A WOMAN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING

A revisionist history of Jewish women.

Historians Kaplan and Carlebach examine the lives of Ashkenazi women in Western and Central Europe from 1500 to 1800 to rectify historians’ marginalization of this “most visible minority” and to argue persuasively for their centrality within their communities. Drawing on myriad sources, including personal letters, recipes, laundry lists, community records, wills, books of Jewish customs, and descriptions of Jewish practices by Christian observers, the authors show that during this period, women took leadership roles in the kehillah, the formal organization through which Jews interacted with state authorities; figured prominently in synagogues, overseeing the women’s section, for example, and collecting donations; took charge of the mikveh, or ritual bath in which a woman cleansed herself after menstruation; and served to carry out Jewish rituals, such as burials. With an increase of printed material, women expanded their literacy, some collecting their own libraries, others commissioning religious or literary manuscripts, in Hebrew or Yiddish, for their own use or for other women—including for the education of their daughters. “Several broad circles of women had exceptional access to learning,” the authors reveal. Many also took part in the economic life of the community, owning property, taking up professions, and engaging in financial and commercial dealings. At the same time, religious and secular laws and customs had an impact on their bodies (such as menstruation, pregnancy, miscarriages, nursing, and female illnesses) and social status (marriage, divorce, remarriage, and opportunities for those who did not marry). The authors offer vivid details of women’s mundane and sacred possessions, everyday and festive clothing, and even the underwear that comprised Jewish women’s material worlds. Throughout their richly detailed history, the authors compare Jewish women’s lives with those of their Christian contemporaries.

A prodigiously researched and beautifully illustrated contribution to Jewish and women’s studies.