needs. Because these needs vary, what it means to be a Jewish feminist is not static. Three types of Jewish feminist identity -- inclusionist, transformationist, and reinterpretationist -- are identified.