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  • I'm an Israeli socio-cultural anthropologist specializing in the Anthropology of Religion, Gender and Sexuality, Isra... moreedit
In Jewish tradition, two holiday plates, the Passover Seder plate and the Rosh Hashanah Seder plate, hold profound significance due to their inclusion of simanim (symbolic foods) which carry deep social, cultural, and spiritual meanings.... more
In Jewish tradition, two holiday plates, the Passover Seder plate and the Rosh Hashanah Seder plate, hold profound significance due to their inclusion of simanim (symbolic foods) which carry deep social, cultural, and spiritual meanings. The blessings construct and express the Jewish tradition as a means of fulfilling the collective wishes and hopes of the Jewish community for survival, continuity and protection. This article delves into an initiative aimed at introducing new symbols onto these ceremonial plates, including various fruits and vegetables, as symbols of inclusion for LGBTQ + individuals within the Jewish tradition. The queer blessings reflect LGBTQ + phobic responses and struggles for public recognition. This innovative effort, widely disseminated through social networks, was conceived and championed by ‘Keshet’, a prominent Jewish organisation dedicated to advancing LGBTQ + inclusion in Jewish life and communities. Thus, I argue that the organisation enacts a theology of queer Jewish advocacy, facilitating the adaptation of religious discourse, rituals and customs to align with contemporary queer lifestyles.
The religious conversion process is a significant expression of an individual’s intention to gain a new religious identity and be included in a particular religious community. Those who wish to join the Jewish people undergo giyur... more
The religious conversion process is a significant expression of an individual’s intention to gain a new religious identity and be included in a particular religious community. Those who wish to join the Jewish people undergo giyur (conversion), which includes observing rituals and religious practices. While previous research on Jewish conversions in Israel focused on the experiences of persons who converted under Orthodox auspices, this study analyzes the experiences of female immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) and the Philippines who chose to convert through the Reform Movement in Israel. Based on qualitative research, we discovered that the non-Orthodox process, which is based on liberal values, not only grants converts under the aegis of Reform entry to the Jewish people, but promotes their affiliation with the Reform Movement and advances their acculturation into Jewish Israeli society. Their choice is a political decision, an act of resistance against an Orthodox Israeli religious monopoly, and an expression of spiritual motivations. The converts become social agents who strengthen the Reform Movement’s socio-political position in Israel, where it struggles against discrimination. Furthermore, since most converts are women, new intersections between religion, gender, and nationality are exposed.
As a first-generation college student (FGCS), I have never felt entirely comfortable with this label, both in academic spaces and in various personal family situations. The notion of being a FGCS has evoked internal embarrassment, a sense... more
As a first-generation college student (FGCS), I have never felt entirely comfortable with this label, both in academic spaces and in various personal family situations. The notion of being a FGCS has evoked internal embarrassment, a sense of academic otherness, and external micro-aggressions. Through an autoethnographic analysis of my participation in the FGCS annual workshop, I explore the strengths and weaknesses of this category. The workshop provided insights into the diverse experiences of FGCSs, revealing it to be a fluid academic construct with multiple voices and narratives. However, when intersecting with other identities, the fragility of the FGCS category emerged, leading to conflicting conversations and resistance among participants. A rigid definition of FGCS overlooks its historical context of social exclusions and disregards the unique sensitivities and differences among ethnic and national groups within it. This approach weakens the struggle of marginalized groups and perpetuates their exclusion, both on and off campus. Acknowledging the complexity and diversity within the FGCS category can foster a more inclusive environment that respects the unique experiences of each individual. This approach paves the way for a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by FGCSs and empowers them to navigate their academic journeys with confidence.
Since the late 1960s, the American Jewish community has worked to find creative ways to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Queer+ (LGBTQ+) people in community practices and Jewish liturgy. The pioneering egalitarian denomination... more
Since the late 1960s, the American Jewish community has worked to find creative ways to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Queer+ (LGBTQ+) people in community practices and Jewish liturgy. The pioneering egalitarian denomination was and remains the Reform Jewish Movement, which promotes and supports gender equality and sexual diversity. This paper proposes a typology of queer Jewish liturgy based on classification into two categories: time and space. By exploring these specific categories, the texts expose a bipolar relationship between LGBTQ+s and divine individuals, LGBTQ+s and heterosexual/cisgender individuals, and LGBTQ+s and themselves. By analyzing particular queer prayers, I argue that this liturgy, created by American Jewish clergy, is characterized by inherent structural contradictions, which reflect tendencies and changes not only in non-halachic Jewish communities but also in queer ideology and gay politics. Thus, the textual dimension is revealed as a vivid landscape that characterizes the dynamics of LGBTQ+ Jewish people between temporal, fragile, and safe spaces, painful memories and proud feelings, and victim consciousness and social agency.
בעשור האחרון התרחב היקף פעילות התנועה הרפורמית בישראל משמעותית, ובד בבד גם מאבקה הציבורי לקידום חופש דת וזכויות אדם. חרף המאמץ התנועתי הזהיר והמתמשך לשמור על עמדה א־פוליטית, בפברואר 2023 נקטעה מדיניות זו נוכח ההחלטה להשתתף בהפגנות נגד... more
בעשור האחרון התרחב היקף פעילות התנועה הרפורמית בישראל משמעותית, ובד בבד גם מאבקה הציבורי לקידום חופש דת וזכויות אדם. חרף המאמץ התנועתי הזהיר והמתמשך לשמור על עמדה א־פוליטית, בפברואר 2023 נקטעה מדיניות זו נוכח ההחלטה להשתתף בהפגנות נגד הרפורמה המשפטית באמצעות ביצוע טקסי הבדלה מדי מוצאי השבת במוקדי המחאה השונים ברחבי הארץ.

מאמר זה, המבוסס על תצפיות משתתפות, ראיונות, שאלונים מקוונים וניתוח טקסטים, מציע ניתוח של השינויים הביצועיים והטקסטואליים שהוטמעו בהבדלות, ובוחן כיצד המשתתפים והמשתתפות, הרבנים והרבות, מפרשים את מעשיהם. לטענתי, בהבדלה נוצקות משמעויות חברתיות מגוונות, כך שהמחאה זוכה לתיקוף פוליטי ולאשרור בכסות המסורת היהודית. כמו כן, עשייה ריטואלית זו ממקמת את הקהילה הרפורמית הן כשחקנית פוליטית המבקשת לסמן את עשייתה החברתית במרחב הציבורי, הן כסוכנות דתית המדגימה, הלכה למעשה, כי מקומם של השיח והריטואל היהודיים אינו שמור באופן בלעדי למחנה הפוליטי הנגדי, התומך ברפורמה ומיוצג בידי הציבור והמפלגות האורתודוקסיים.
בעוד החינוך החרדי והחינוך הדתי-לאומי בישראל זכו וזוכים חדשות לבקרים לשיח ציבורי ומקצועי ער ולמחקר ענף, הידע אודות החינוך הלא אורתודוכסי נותר לוט בערפל. ערך הפלורליזם העומד בבסיס היהדות הרפורמית משקף את העשייה הרב-תחומית שלה בהטמעת והפצת... more
בעוד החינוך החרדי והחינוך הדתי-לאומי בישראל זכו וזוכים חדשות לבקרים לשיח ציבורי ומקצועי ער ולמחקר ענף, הידע אודות החינוך הלא אורתודוכסי נותר לוט בערפל. ערך הפלורליזם העומד בבסיס היהדות הרפורמית משקף את העשייה הרב-תחומית שלה בהטמעת והפצת חינוך יהודי ליברלי הן במערכת הפורמאלית והן במערכות הבלתי-פורמאליות.
