Multifaceted Religious Feminism - The Case of Modern Orthodox Feminists in Israel

Abstract

This article deals with orthodox feminists in Israel. Its aim is to study how women create a religious feminist identity and attach to orthodox feminism as a shared space. For this purpose I interviewed 44 women, all of whom declared openly that they regard themselves as orthodox feminists. The interviews dealt with the creation of a religious feminist identity and the conceptions, beliefs, customs and soul searching created by this identity. Five different narratives are presented: the traditional, retiring, interpreter, juggler and rabbinical. Every one of them provides a different world view and a unique answer to the issue of how to be both religious and a feminist. These narratives are not binary (feminism versus religion, feminism or religion) but rather an open-ended interweaving between feminism and religion that produces religious feminism without a hyphen.