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Reviewed by:
  • Sisterhood: A Centennial History of Women of Reform Judaism ed. by Carole B. Balin et al.
  • Ellen M. Umansky (bio)
Sisterhood: A Centennial History of Women of Reform Judaism. Edited by Carole B. Balin, Dana Herman, Jonathan D. Sarna, & Gary P. Zola. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2013. 390pp.

Published in 2013 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ), this edited collection of fourteen new scholarly essays on the goals, projects, and contributions of WRJ is an informative and engaging work. As Gary P. Zola maintains in the book’s introduction, it seeks to further readers’ knowledge of the central role that women have played in the development of Reform Judaism, the American synagogue, American Jewish culture, and Jewish organizations and institutions throughout the world. Although in several places the selection of particular essays for each of the book’s four parts seems arbitrary, all of the essays are well researched and well written.

The first part, entitled “‘We’re Building Judaism’: WRJ and Religion,” contains five essays that, taken as a whole, trace the historical roots, early leaders, and more recent contributions of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods (NFTS), renamed WRJ in 1993. Noteworthy is both the detailed historical context in which each of the section’s chapters are set and the emphasis on early NFTS activities which to date have received little scholarly attention. David Ellenson and Jane Karlin convincingly show, for example, the important financial role that NFTS played in the development of Hebrew Union College (HUC). It funded rabbinic scholarships, raised money to build and furnish the first dormitory on HUC’s Cincinnati campus, and, after the Nazis came to power, provided money that helped rescue and provide refuge at HUC for students and professors of closed European rabbinical seminaries. As Rebecca Kobrin shows in her fine essay on Jane Evans and The House of Living Judaism, while the “annals of Jewish American history” herald United American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) president Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath as the visionary who moved the headquarters of the UAHC from the Midwest to a new center in Manhattan, the essential role played by NFTS and its indefatigable executive director, Jane Evans, in raising funds to make the move to New York City possible has largely been ignored (86). [End Page 371]

Yet as the essays in Part One make clear, the contributions of NFTS to American Reform Judaism have been more than financial. As Pamela Nadell and Jonathan Sarna maintain, revitalizing Jewish observance, expanding women’s religious roles, and underscoring the interdependence of the synagogue, home, and religious school in creating a meaningful Jewish life were major priorities of founder Carrie Obendorfer Simon and NFTS’s Committee on Religion. It was NFTS that reintroduced the issue of women’s ordination in 1962 and, as Jason Kalman and Andrea Weiss observe, championed as its most significant educational project for fifteen years the award-winning The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, which was published jointly by WRJ and HUC Press in 2007.

Part Two consists of two essays that are grouped together as examples of WRJ’s engagement in material culture. The first, by Deborah Dash Moore and Noa Gutterman, focuses on sisterhood cookbooks, while the second, by Joellyn Wallen Zollman, looks at gift shops and efforts by WRJ to promote home observance. Surprisingly missing is a chapter on NFTS Garden Circles, which by sponsoring flowers to beautify the sanctuary on the Sabbath and holidays transformed flower arranging, an artistic activity in which many members engaged at home, into a public spiritual endeavor.

Part Three is loosely organized around the theme of Y.E.S. (Youth, Education, and Special Projects), reflecting a WRJ fund that supports these areas. Some projects, such as Sisterhood Uniongrams, whose artistry and purpose are described in great detail by Carole Balin, will be familiar to longtime members of Reform congregations, while Jewish readers may be familiar with other projects and organizations, including the National Federation of Temple Youth, but not necessarily their historic connection to WRJ. Melissa R. Klapper and Dana Herman’s respective essays on “NFTS and the Peace Movement” and the involvement of NFTS in working...

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