במאמר זה נבקש לעמוד על מהותו של החינוך הרפורמי הישראלי דרך בחינת אופן יישומו והטמעתו באמצעות שלוש מסגרות מרכזיות: (א) פעילות מטה החינוך בתנועה (ב) רבנות-חינוכית: בית הספר ליאו באק כמקרה בוחן (ג) פעילות תנועת הנוער הרפורמית תלם. לטענתנו, מאמץ חינוכי רב-זרועי זה מטרתו להציע לתלמיד/לחניך מפגש משמעותי עם היהדות הלא-אורתודוקסית, תוך הכרה בתפישת עולמו ובאינדיבידואליות שלו. מהלכים אלו אינם בהכרח מבקשים לספק חלופה לחינוך האורתודוכסי או למסגרות חינוכיות ממלכתיות דתיות מקבילות, ואף לא לעודד אימוץ של זהות דתית רפורמית או טיפוח עבודה דתית. יתר על כן, בהיבט הסוציו-פוליטי, נוכח מיקומה המודר של התנועה הרפורמית בישראל, כל מפגש כזה עם העשייה החינוכית הרפורמית מתגלה אפוא כמפגש פוליטי, שבכוחו לתרום לחשיפת היהדות הרפורמית במרחב האישי, הביתי, והציבורי ובכך להרחיב את ההכרות עם תפיסות דתיות ליברליות, להגדיל את התמיכה הציבורית ביהדות הרפורמית ואולי אף את ההשתתפות בפעילויות התנועה ועידוד חברות בקהילותיה.
Anthropologists and sociologists explore dance as a political and cultural performance to express beliefs, ideologies and social ideas. This article examines the impact of Israeli folk dance on the socialisation and integration, of Jewish... more
Anthropologists and sociologists explore dance as a political and cultural performance to express beliefs, ideologies and social ideas. This article examines the impact of Israeli folk dance on the socialisation and integration, of Jewish newcomers (Olim) from Turkey into contemporary Israeli society. Based on in-depth interviews, questionnaires, and spontaneous conversations, as well as auto-ethnographic writings, the article clarifies how, by dancing Israeli folk dance, and particularly through participation in the Israeli folk dance troupe, Olim manage diverse social interactions and cultural negotiations within Israeli society, construct their national identity and shed light on tensions and changes regarding homeland, immigration, and Jewish peoplehood. It argues that Israeli folk dance is an important channel in their process of Israelization. On the one hand, it connects them to Israeli culture and strengthens their Jewish pride; on the other, it clarifies the distinction between life in the diaspora and life in an ethno-national space, expressing otherness while encouraging them to bring their own traditions to an Israeli stage.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in March 2022 stunned the world and recalled levels of aggression unseen since World War II. Along with political, military and diplomatic discussions, this anthropological study contributes a... more
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in March 2022 stunned the world and recalled levels of aggression unseen since World War II. Along with political, military and diplomatic discussions, this anthropological study contributes a sociological-cultural perspective through the examination of Israeli Reform Jewish congregation responses, which include Russian-speaking immigrants, to the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. I analyze how the crisis pushed congregants into an internal dialog with their Jewish identity and Reform communal affiliation. Furthermore, this exceptional situation is reshaping rabbinical positions and creative liturgical responses. As such, Reform Jewish congregations are sites to identify tendencies and changes in the perception of Jewish identity, values and sense of belonging among Russian-speaking immigrants in Israeli society. Therefore, this research sheds light on the intersection between a time of crisis, such as war, and the intensification of religious views, liturgical flexibility and reflexive inquiry of religious leaders.
Israeli masculinity has been researched by diverse disciplines such as sociology, army studies, gender studies, and more. The dominant theme of such research has been to identify Israeli masculinity as heteronormative and aggressive, and... more
Israeli masculinity has been researched by diverse disciplines such as sociology, army studies, gender studies, and more. The dominant theme of such research has been to identify Israeli masculinity as heteronormative and aggressive, and usually discusses it via a nationalistic or religious lens, basing its interpretation on macho, militaristic, and heterosexual values.
The current study suggests another perspective for exploring Israeli masculinity by examining two dance productions created by male choreographers and performed by male dancers: Beasts by Ido Tadmor (2000) and But the Virgin Was More Available by Javier de Protos (2002). Both performances expose a homosexual dynamic, reclaims feminine symbols, and exposes silenced public issues such as rape perpetuated against men. These pioneer performances thereby challenge the heteronormative constructions of gender identities and sexualities and present a performance of masculinity which opposes hegemonic perceptions, which are based on heterosexual and machoistic values. I conclude that these modern choreographic productions can be considered political cultural acts in the Israeli public sphere that give a voice to gendered discourse otherwise silenced by Israeli society at large.
The socialization of the Ethiopian Jewish community, known as Beta Israel in Israeli society, is marked by performing cultural customs and rituals to establish its unique tradition and collective ethnic narrative. The Sigd is a holiday... more
The socialization of the Ethiopian Jewish community, known as Beta Israel in Israeli society, is marked by performing cultural customs and rituals to establish its unique tradition and collective ethnic narrative. The Sigd is a holiday that is celebrated on the 29th of the Hebrew month of Heshvan, when the community marks its devotion to Zion by renewing the covenant between the Jewish people, God, and the Torah. This narrative of return to the homeland is also expressed and framed in a tragic context by observing a Memorial Day for the members of the Ethiopian Jewish community who perished during their journey to Israel from Sudan. These two commemorative dates support the narrative of Beta Israel and advance its public recognition. This ethnographic study examines why and how these practices were mentioned and performed in an Israeli Reform Jewish congregation, a community that does not include Ethiopians members, and has a religious and cultural character that is different from the traditions of Beta Israel. Both the Reform community and the Ethiopian community deal with stereotypes and institutional and public inequality in Israel. I argue that their solidarity is constructed and based on social perceptions and experiences of social alienation and immigration traumas. This political motivation to mark the narrative of the ‘other’, particularly as an excluded religious group that fights against the Orthodox Jewish monopoly in Israel, marks the Reform community as an egalitarian agent that gives voice to the marginalized. The fact that most Reform congregants are ‘sabras’ (native) Israelis sheds light on how their perception as a majority, and not only as a minority, produces a critical statement about Zionist immigration and acclimatization.
The ritual feast known as the Seder on the eve of Passover is one of the most family-oriented Jewish holidays observed in Israel. Rich in symbolism and narrative, it invites a wide variety of discussions, study, and intergenerational... more
The ritual feast known as the Seder on the eve of Passover is one of the most family-oriented Jewish holidays observed in Israel. Rich in symbolism and narrative, it invites a wide variety of discussions, study, and intergenerational mentoring and supervision. In this article I demonstrate how the Seder can serve as a representational performance that includes gender and sexual identities normally omitted from Jewish liturgy and society at large. A Reform community workshop in preparation for the Seder Night, exposes congregants to alternative versions of the traditional Haggadah text and introduces new ritual gestures that allow for the "presencing" of gay and heterosexual life-stories. Old patterns and family traditions are undermined; special additions are added to the Passover plate and the Haggadah itself. Thus, the narrative of national redemption is reconstructed as gender redemption, marking the Israeli Reform Jewish community as an egalitarian agency of contemporary conflict for gender equality.
