Secular Humanistic Judaism is an intellectual movement that interprets Judaism as a human-shaped and multi-faceted culture without the involvement of any supernatural entities. In the second half of the twentieth century, these intellectuals formed Secular and Humanistic Jewish communities and ultimately created the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism (IISHJ). Approximately half of the rabbis and community leaders trained and ordained by IISHJ since 1987 have been women. 

The simultaneous presence of two distinct yet intertwined faiths struck me with a profound sense of unity that I had never truly grasped before.

On March 5, 2024, Judith Plaskow, often regarded as the first Jewish feminist theologian, was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She is the first inductee whose work is focused on Judaism, and even the first to have a degree in religious studies. 

The new translation empowers readers to view the Bible with fresh eyes.

The poignant and often hilarious novel made me consider my own experiences with grief and (metaphorical) lostness.

Episode 65: Regendering the Torah (Transcript)

Joy Ladin is the Gottesman Professor of English at Stern College, a prolific poet, and a central figure in transgender theology. Her numerous written works reframe classical Jewish theological questions from a transfeminist perspective.  

“Daughter Zion” or “Fair Zion” (in Hebrewbat tzion) is the personification of Jerusalem in poetic and prophetic literature. Initially, the city is positively likened to a daughter, protected under God’s special regard, but later, under the Babylonian siege, she is devastated, even ravaged. However, when Jerusalem is rebuilt, the daughter is forsaken no longer, returning to God’s grace in the prophecies of consolation.

Louise Glück, American poet, essayist, and educator, was the recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature, as well as numerous other awards for her writing; she also served as poet laureate of the United States from 2003 to 2004. One finds the personal, the mythological, and the Biblical woven intricately throughout Glück’s oeuvre.

When I was younger, around the time of my consecration, my vision of God was simple.

Rachel Adler has always challenged her religion from within, from her early days as a pioneer of the Jewish feminist movement to her later ordination as a rabbi.

JWA's Executive Director Judith Rosenbaum spoke to Judith Plaskow about her groundbreaking work as a Jewish feminist, the unfinished work of feminism, and what she would change aboutStanding Again at Sinaiwere it published in 2015.  

We knew that Jewish feminism needed to be suffused through all of Jewish practice so that it would be impossible to ignore.

I was seated at one of those grand, heavy, deep brown mahogany tables in a beautiful room with two walls of windows. To my left, sat my mother, visiting for a few days from Los Angeles. Then to my right, and all the way around the table sat 10 classmates and my professor. We were talking about my favorite topic: How do you do good?

A group of Jewish women in Charleston, South Carolina deplored the death of British author Grace Aguilar as a "national calamity."

Rachel Adler was awarded the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought on March 11, 1999.

Jewish women’s spirituality developed historically within the confines of a patriarchal tradition. Over time, feminists have developed rituals and created spaces that honor the unique experiences of women.

Judith Plaskow is the first Jewish feminist to identify herself as a theologian. Deeply learned in classical and modern Christian theology yet profoundly committed to her own Judaism, Plaskow created a distinctively Jewish theology acutely conscious of its own structure and categories and in dialogue with the feminist theologies of other religions.

Joseph Dov Soloveitchik shaped Jewish practice and public opinion through the era of second-wave feminism. Despite his sometimes progressive actions, Soloveitchik maintained that women and men had separate religious and familial roles. These positions from the leader of the Modern Orthodox community cemented resistance to Orthodox feminists’ demands to increase their participation in Jewish rituals.

Tehilla Lichtenstein co-founded the Society of Jewish Science with her husband as an alternative to Christian Science, creating a small but passionate following and carving a place for herself as a congregational leader.

When the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) was established in 1969 as the professional organization of scholars in the interdisciplinary field of Judaic studies, there were no women among its founders. Within the past few generations, however, a field that was traditionally dominated by men has gradually witnessed the emergence of many women scholars.

TheIggeret ha-Kodesh is a Kabbalistic work with contested authorship, written in the second half of the twelfth century. The work is a kabbalistic interpretation of sexual relations and its sacred spirituality between a married couple.

Abraham Geiger (1810-1874) was one of the most influential Jewish thinkers of the nineteenth century. He was one of the major intellectual leaders and founders of the Reform movement in Germany and a strong supporter of Jews entering European society. As part of his vision of Judaism, he argued for a Judaism oriented around the home and domestic life, but also a Judaism that both elevated and sidelined the women that had long created that domestic life.