Semitic neopaganism is a group ofreligions based on orattempting to reconstruct theancient Semitic religions, mostly practiced amongJews in theUnited States.
The notion of historicalIsraelite or Jewish polytheism was popularized in the United States during the 1960s byRaphael Patai inThe Hebrew Goddess, focusing on the cult of femalegoddesses such as thecult ofAsherah inSolomon's Temple.[citation needed]
During the growth ofNeopaganism in the United States throughout the 1970s, a number of minor Canaanite or Israelite-oriented groups emerged. Most containedsyncretistic elements fromWestern esotericism.[citation needed]
Forms ofNeopagan witchcraft religions inspired by the Semitic milieu, such asJewitchery, may also be enclosed within the Semitic neopagan movement. These groups are particularly influenced byJewish feminism, focusing on the goddess cults of the Israelites.[1]
A notable contemporary Levantine Neopagan group is known as "Am Ha Aretz" (עם הארץ, lit. "People of the Land", a rabbinical term for uneducated and religiously unobservant Jews), "AmHA" for short, based inIsrael. This group grew out of Ohavei Falcha, "Lovers of the Soil", a movement founded in the late 19th century.[2]
Elie Sheva, according to her own testimony, an "elected leader of AmHA," reportedly founded anAmerican branch of the group, known as the Primitive Hebrew Assembly.[3][4]
Beit Asherah ("House of Asherah") was one of the first Jewish neopagan groups, founded in the early 1990s by Stephanie Fox, Steven Posch, and Magenta Griffiths. Magenta Griffiths is High Priestess of the Beit Asherah coven and a former board member of theCovenant of the Goddess.[5][6]
Semitic neopagan movements have also been reported in Israel[7] and in Lebanon.[8]
In 2006, rabbi Jill Hammer founded theKohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, which has a stated mission to "reclaim and innovate embodied, earth-based feminist Judaism", inspired by pre-Israelite Semitic religion priestesses such as Enheduanna, who was a devotee of the goddessInanna.[9] The wordkohenet is the feminine declension ofkohen, the priestly lineage in Jewish tradition. The ordination of "Hebrew priestesses" has led to some consternation in the Jewish community, with some feeling that the Kohenet movement is not solely Jewish due to the presence of aspects of paganism that are incompatible with the Torah.[10][11] The syncretic aspects of this religious movement have been characterized as "goddess worship", but supporters say that the movement expresses a creative approach to problems posed by non-egalitarian streams of Judaism.[12] Similar organizations include the Lilith Institute (also known as Mishkan Shekhinah), an organization and community more overtly aligned withWicca and other feminist/goddess-centered neo-pagan movements than the Kohenet Institute.[13]
A related movement is "Jewitches" (sometimes styled asJeWitches), Jews – often but not exclusively women – blending Jewish heritage with elements ofwitchcraft, folk magic, and at times including elements of Semitic neo-paganism.[14][15]
Some "Jewitches" express their desire to document and revitalize ritual practices that were historically suppressed, obscured, or abandoned, as a means of cultural preservation in response to persecution, assimilation, or marginalization.[16]
Jewitches may also refer to the popular blog and podcast.[17]
beit asherah.
| Approaches |  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arts and institutions | |||||
| By country or region | |||||
| Movements (list) |
| ||||
| In society | |||||
| Related articles | |||||