Every year, diverse Jewish communities around the world observe Tashlich (casting off), a customary atonement ritual performed the day after Rosh Hashanah. This performative ritual is conducted next to a body of water to symbolize... more
Every year, diverse Jewish communities around the world observe Tashlich (casting off), a customary atonement ritual performed the day after Rosh Hashanah. This performative ritual is conducted next to a body of water to symbolize atonement and purification of one’s sins. Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in two egalitarian Jewish congregations in Tel Aviv and in New York City, I show how Tashlich performance is constructed as a political act to empower gender and sexual identities and experiences, as well as the socio-political positionality of LGBTQ Jews in various sites. By including new blessings, the blowing of the shofar by gay female participants, and by conducting the ritual in historical and contemporary queer urban spaces, the rabbis and congregants created new interpretations of the traditional customs. They exposed their feelings toward themselves, their community, and its visibility and presence in the city. The fact that the ritual is conducted in an open urban public space creates not only differing meanings and perceptions than from the synagogue, but also exposes queer politics in the context of national and religious identities. Furthermore, this comparative analysis illuminates tensions and trajectories of Jewishness and queerness in Israel and in the US, and sheds light on postmodern tendencies in contemporary urban religious communities as a result of the inclusion of the LGBTQ community.
This article examines the relationship between the researcher’s body and the Torah scroll (Sefer Torah) during participant observation of a Jewish holiday ritual in an Israeli Reform congregation. Using an autoethnographic approach, I... more
This article examines the relationship between the researcher’s body and the Torah scroll (Sefer Torah) during participant observation of a Jewish holiday ritual in an Israeli Reform congregation. Using an autoethnographic approach, I show how the Reform Jewish ritual demonstrates that the body is a charged religious symbol and the bearer of family traditions and unconscious understandings of the social order. Through this encounter, I discovered how my position in fieldwork on religion is located at the intersection of my ethnographic discipline, my religious habitus, and my identity as a gay man. Reflexive analysis of my active and passive behavior during the observation offered an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the differences between myself and the congregation. Thus, I suggest that anthropologists, even when researching their culture, must be aware of the elements that make up their own identities.
Throughout generations, various prayers have been composed to express religious and cultural experiences of the Jewish community, such as holidays life-cycle and national tragedies. However, some social issues, such as sexual assault,... more
Throughout generations, various prayers have been composed to express religious and cultural experiences of the Jewish community, such as holidays life-cycle and national tragedies. However, some social issues, such as sexual assault, have been excluded from this canon. This article uncovers Jewish prayers and liturgical texts dedicated to female victims of sexual assault. Drawing on a qualitative inquiry based on content analysis and interviews with the prayers' authors, I demonstrate how these texts (re)position sexual assault victims in Jewish liturgy by including new phrasings and references to God; by removing masculine violence related to God; by mentioning biblical female characters who experienced sexual harassment; by denouncing of patriarchal abuse; or by sanctifying the woman's painful body, which is incorporated as an important agent in the ritual's structure. Therefore, I suggest considering these texts a political mean to voice women's traumas and to incorporate them into the religious sphere, thereby rectifying a long-silenced discourse.
Prayer is a performative act to construct religious identity, express faith in God and sense of belonging to the community. In Judaism, reciting the Sh’ma Yisrael prayer is one of the most important commandments which identifies... more
Prayer is a performative act to construct religious identity, express faith in God and sense of belonging to the community. In Judaism, reciting the Sh’ma Yisrael prayer is one of the most important commandments which identifies commitment and belief. It is practiced by the worshiper twice a day. According to the Jewish law, women are not obligated to recite the Sh’ma, but non-Orthodox communities, which support gender equality, view this issue differently and promote their participation. In this ethnographic study, I demonstrate how Sh’ma Yisrael prayer, conducted by women and LGBTQ members in Reform Jewish congregations, is constructed as a performance of gender-sexual recognition and empowerment. By changing the text of the prayer, experiencing the setting, and performing various bodily gestures, this religious declaration is charged with a political call for gender equality. Reciting the traditional prayer is not only dedicated to express religiosity or faith, but also an egalitarian ideology of excluded sexual-gender identities and life experiences. It transforms the focus from God to the self.
פורסם בספר "כוחן של מילים: אנתרופולוגיה של טקסטואליות יהודית",  בעריכת ניסן רובין ושלמה גוזמן כרמלי (הוצאת כרמל ירושלים).
This ethnography analyzes three Israeli Reform Jewish rituals as manifestations of interreligious hospitality. The Daniel Reform congregation invites Muslim residents of Jaffa to participate in rituals incorporating Arabic and Muslim... more
This ethnography analyzes three Israeli Reform Jewish rituals as manifestations of interreligious hospitality. The Daniel Reform congregation invites Muslim residents of Jaffa to participate in rituals incorporating Arabic and Muslim clergy and prayers. The egalitarian and pluralistic Jewish symbols and narratives promote neighborly relationships. Nevertheless, some participants' responses reaffirm popular suspicions and prejudices, which the ceremony seeks to overcome. Interreligious hospitality here is not so much an act of theological reconciliation, but a political act also directed toward other actors-like the Israeli right-wing and Israeli society, which grant the Orthodox a monopoly on Judaism. While the shared ritual practice offers a dialogical model that engages broader publics through doing, the analytic frame of hospitality sensitizes us to the importance of space and language in the power relationships of hosts and guests. It helps explain the challenges to the messages of coexistence, which the rituals are designed to confirm.
מאמר זה, העוסק בניתוח אתנוגרפי של הקפות שמחת תורה בקהילות רפורמיות ישראליות, ידגים כיצד מבט מגדרי על הביצוע חושף גנאלוגיה של אי־נגישות לאובייקט הקדוש ומצביע על האפליה המובחנת בין גברים לנשים בהיסטוריה היהודית. אני סבור שבכוחו של הריקוד עם... more
מאמר זה, העוסק בניתוח אתנוגרפי של הקפות שמחת תורה בקהילות רפורמיות ישראליות, ידגים כיצד מבט מגדרי על הביצוע חושף גנאלוגיה של אי־נגישות לאובייקט הקדוש ומצביע על האפליה המובחנת בין גברים לנשים בהיסטוריה היהודית. אני סבור שבכוחו של הריקוד עם התורה לחבר בין רמת המקרו של המבנה החברתי לבין רמת המיקרו של ייצוג זהויות מגדריות שהוקעו מהשתתפות במנהג המסורתי. ההקפות השוויוניות בקהילות הרפורמיות חושפות את מקומה של המסורת כשותפה במימוש המשימה הפוליטית — שוויון מגדרי — ומציעות את הקהילה הרפורמית כחלופה דתית ליברלית לאורתודוקסיה המשוקעת בחברה הישראלית. נוסף על הממד המגדרי, קיום הקפות במרחב העירוני הפתוח מצביע גם על מערכות היחסים בין הקהילה הרפורמית המקומית לבין קהילות אתנו־לאומיות נוספות, כמו יהדות התפוצות או האוכלוסייה הערבית. כך, בכוחו של הביצוע הטמפורלי לסמן תהליכים פוליטיים עכשוויים המתרחשים גם אחרי שספרי התורה הוכנסו לארון והחג יצא. פענוח הנעשה בקהילות הרפורמיות  הנאבקות להכרה שווה בחברה הישראלית יצביע על מגמות עכשוויות בשדה הדתי בפרט ובחברה הישראלית בכלל.
