“We Need to Worship Outside of Conventional Boundaries”: Jewish Orthodox Women Negotiating Time, Space and Halachic Hegemony Through New Ritual

Abstract

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“Not Being Counted”: Women's Place and Religious Space in Jewish Orthodox Communities During the COVID‐19 Crisis

“…Previous ethnographic studies demonstrate how the designation of spaces as either “private” or “public” impacts women's access and their liberties in those spaces (Fader 2009; Mazumder and Mazumdar 2001; Neriya Ben‐Shahar 2019; van Geel 2016). We have shown that the reorganization of “public” and “private” categories in the new religious spaces formed under the COVID‐19 crisis did not, for the most part, bring about greater inclusion of women but rather heightened their marginality.…”

“…Scholars studying lived religion have long noted that daily practices, habits, and patterns of social life shape what is commonly understood as "religion" (Ammerman 2007(Ammerman , 2014McGuire 2008;Orsi 2004). This scholarship, which regards space as a fundamental dimension of the religious experience, explores the everyday dynamics in which neutral space is turned into religious space and the ways these spaces are imagined, experienced, and used (Knott 2005;Kong 2010;Williams 2010).…”

“…Some have examined it in formal religious spaces such as sacred sites and houses of worship (Ben‐Shitrit 2021; Ghafournia 2020; Pricket 2015; Stadler 2015). Others have focused on homes and other informal religious spaces (Halford 2021; Neriya‐Ben Shahar 2019). An underlying theme in these studies is the question of agency (Avishai 2008).…”

“…In the context of Orthodox Judaism, ethnographies examining the intersections of gender, religiosity, and space show how Orthodox Judaism's gendered order opens room for innovative religious expressions by women in domestic and women‐only spaces (El‐Or 1994; Neriya‐Ben Shahar 2019; Sered 1992). Other ethnographic studies reveal the inconsistency and instability of this order.…”

“…In what follows, we show that in Orthodox communities that integrate various egalitarian practices into their religious services, the COVID‐19 crisis highlighted that women's place in communal spaces is still very much fragile and uncertain. In communities that adhere to strict gender hierarchies and segregation, and in which women are believed to be content with their exclusion from the public religious domain (El‐Or 1994; Neriya‐Ben Shahar 2019), the crisis exposed women's discontent and dissatisfactions with these arrangements. Our study, therefore, proves that crises not only reveal the “deeper social grammar” of a society (Oliver‐Smith and Hoffman 2002:10) but may also unearth processes that defy and challenge that grammar.…”