This volume analyzes historical and recent developments in female religious leadership and the larger issues shaping the scholarly debate at the intersection of gender and religious studies. Jewish activism and scholarship have been crucial in linking theology and gender issues since the early twentieth century. Academic and vocational leadership and training have had significant, concrete impact on religious communal practices and formation across the US and Europe. At the same time, these models provide important avenues of constructive dialogue and comparative ecumenical and interfaith enterprises. This volume investigates those possibilities towards constructive, activist, holistic female ministerial leadership for religious faith communities.
Hartmut Bomhoff is senior research fellow at the Abraham Geiger College, University of Potsdam. Denise L. Eger is an international Jewish leader and social justice activist and founding rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami (West Hollywood, CA). Kathy Ehrensperger is research professor of New Testament in Jewish perspective at the Abraham Geiger Kolleg, University of Potsdam. Walter Homolka is professor of Jewish theology at the University of Potsdam and coeditor of the Encyclopedia of Jewish-Christian Relations.
Preface - Honoring the Legacy of Rabbiner Regina Jonas: A Call to Let Religious Women Write Alternative Narratives of the Future, Denise L. Eger Acknowledgments Introduction - Women as Religious Leaders, Hartmut Bomhoff, Denise L. Eger, Kathy Ehrensperger, Walter Homolka I. New Roles for Jewish Women in Modernizing Germany and America The Discourse of the Other: The Transformation of the Jewish Woman in Nineteenth-Century Germany, Yael Kupferberg Patterns of Reform: Tracking Women's Changing Roles in Synagogues and Communal Life within Nineteenth-Century American and German Judaism, Karla Goldman Women Students at the Berlin Hochschule fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums, Esther Seidel "The Woman in the House of God" (1926) Revisited,Hartmut Bomhoff Paving the Road to Women Rabbis, 1889-2015, Pamela Nadell II. Three Pioneers of Female Leadership: Henrietta Szold, Margarete Susman, and Regina Jonas Henrietta Szold: A "Pretty Certain Miriam", Gail Twersky Reimer The Religious as the Political in Margarete Susman, Elisa Klapheck Remembering Regina Jonas: On the Intersectionality of Women's, Jewish, German, and Holocaust History, Katharina von Kellenbach Memory and Identity: Female Leadership and the Legacy of Regina Jonas, Stefanie Sinclair III. Personal Reflections They Married What They Wanted to Be? Rebbetzins and their Unconventional Paths to Power, Shuly Rubin Schwartz Looking Back: Religion as Container for Memory and Tradition, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso IV. Comparing Notes: Female Religious Leadership Today Women's Leadership in the Roman Catholic Church: A Survey of Half a Century's Development with Particular Reference to Germany, Marie-Theres Wacker The Impact of Women in Protestant Christian Ministry Today, Renate Jost Rereading Male Chauvinism: Muslim Women's Own Approach to Their Holy Text, Katajun Amirpur The Ordination of Women and the Question of Religious Authority, Judith Frishman About the Editors About the Contributors
Gender and Religious Leadership blends scholarly articles and reflective essays to tell the story of women's ordination as rabbis. It is an important resource for both scholars and lay readers who want to understand the trajectory of women's leadership in modern Judaism, as well as other faith traditions. -- Dvora Weisberg, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion This volume offers a skillful insight into the currents of research on female religious leadership. Historical investigation sits alongside engaged perspectives of activist-scholars, making this a lively collection of contributions arising from the lived experience of academic and professional life. -- Hannah Holtschneider, senior lecturer in Jewish Studies, University of Edinburgh In an age blessed by talented women taking leadership roles in religion (finally), we need thought leaders who can assess the paths already taken, and the portals yet to cross in the future. In Gender and Religious Leadership, a strong cadre of scholars assembles the examples of how women have broadened religious vitality and responsiveness across denominational and faith lines. This is first rate scholarship addressing an issue of vital importance. -- Bradley Shavit Artson, Roslyn and Abner Goldstine Dean's Chair, American Jewish University