Reform Judaism is one of the dominant religious movements in the contemporary Jewish world and is known primarily for its liberal approach, such as advocating for gender equality in Jewish religious practices. In Israel, however, the... more
Reform Judaism is one of the dominant religious movements in the contemporary Jewish world and is known primarily for its liberal approach, such as advocating for gender equality in Jewish religious practices. In Israel, however, the Reform community has been excluded by the hegemonic Jewish Orthodox community and is seen as an outsider that threatens the very continuation of the Jewish people. This article examines Reform rituals that are conducted in the urban space of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area and posits that the execution of the rituals outside the congregation's permanent houses of prayer manifests gender-religious resistance against the Jewish Orthodox hegemony, as well as against patriarchal traditions and heterosexual constructions. It is further claimed that the Reform community has positioned itself as an alternative, more egalitarian religious agent in the Israeli public space, which positively impacts the goal of the feminist and the LGBTQ+ movements to gain gender recognition.
This netnographic study examines Reform Jewish rituals transmitted by virtual platforms, Facebook and Zoom, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reform Judaism, which supports modern liberal theology, has adopted the usage of technology for... more
This netnographic study examines Reform Jewish rituals transmitted by virtual platforms, Facebook and Zoom, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reform Judaism, which supports modern liberal theology, has adopted the usage of technology for Shabbat services. The transition from the physical space to the virtual one challenges the performance of the ritual: Rabbis change the ritual's structure, and during online services, the congregants have different feelings toward the congregation and their own spiritual worship, made manifest in changes in their usual religious gestures. A positive result of the move to the virtual space is that though the Reform Jewish congregations, as non-Orthodox communities, have been excluded by the state, virtual prayers further expose Reform services to Israeli society. However, this might hinder societal support if it is shown that the community can conduct its services without an actual formal space. This study illuminates the intersection of virtual space, religious praxis, and political conflicts.
קבלת השבת היא אחת הפרקטיקות המזוהות ביותר בליטורגיה היהודית, ובמהלך ההיסטוריה זכתה לתמורות מגוונות. זו אינה רק תפילה כתובה, אלא גם פעולה מעשית הכוללת מרכיבים פרפורמטיביים שונים. במאמר זה, המבוסס על עבודת שדה שביצעתי בשנים 2014 – 2017... more
קבלת השבת היא אחת הפרקטיקות המזוהות ביותר בליטורגיה היהודית, ובמהלך ההיסטוריה זכתה לתמורות מגוונות. זו אינה רק תפילה כתובה, אלא גם פעולה מעשית הכוללת מרכיבים פרפורמטיביים שונים. במאמר זה, המבוסס על עבודת שדה שביצעתי בשנים 2014 – 2017 בקהילת יוּב"ל -יהדות ומסורת בדרך הלב-, קהילה רפורמית הפועלת בגדרה, אציג ניתוח אתנוגרפי של קבלות שבת המוקדשות לציון פתיחת שנת הלימודים.
לטענתי, אומנם מדובר בריטואל המוקדש לילדים, אולם למעשה חברות הקהילה מכוננות אותו כמופע לסימון זהותן המגדרית ולאשרור תפקידן המשפחתי כאימהות. "קבלת שבת שלום כיתה א'" זוכה לסידור תפילה שהן עורכות, ובו ברכות חדשות למחוות גופניות שונות ולשימוש "אחר" בסמלים דתיים המערער תפיסות מסורתיות של טומאה וקדושה. בעשייתן זו מאתגרות הנשים לא רק את המבנה הטקסי והטקסטואלי ההלכתי של הריטואל, אלא גם חותרות תחת מאפיינים פטריארכליים שהעלימו את מקומן מן הליטורגיה. בכך שותפה הקהילה הרפורמית לערעור תופעות של אי־שוויון והדרת נשים בשדה הדתי בפרט ובמרחב הציבורי בכלל. עם זאת, במאמר מתברר שגם זירה דתית זו איננה משוחררת מיחסי כוח
ומהבניות אורתודוקסיות ממגדרות המשוקעות בחברה הישראלית.
Anthropologists see life-cycle rituals as a significant way to understand gender roles and identities in religious communities. While in the past, these compulsory rituals involved a significant change in a person's social status, today... more
Anthropologists see life-cycle rituals as a significant way to understand gender roles and identities in religious communities. While in the past, these compulsory rituals involved a significant change in a person's social status, today many of their traditional features have been transformed. This ethnographic inquiry examines Bat Mitzvah ceremonies (coming of age rituals for girls) in Israeli Reform Jewish congregations. By including new blessings, appropriating masculine religious symbols, and creating new bodily gestures, the feminine life-cycle ritual challenges the traditional Jewish laws and contemporary socio-cultural constructions of the Israeli Jewish community. The exclusion of the Israeli Reform community from mainstream Jewish religion turns this ritual into a subversive act that battles local Jewish Orthodoxy authority. The ceremony is a political performance, which positions the Reform congregations as an activist religious agent for gender equality in the Israeli public space.
Jewish holidays have always been considered a sociocultural framework that designs the Jewish communal landscape. One such ritual is Tu BiSh'vat Seder, a ritual conducted annually by various Jewish congregations and social movements on... more
Jewish holidays have always been considered a sociocultural framework that designs the Jewish communal landscape. One such ritual is Tu BiSh'vat Seder, a ritual conducted annually by various Jewish congregations and social movements on the 15th of the month of Sh'vat. These communities conduct the ritual with its traditional festival symbols and infuse it with new social and cultural interpretations. This essay presents an ethnographic analysis of a Reform Tu BiSh'vat Seder in Israel in which the holiday's spiritual narrative and symbols were related to the female congregants' bodies and expressed their social interaction. Observing the women's preparations for the Seder, participating in the performance of the ritual itself, and listening to the female Rabbi's sermon allowed me to understand the diverse gendered meanings which are infused into the ritual. The Tu BiSh'vat Seder revealed the female con-gregants' attitudes toward their own bodies and ages and even their attitudes toward one another. Furthermore, by participating in the Seder, they did not only produce sisterhood and feminine solidarity but also blurred the boundaries between their private homes and the congregational space. Thus, it can be said that the Reform congregation serves as a safe space that provides a viable Jewish theological framework and is an arena for gender discourses.
The AIDS epidemic tragically caused the death of millions of people. This article examines the role that the American Reform Jewish community fulfilled in responding to HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, and what lasting effects, if any, these... more
The AIDS epidemic tragically caused the death of millions of people. This article examines the role that the American Reform Jewish community fulfilled in responding to HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, and what lasting effects, if any, these responses had, and how they related to Reform Judaism as a whole. In 1985 the General Assembly of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC)1 passed a historic resolution calling to abolish discrimination against HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) positive people. The Reform movement thus became the only formal Jewish institution to advocate an open discussion regarding congregants who lived with HIV or had AIDS, and presented a clear resistance to the AIDSphobic Orthodox agenda, which declared the disease to be a punishment from God for the “sin” of homosexuality. Based on the textual analysis of recovery and memorial prayers, rabbis’ sermons and community services activities and educational programmes, I argue that the Reform community served as a social agent for the recognition of people with HIV/AIDS. Thus, I conclude that the Reform response, which was arising from personal mourning and social needs, advocated and encouraged inclusion of the American gay Jewish community.
