Program

Saturday, 29 October

JEWISH WOMEN & THE AMERICAN MAINSTREAM

Opening Night Panel Discussion, 8:00 PM

We begin this remarkable conference with an evening plenary aimed at understanding Jewish women's contributions to the American mainstream. After thirty years of vibrant, vigorous feminist activism, we'll explore the advances Jewish women have made both within their own Jewish communities and as part of larger struggles for social justice and equality. Temple University Professor Laura Levitt leads a discussion with some of today's most thoughtful and distinctive voices in Jewish activism, culture, politics and scholarship. It's a rare opportunity to consider the directions in which Jewish feminism has gone over the last three decades, the nature of the cross-roads at which we now stand, and where, in the future, we might yet go.

PARTICIPANTS:

Katya Gibel Azoulay, author of Black, Jewish & Interracial: It's Not the Color of Your Skin but the Race of Your Kin, and Other Myths of Identity
Liz Holtzman, former Congresswoman from Brooklyn
Lisa Jervis, Editor, Bitch magazine
Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a founding editor of Ms. magazine; author of Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America
Nancy Schwartzman, filmmaker, Between Us; founder, NYC-safestreets.org; and Creative Director, Heeb magazine

MODERATOR:

Laura Levitt, Associate Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies, Temple University

Sunday, 30 October

CHANGING JEWISH COMMUNITIES

Panel 1, 10:00 - 11:30 AM

Reflecting a wealth of diversity, Jewish communities are built around distinct national, racial and ethnic identifications, differing sexual desires and family structures, divergent political and religious ideologies. This panel will examine how these boundaries have changed over time, and how feminists have contributed to these changes. By frankly discussing how various Jewish communities embrace (or insist on resisting) change, we'll envision new forms of community that promise Jewish women fuller lives in both the public and private spheres.

PARTICIPANTS:

Shifra Bronznick, Founding President, Advancing Women Professions and the Jewish Community
Sally Gottesman, Chair, Moving Traditions
Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, activist, writer and founder of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
Khadijah Miller, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Norfolk State
Gina Nahai, author, Cry of the Peacock and Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith

MODERATOR:

Paula Hyman, Lucy G. Moses Professor of Modern Jewish History, Yale University

CHANGING JUDAISM

Panel 2, 1:00 - 2:30 PM

No discussion of Jewish community building would be complete without careful consideration of the ways in which denominational lines help to order and organize culture, political and religious life. In this panel, feminists activists committed to fostering change in religious contexts speak with distinguished scholars whose work produces the historical and conceptual work necessary for understanding, strategizing and effecting such change.

PARTICIPANTS:

Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, Regional Director, PA Council, Union for Reform Judaism
Judith Hauptman, E. Billi Ivry Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, Jewish Theological Seminary
Norma Joseph, Associate Professor of Religion, Concordia University
Lori Lefkovitz, Director of Kolot, Center for Jewish Women's and Gender Studies
Danya Ruttenberg, author, Yentl's Revenge: Third Wave Jewish Feminism

MODERATOR:

Judith Plaskow, Professor of Religious Studies, Manhattan College

CHANGING CULTURE

Panel 3, 3:00 - 4:30 PM

Jewish feminists and queers have often provided the most insightful critiques of American and Jewish cultures. Their voices are particularly vibrant in contemporary art, literature and performance, where the possibilities of new communities are boldly imagined in alternative magazines, theaters and social spaces. In this panel, artists, activists and scholars examine not only the purpose and scope of these creative acts, but also their political implications.

PARTICIPANTS:

Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross, international lecturer and motivational speaker
Rachel Havrelock, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago
Faith Jones, Bridges magazine
Irena Klepfisz, poet, translator and Adjunct Associate Professor of Women's Studies, Barnard College
Alisa Solomon, Director of the Arts Concentration, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

MODERATOR:

Naomi Scheman, Professor of Philosophy, University of Minnesota