Changes - History Lab https://historylab.es Tue, 10 Jan 2023 13:37:44 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://historylab.es/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-icono-historylab-32x32.jpg Changes - History Lab https://historylab.es 32 32 Gender and profound changes in European Judaism https://historylab.es/gender-and-profound-changes-in-european-judaism/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gender-and-profound-changes-in-european-judaism Thu, 01 Dec 2022 12:42:29 +0000 https://historylab.es/gender-and-profound-changes-in-european-judaism/ Article by Béatrice de Gasquet published in the Encyclopédie d'histoire numérique de l'Europe (2022)

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]]> The role of Jewish women and men in European societies has undergone profound changes over the last two centuries. Their gradual equality of rights with non-Jews—in addition to the process of secularization and assimilation, anti-Semitism, and internal reforms of Judaism—had a different impact on women and men, and transformed Jewish representations of femininity and masculinity. The renewed value ascribed to women as “guardians of tradition” during the nineteenth century was a change that paradoxically enabled them to take on new roles as educators, leaders of Jewish organizations, and sometimes as officers. A major revolution came with their access to secular education, which was particularly early, and also to religious education somewhat later. The profound reorganization of Jewish collective institutions after the Holocaust led to renewed religious polarization opposing the “Orthodox,” who were often in the majority, and “liberals” with respect to women’s participation in the synagogue and the study of religious texts.

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