Ethnography of Ethiopian Sigd in an Israeli Reform Congregation Sigd is a holiday of the Ethiopian Jewish community, known as 'Beta Israel'. The name of the holiday is derived from the Hebrew word for prostration (sgida). During Sigd,... more
Ethnography of Ethiopian Sigd in an Israeli Reform Congregation

Sigd is a holiday of the Ethiopian Jewish community, known as 'Beta Israel'. The name of the holiday is derived from the Hebrew word for prostration (sgida). During Sigd, which is celebrated on the 29th of the Hebrew month of Heshvan – 50 days after Yom Kippur – the community marks the renewal of the covenant between the Jewish people, God and His Torah. On Sigd, Ethiopian Jews pray to God and plead for Him to return them to Zion.
Today, after most members of the Ethiopian Jewish community have made aliyah to the State of Israel, the holiday serves as an annual gathering of the entire Ethiopian community, and its members view it as an opportunity to strengthen the connection with their roots and culture. Indeed, non-Ethiopian communities, organizations and community centers celebrate Sigd in order to respect and support Ethiopian tradition.
In this article, I describe an innovative project of collaboration between the Israeli Reform movement and the Ethiopian community, while focusing on a shared celebration of Sigd. Qualitative analysis of the community members' responses to the Sigd, especially the women who organized it, demonstrates that not only does this collaboration emerge from a liberal landscape of cultural inclusion and gender recognition, it also embodies a criticism of attitudes that reject and resist non-Western values.

  keywords
Israeli Reform congregation, Sigd, ritual, Ethiopian Jews, feminism



הסיגְד הוא חג עלייה לרגל שיהודי אתיופיה מציינים בכל כ"ט במרחשוון, 50 ימים לאחר יום הכיפורים, כדי לשחזר את מעמד הר סיני ולסמל את חידוש הברית בין עם ישראל לאלוהים. באתיופיה היה החג יום של צום, טָהרה והתחדשות, ובו נשאו ברכות ותפילות לגאולה ולשיבת ציון. גם כיום, לאחר העלייה ארצה, הסיגד נחגג, אולם משמעותו הדתית והחברתית שונה. החג, המצוין בטקס ממלכתי רשמי, זוכה למופעים ציבוריים, לרבות במרכזים קהילתיים, בארגונים לא רשמיים ובמוסדות חינוך שונים. בין היָזמות, ציון הסיגד מזה יותר מעשור בכמה קהילות דתיות שאינן אורתודוכסיות המשוייכות לתנועה הרפורמית בישראל. בתור תנועה שדוגלת בפלורליזם תרבותי ומתמודדת עם תופעות של הדרה במרחב האתנו־לאומי, ציון הסיגד מאפשר לקהילותיה לסמן את מחויבותן להיאבק באי־שוויון בחברה הישראלית.
מהניתוח האתנוגרפי של חגיגת הסיגד בקהילה הרפורמית בגדרה עולה כי היָזמה להפקת הסיגד נובעת מכוח רצונן של חברות הקהילה להכיר את שכנותיהן במרחב העירוני. הביצוע אינו מושתת בהכרח על תאולוגיה משותפת או על אימוץ של ערכים חברתיים דומים. חגיגת הסיגד מאפשרת להן להכיר את התרבות האתיופית, לנכס ייצוגים וסמלים תרבותיים־מגדריים ולכונן סולידריות ואחוות נשים. ואולם הרצון להכרת האחרת אינו מנוטרל מיחסי כוח. מניתוח עמדותיהן של חברות התנועה הרפורמית בנוגע לשיתוף הפעולה הבין־קהילתי ניכרת אחיזתן בעמדה פמיניסטית ליברלית. מצד אחד עמדה זו מבהירה שהסיגד הוא אכן מפגן של סולידריות מגדרית ומאבק באי־שוויון ובהדרה, ומצד אחר היא מבטאת דחייה וגישה אתנוצנטרית כלפי התרבות האתיופית.
Kabbalat Shabbat (Welcoming the Sabbath) is a traditional Jewish ritual marking the transition between the profane weekday and the holy Shabbat. Reform Jewish communities maintain this practice with certain ritualistic and textual... more
Kabbalat Shabbat (Welcoming the Sabbath) is a traditional Jewish ritual marking the transition between the profane weekday and the holy Shabbat. Reform Jewish communities maintain this practice with certain ritualistic and textual revisions, in order to include gender and sexual categories previously excluded from mainstream traditional Jewish texts and rituals.
This ethnographic article analyzes the particular LGBTQ
Kabbalat Shabbat. By creating unique rituals to mark phenomena of both oppression and exclusion, on the one hand, and of love and acceptance, on the other, the Reform congregation emerges as a religious safe space. I argue that those rituals dedicated to and constructed by the LGBTQ community function as a performance of affirmation and empower of gender and sexual identities.
This egalitarian performance fosters a shared political discourse for promoting the struggle for equal rights, through a new religious practice.
המושג "הדתה" נעשה בשנתיים האחרונות אחת הכותרות הנפוצות בכלי התקשורת וברשתות החברתיות, והוא מעורר פולמוס ציבורי כשמתגלות תופעות של הטמעת רעיונות ופרקטיקות יהודיים דתיים במוסדות ציבוריים ובארגונים ממלכתיים. חדירת שיח ונורמות הלכתיים למערכת... more
המושג "הדתה" נעשה בשנתיים האחרונות אחת הכותרות הנפוצות בכלי התקשורת וברשתות החברתיות, והוא מעורר פולמוס ציבורי כשמתגלות תופעות של הטמעת רעיונות ופרקטיקות יהודיים דתיים במוסדות ציבוריים ובארגונים ממלכתיים.
חדירת שיח ונורמות הלכתיים למערכת החינוך ולמסדרונות צה"ל, לצד תופעות של משטור ופיקוח דתיים במרחב הציבורי, חושפים מהלכים פוליטיים רחבים של קבוצות כוח ואת הניסיון העיקש שלהן לקבוע את צביונו הדתי של הסדר החברתי בישראל.
במאמר זה אני טוען שהדתה עשויה להתרחש גם במסגרת שאינה זו ההלכתית המוכרת, אלא זו של תנועה דתית הממוקמת בשוליה של החברה הישראלית – התנועה הרפורמית. באמצעות ניתוח איכותני־אתנוגרפי של פעילות המכינה הקדם־צבאית למנהיגות יהודית מתקדמת ביפו אדגים כיצד מובנת הדתה זו דרך ביצוע ריטואלים דתיים יום־יומיים, לימוד טקסטים מן המקורות והפקת
פרקטיקות ציבוריות במרחב עירוני משותף. על אף שיסודותיה של הבניה זו הם ערכי הליברליזם, חופש הבחירה והסובלנות הדתית, ועל אף שהיא ניצבת מול התעצמותם של רעיונות ותופעות של הדרה, פיקוח וכפייה דתית־לאומנית במרחב הציבורי, למעשה אין ההבניה חפה משעתוק יחסי הכוח בחברה. הטמעתם של ערכים מערביים־ליברליים מתגלה במאמר כפרקטיקה של כוח, גם אם היא
מבוצעת על ידי קבוצה חברתית שסובלת בעצמה מדה־לגיטימציה. מחד גיסא ביצוע ריטואלים שונים בכותלי המכינה ומחוצה לה חושף את החניכים ליהדות הרפורמית ומחמש אותם בערכיה, ומאידך גיסא הפעילות מעוררת גם הסתייגות לא מבוטלת וגם את התנגדותם של תושבי יפו הפלסטינים מעצם מיקומה של מכינה קדם־צבאית במרחב בין־דתי טעון.

