Men and Women: Gender, Judaism and Democracy (review)

Elior's most recent edited publication, Men and Women: Gender, Judaism and Democracy, is a collection of essays originating from papers prepared for a 1998 conference held in Jerusalem. The conference, of the same name, was organized to explore "the changing meanings of gender reality within Israeli culture" (p. 11), and was sponsored by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. The contributors to the book, and former participants in the conference, are engaged in an "ongoing dialogue between tradition and progress and between Judaism and democracy" (p. 14). The Framework for Contemporary Jewish Thought and Identity at Van Leer conducts the ongoing dialogue. As a (U.S.) political philosopher whose training is in democratic theory and whose work crosses critical theory and Jewish political theory, I am one feminist theorist who would love to participate in such a dialogue. Given the range of fields of specializations covered in the collection, I am sure many U.S. scholars would appreciate such an opportunity to meet over time for concerted discussion under similar auspices. With this slim volume, some of the fruits of what I can only assume is a lively and challenging exchange are now available to those beyond the circle meeting through Jerusalem's Van Leer.

As is often the case in volumes produced from conference papers, the articles are uneven: in length, in method, analytic frame, etc. Also, the use of gender as a somewhat "unifying" lens does not necessarily mean that each piece offers a "feminist" analysis, that the writers all understand themselves as feminists, or that there is a single feminist approach among the feminists. This, however, does not mean that there aren't many significant contributions made in the collection, and much material that could be very useful for additional feminist work.

The volume is organized into four conceptual sections: pieces addressing questions of law, history, socio-religious encounters in the past, and the educational process. Many use what the editor and authors term "a gender perspective." Clarification of what that means, and its relation to various forms of feminist scholarship and debate in the academy and society, would have been helpful. The volume offers interesting pieces on such wide-ranging subjects as suffrage, divorce law, a religious minyan, the Haskalah, and monogamy from a variety of gender-based perspectives. Orit Kamir presents a constructive argument for using the notion of "human dignity" in legal arenas in the Israeli context where appeals to gender equality have little efficacy, such as in religious courts. Many pieces in the volume attempt to make sense of a divide perceived between secular democratic arenas and what are called religious or traditional oppressive arenas in Israel. In a poignant example, in forming a minyan on a kibbutz, Chana Safrai asks why Israeli men may make inegalitarian presumptions regarding representation even within highly egalitarian contexts.

Although not every piece addresses operative challenges to gender equality in Israel, it is interesting to note the tone and nature of the explorations coming from scholars for whom political analyses occur within the context of a Jewish state. Worthy of analysis itself is the comparative need for and nature of gender-based political philosophy where Judaism, as in the title of the text, is inherently central (though certainly in different ways) to authoritative structures and in diaspora contexts where what is called Jewish may or may not be religious and must make a claim as authoritative. Living outside of Israel I find this potential comparison a fascinating, probably unintended, sub-text of the volume. I also find the intensity of the need for democracy as a strategy for gender justice palpable in the essays in a way that I would venture would be less so in Jewish feminist collections outside Israel.

Elior and some of the contributors are clear that "democracy" is not static and that there may be differences between democratic ideals and democracies in practice. The tradition...