מילות מפתח: הדתה, יהדות רפורמית, מכינה קדם־צבאית, יפו
Congregation Halev, located in the center of Tel Aviv, is led by a lesbian rabbi and is known for its outlook on gender equality and the unique rituals it has created to fit and resonate with the LGBTQ community. Once a week, members... more
Congregation Halev, located in the center of Tel Aviv, is led by a lesbian rabbi and is known for its outlook on gender equality and the unique rituals it has created to fit and resonate with the LGBTQ community. Once a week, members gather for a musical Shabbat service and, during the holidays, they come together in communal prayers. In this article I show how Congregation Halev's public reading of the Book of Esther constructs Purim, not as a religious commitment (mitzvah), but as a performative social practice which contests gender categories and the prevailing political perspective on minorities. The transformative use of symbols and textual representations reconstructs the story of Purim as the narrative of the LGBTQ struggle for public recognition, and as an informal critique of Jewish nationalistic violence.
The Reform congregation is revealed to be a social agent which mediates between various religious and gender fields, as well as providing a Jewish "safe zone." This religious praxis is valuable to LGBTQ members seeking to connect with and belong to the Jewish tradition. Ethnographic enquiry of this popular religious practice, especially in Israeli LGBTQ Reform congregations, which suffer, both in terms of gender and in the sovereign sphere, presents the congregation as a place of intersectionality for socially and otherwise excluded groups. This praxis is constructed for negotiation between marginalized categories and is embedded with the symbols of a mutual struggle for public recognition and legitimization.


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מ"קווין אסתר" ל"קוויר אסתר": מקרא מגילת אסתר בקהילה רפורמית תל אביבית. מגמות נג (2) 162-137

קהילת הלב היא קהילה רפורמית הפועלת בלב תל אביב. חברי הקהילה
מתכנסים בכל שבוע לקבלת שבת מוזיקלית, ובחגים - לתפילות משותפות,
המתאפיינות במכוונות מגדרית מובהקת לחברי קהילת הלהט"ב )לסביות,
הומואים, טרנסג'נדרים, בי־סקסואלים וקווירים(. את הקהילה הנהיגה בשנים
2017-2013 רבה לסבית שהציעה פרקטיקות ייעודיות וריטואלים מותאמים
לזהויותיהם של חברי וחברות הקהילה. במאמר זה אראה כיצד קהילת הלב
מַבנה את האירוע של מקרא מגילת אסתר כפרקטיקה חברתית פרפורמטיבית
)ביצועית(, המערערת על קטגוריות מגדריות ועל תפיסות פוליטיות של
יחסי רוב ומיעוט במרחב הריבוני. באמצעות שינוי במבנה הטקסט ובייצוגיו
הסמליים של החג הופך סיפור המגילה לסיפור מאבק של להט"בים בדרישתם
להכרה בשונותם המגדרית או המינית, ובאופן סמוי הוא משמש כלי ביקורתי
למופעים של כוח ולאומנות יהודית ישראלית. קריאת המגילה משמשת במה
הן לניהול משא ומתן בין זהויות הניצבות בשוליים והן למאבק חברתי משותף
This article analyzes leadership performances of Israeli women serving as reform rabbis. The writer examines the ways in which these women construct the pattern of their religious leadership, the meanings they embed into the different... more
This article analyzes leadership performances of Israeli women serving as reform rabbis. The writer examines the ways in which these women construct the pattern of their religious leadership, the meanings they embed into the different practices they lead in their communities, and their unique conceptualizations of the role of female community rabbis. Reform female rabbi, who are also referred to as " rabba, " are excluded and discriminated against in Israel as leaders of communities overtly delegitimized by the government. Their unstable social status allows them great freedom to act and interpret the operational definition of Israeli community rabbinate. The female Rabbis' stories are a product of a broader process of social change in women's status in modern society in general and in Israeli society in particular.
Israeli protest images and videos on social media and in various media outlets, both from LGBTQ+ communities around the world, particularly in North American academic institutions, and from Neturei Karta Hasidim. It's not that I'm unaware... more
Israeli protest images and videos on social media and in various media outlets, both from LGBTQ+ communities around the world, particularly in North American academic institutions, and from Neturei Karta Hasidim. It's not that I'm unaware of the political agenda of each of these groups, but in these times, the context has become increasingly painful. Conversations with colleagues and friends reveal real anger, pain, and feelings of deep betrayal, disconnection, and a genuine social and intellectual rift. What is particularly infuriating is when the political intertwines with the personal, as when colleagues from abroad on Facebook cryptically wish me and my family to "cross to the other side of the river or the sea." I was shocked and deeply hurt. Is forgiveness possible? Where has the shame gone? Where has morality shed its garments? After calming down a bit, I began to ponder and think, not just feel. Here are some thoughts and reflections from a wounded Jewish-Israeli anthropologist, a mere attempt to discuss the essence and purpose of this opposition.
Research Interests:
על: למה בר מצווה ובת מצווה? חניכה, מגדר וראווה בתרבויות יהודיות / חזקי שוהם
ביקורת ספר: מבט אנתרופולוגי על גבריות יהודית באירופה של ימי הביניים, איל לוינסון, ויגדלו הנערים: מגדר ומיניות באשכנז בימי הביניים. ירושלים: מרכז זלמן שזר לחקר תולדות העם היהודי, 2022, 217 עמ'
Reading Israel, Reading America: The Politics of Translation between
Jews. By Omri Asscher. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press,
2019. 256 pp.
Israeli Theatre: Mizrahi Jews and Self-Representation
By Naphtaly Shem-Tov
ביקורת לספרו של ד"ר שלמה גוזמן-כרמלי "מפגשים מסביב לטקסט: אתנוגרפיה של יהדויות"
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in March 2022 stunned the world and recalled levels of aggression unseen since World War II. Along with political, military and diplomatic discussions, this anthropological study contributes a... more
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in March 2022 stunned the world and recalled levels of aggression unseen since World War II. Along with political, military and diplomatic discussions, this anthropological study contributes a sociological-cultural perspective through the examination of Israeli Reform Jewish congregation responses, which include Russian-speaking immigrants, to the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. I analyze how the crisis pushed congregants into an internal dialog with their Jewish identity and Reform communal affiliation. Furthermore, this exceptional situation is reshaping rabbinical positions and creative liturgical responses. As such, Reform Jewish congregations are sites to identify tendencies and changes in the perception of Jewish identity, values and sense of belonging among Russian-speaking immigrants in Israeli society. Therefore, this research sheds light on the intersection between a time of crisis, such as war, and the intensification of religious views, liturgical flexibility and reflexive inquiry of religious leaders.
The ritual feast known as the Seder on the eve of Passover is one of the most family-oriented Jewish holidays observed in Israel. Rich in symbolism and narrative, it invites a wide variety of discussions, study, and intergenerational... more
The ritual feast known as the Seder on the eve of Passover is one of the most family-oriented Jewish holidays observed in Israel. Rich in symbolism and narrative, it invites a wide variety of discussions, study, and intergenerational mentoring and supervision. In this article I demonstrate how the Seder can serve as a representational performance that includes gender and sexual identities normally omitted from Jewish liturgy and society at large. A Reform community workshop in preparation for the Seder Night, exposes congregants to alternative versions of the traditional Haggadah text and introduces new ritual gestures that allow for the "presencing" of gay and heterosexual life-stories. Old patterns and family traditions are undermined; special additions are added to the Passover plate and the Haggadah itself. Thus, the narrative of national redemption is reconstructed as gender redemption, marking the Israeli Reform Jewish community as an egalitarian agency of contemporary conflict for gender equality.
The socialization of the Ethiopian Jewish community, known as Beta Israel in Israeli society, is marked by performing cultural customs and rituals to establish its unique tradition and collective ethnic narrative. The Sigd is a holiday... more
The socialization of the Ethiopian Jewish community, known as Beta Israel in Israeli society, is marked by performing cultural customs and rituals to establish its unique tradition and collective ethnic narrative. The Sigd is a holiday that is celebrated on the 29th of the Hebrew month of Heshvan, when the community marks its devotion to Zion by renewing the covenant between the Jewish people, God, and the Torah. This narrative of return to the homeland is also expressed and framed in a tragic context by observing a Memorial Day for the members of the Ethiopian Jewish community who perished during their journey to Israel from Sudan. These two commemorative dates support the narrative of Beta Israel and advance its public recognition. This ethnographic study examines why and how these practices were mentioned and performed in an Israeli Reform Jewish congregation, a community that does not include Ethiopians members, and has a religious and cultural character that is different from t...
This article examines the relationship between the researcher’s body and the Torah scroll (Sefer Torah) during participant observation of a Jewish holiday ritual in an Israeli Reform congregation. Using an autoethnographic approach, I... more
This article examines the relationship between the researcher’s body and the Torah scroll (Sefer Torah) during participant observation of a Jewish holiday ritual in an Israeli Reform congregation. Using an autoethnographic approach, I show how the Reform Jewish ritual demonstrates that the body is a charged religious symbol and the bearer of family traditions and unconscious understandings of the social order. Through this encounter, I discovered how my position in fieldwork on religion is located at the intersection of my ethnographic discipline, my religious habitus, and my identity as a gay man. Reflexive analysis of my active and passive behavior during the observation offered an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the differences between myself and the congregation. Thus, I suggest that anthropologists, even when researching their culture, must be aware of the elements that make up their own identities.
Every year, diverse Jewish communities around the world observe Tashlich (casting off), a customary atonement ritual performed the day after Rosh Hashanah. This performative ritual is conducted next to a body of water to symbolize... more
Every year, diverse Jewish communities around the world observe Tashlich (casting off), a customary atonement ritual performed the day after Rosh Hashanah. This performative ritual is conducted next to a body of water to symbolize atonement and purification of one’s sins. Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in two egalitarian Jewish congregations in Tel Aviv and in New York City, I show how Tashlich performance is constructed as a political act to empower gender and sexual identities and experiences, as well as the socio-political positionality of LGBTQ Jews in various sites. By including new blessings, the blowing of the shofar by gay female participants, and by conducting the ritual in historical and contemporary queer urban spaces, the rabbis and congregants created new interpretations of the traditional customs. They exposed their feelings toward themselves, their community, and its visibility and presence in the city. The fact that the ritual is conducted in an open urb...
Prayer is a performative act to construct religious identity, express faith in God and sense of belonging to the community. In Judaism, reciting the Sh’ma Yisrael prayer is one of the most important commandments which identifies... more
Prayer is a performative act to construct religious identity, express faith in God and sense of belonging to the community. In Judaism, reciting the Sh’ma Yisrael prayer is one of the most important commandments which identifies commitment and belief. It is practiced by the worshiper twice a day. According to the Jewish law, women are not obligated to recite the Sh’ma, but non-Orthodox communities, which support gender equality, view this issue differently and promote their participation. In this ethnographic study, I demonstrate how Sh’ma Yisrael prayer, conducted by women and LGBTQ members in Reform Jewish congregations, is constructed as a performance of gender-sexual recognition and empowerment. By changing the text of the prayer, experiencing the setting, and performing various bodily gestures, this religious declaration is charged with a political call for gender equality. Reciting the traditional prayer is not only dedicated to express religiosity or faith, but also an egalit...
Throughout generations, various prayers have been composed to express religious and cultural experiences of the Jewish community, such as holidays life-cycle and national tragedies. However, some social issues, such as sexual assault,... more
Throughout generations, various prayers have been composed to express religious and cultural experiences of the Jewish community, such as holidays life-cycle and national tragedies. However, some social issues, such as sexual assault, have been excluded from this canon. This article uncovers Jewish prayers and liturgical texts dedicated to female victims of sexual assault. Drawing on a qualitative inquiry based on content analysis and interviews with the prayers’ authors, I demonstrate how these texts (re)position sexual assault victims in Jewish liturgy by including new phrasings and references to God; by removing masculine violence related to God; by mentioning biblical female characters who experienced sexual harassment; by denouncing of patriarchal abuse; or by sanctifying the woman’s painful body, which is incorporated as an important agent in the ritual’s structure. Therefore, I suggest considering these texts a political mean to voice women’s traumas and to incorporate them i...
This article analyzes leadership performances of Israeli women serving as reform rabbis. The writer examines the ways in which these women construct the pattern of their religious leadership, the meanings they embed into the different... more
This article analyzes leadership performances of Israeli women serving as reform rabbis. The writer examines the ways in which these women construct the pattern of their religious leadership, the meanings they embed into the different practices they lead in their communities, and their unique conceptualizations of the role of female community rabbis. Reform female rabbi, who are also referred to as "rabba," are excluded and discriminated against in Israel as leaders of communities overtly delegitimized by the government. Their unstable social status allows them great freedom to act and interpret the operational definition of Israeli community rabbinate. The female Rabbis' stories are a product of a broader process of social change in women's status in modern society in general and in Israeli society in particular.
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The Shabbat service is one of the most popular practices in the Jewish liturgy, and over the years it has reflected various social and cultural changes. The service is not only textual prayer but also a performative act, including bodily... more
The Shabbat service is one of the most popular practices in the Jewish liturgy, and over the years it has reflected various social and cultural changes. The service is not only textual prayer but also a performative act, including bodily gestures and using sacred objects and space. In this article, based on three years of ethnographic fieldwork in the Yuval Reform congregation located in Gedera, I analyze special Shabbat services for the first day of school. I argue that the ceremony is constructed by the women in the congregation as a gender performance advocating gender equality and motherhood experiences. Every year, they create a new prayer book, which includes prayers honoring the activities of teachers and mothers, and creatively perform physical rituals by using sacred symbols charged with new interpretations. Thus the congregants are not only undermining both Orthodox rules and the structure of Reform Shabbat services; they are also rejecting patriarchal norms and expression...
Anthropologists see life-cycle rituals as a significant way to understand gender roles and identities in religious communities. While in the past, these compulsory rituals involved a significant change in a person’s social status, today... more
Anthropologists see life-cycle rituals as a significant way to understand gender roles and identities in religious communities. While in the past, these compulsory rituals involved a significant change in a person’s social status, today many of their traditional features have been transformed. This ethnographic inquiry examines Bat Mitzvah ceremonies (coming of age rituals for girls) in Israeli Reform Jewish congregations. By including new blessings, appropriating masculine religious symbols, and creating new bodily gestures, the feminine life-cycle ritual challenges the traditional Jewish laws and contemporary socio-cultural constructions of the Israeli Jewish community. The exclusion of the Israeli Reform community from mainstream Jewish religion turns this ritual into a subversive act that battles local Jewish Orthodoxy authority. The ceremony is a political performance, which positions the Reform congregations as an activist religious agent for gender equality in the Israeli pub...
Abstract This netnographic study examines Reform Jewish rituals transmitted by virtual platforms, Facebook and Zoom, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reform Judaism, which supports modern liberal theology, has adopted the usage of technology... more
Abstract This netnographic study examines Reform Jewish rituals transmitted by virtual platforms, Facebook and Zoom, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reform Judaism, which supports modern liberal theology, has adopted the usage of technology for Shabbat services. The transition from the physical space to the virtual one challenges the performance of the ritual: Rabbis change the ritual's structure, and during online services, the congregants have different feelings toward the congregation and their own spiritual worship, made manifest in changes in their usual religious gestures. A positive result of the move to the virtual space is that though the Reform Jewish congregations, as non-Orthodox communities, have been excluded by the state, virtual prayers further expose Reform services to Israeli society. However, this might hinder societal support if it is shown that the community can conduct its services without an actual formal space. This study illuminates the intersection of virtual space, religious praxis, and political conflicts.
Jewish holidays have always been considered a sociocultural framework that designs the Jewish communal landscape. One such ritual is Tu BiSh’vat Seder, a ritual conducted annually by various Jewish congregations and social movements on... more
Jewish holidays have always been considered a sociocultural framework that designs the Jewish communal landscape. One such ritual is Tu BiSh’vat Seder, a ritual conducted annually by various Jewish congregations and social movements on the 15th of the month of Sh’vat. These communities conduct the ritual with its traditional festival symbols and infuse it with new social and cultural interpretations. This essay presents an ethnographic analysis of a Reform Tu BiSh’vat Seder in Israel in which the holiday’s spiritual narrative and symbols were related to the female congregants’ bodies and expressed their social interaction. Observing the women’s preparations for the Seder, participating in the performance of the ritual itself, and listening to the female Rabbi’s sermon allowed me to understand the diverse gendered meanings which are infused into the ritual. The Tu BiSh’vat Seder revealed the female congregants’ attitudes toward their own bodies and ages and even their attitudes toward one another. Furthermore, by participating in the Seder, they did not only produce sisterhood and feminine solidarity but also blurred the boundaries between their private homes and the congregational space. Thus, it can be said that the Reform congregation serves as a safe space that provides a viable Jewish theological framework and is an arena for gender discourses.
ABSTRACT The AIDS epidemic tragically caused the death of millions of people. This article examines the role that the American Reform Jewish community fulfilled in responding to HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, and what lasting effects, if any,... more
ABSTRACT The AIDS epidemic tragically caused the death of millions of people. This article examines the role that the American Reform Jewish community fulfilled in responding to HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, and what lasting effects, if any, these responses had, and how they related to Reform Judaism as a whole. In 1985 the General Assembly of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) 1 passed a historic resolution calling to abolish discrimination against HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) positive people. The Reform movement thus became the only formal Jewish institution to advocate an open discussion regarding congregants who lived with HIV or had AIDS, and presented a clear resistance to the AIDSphobic Orthodox agenda, which declared the disease to be a punishment from God for the “sin” of homosexuality. Based on the textual analysis of recovery and memorial prayers, rabbis’ sermons and community services activities and educational programmes, I argue that the Reform community served as a social agent for the recognition of people with HIV/AIDS. Thus, I conclude that the Reform response, which was arising from personal mourning and social needs, advocated and encouraged inclusion of the American gay Jewish community.
This ethnography analyzes three Israeli Reform Jewish rituals as manifestations of interreligious hospitality. The Daniel Reform congregation invites Muslim residents of Jaffa to participate in rituals incorporating Arabic and Muslim... more
This ethnography analyzes three Israeli Reform Jewish rituals as manifestations of interreligious hospitality. The Daniel Reform congregation invites Muslim residents of Jaffa to participate in rituals incorporating Arabic and Muslim clergy and prayers. The egalitarian and pluralistic Jewish symbols and narratives promote neighborly relationships. Nevertheless, some participants’ responses reaffirm popular suspicions and prejudices, which the ceremony seeks to overcome. Interreligious hospitality here is not so much an act of theological reconciliation, but a political act also directed toward other actors – like the Israeli right-wing and Israeli society, which grant the Orthodox a monopoly on Judaism. While the shared ritual practice offers a dialogical model that engages broader publics through doing, the analytic frame of hospitality sensitizes us to the importance of space and language in the power relationships of hosts and guests. It helps explain the challenges to the messag...
This ethnography analyzes three Israeli Reform Jewish rituals as manifestations of interreligious hospitality. The Daniel Reform congregation invites Muslim residents of Jaffa to participate in rituals incorporating Arabic and Muslim... more
This ethnography analyzes three Israeli Reform Jewish rituals as manifestations of interreligious hospitality. The Daniel Reform congregation invites Muslim residents of Jaffa to participate in rituals incorporating Arabic and Muslim clergy and prayers. The egalitarian and pluralistic Jewish symbols and narratives promote neighborly relationships. Nevertheless, some participants' responses reaffirm popular suspicions and prejudices, which the ceremony seeks to overcome. Interreligious hospitality here is not so much an act of theological reconciliation, but a political act also directed toward other actors-like the Israeli right-wing and Israeli society, which grant the Orthodox a monopoly on Judaism. While the shared ritual practice offers a dialogical model that engages broader publics through doing, the analytic frame of hospitality sensitizes us to the importance of space and language in the power relationships of hosts and guests. It helps explain the challenges to the messages of coexistence, which the rituals are designed to confirm.
בנקודת המפגש בין אנתרופולוגיה ולימודי תרבות לבין מדעי היהדות, בוחנת אסופת המאמרים בספר זה את ה"טקסטואליות היהודית", דהיינו, את הפנייה לטקסט, ואת השימוש והמשמעות הסמלית המיוחסת לטקסט הדתי ביהדות לגווניה. המאמרים בוחנים כיצד קהילות יהודיות... more
בנקודת המפגש בין אנתרופולוגיה ולימודי תרבות לבין מדעי היהדות, בוחנת אסופת המאמרים בספר זה את ה"טקסטואליות היהודית", דהיינו, את הפנייה לטקסט, ואת השימוש והמשמעות הסמלית המיוחסת לטקסט הדתי ביהדות לגווניה. המאמרים בוחנים כיצד קהילות יהודיות מפרשות את הטקסטים הקאנונים וכיצד פרשנותם מחדשת את התרבות; כיצד הפרשנות יוצרת תרבות; וכיצד הפרשנות משפיעה על המערך החברתי. המאמרים בספר יוצאים גם אל מחוץ למחוזות הלימוד והפרשנות: אל מגוון קהילות שונות, סידורי התפילה, הטקסים, המשפחתיות ואורחות החיים, וגם אל מרחבי הרשת, בכל המקומות הללו יוצרת הטקסטואליות קוסמולוגיות מקומיות והיא נוכחת ומשפיעה על האופנים שבאמצעותם מובן העולם. בחינת טיב המפגשים עם הטקסט מראה כי הם אינם "רק" ביטוי של מחקר בתחום היהדות, אלא מצביעים על הזדמנות ייחודית לפרשנות אנתרופולוגית גדושה. המפגש עם הטקסט יוצר אירועים של רפלקסיה, רגעים שבמהלכם ניתן לחשוב ולהרהר על מהות תרבותנו.

רובין, ניסן ושלמה גוזמן (עורכים).2021. כוחן של מילים, אנתרופולוגיה של
.טקסטואליות יהודית. ירושלים: כרמל
Rubin, Nissan and Guzmen-Carmeli, Shlomo (Eds.). 2021.  The Power of Words: Anthropology of Jewish Textuality. Jerusalem: Carmel Press [Hebrew].
מסה שנכתבה עבור הספר "דור ראשון להשכלה אקדמית כותבים" המלקט את סיפוריהם של בני ובנות דור ראשון להשכלה גבוהה
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