PAUL A HYMAN (1946–2011) At the Center of Change by rachel kranson !T THE TIME OF HER DEATH IN $ECEMBER 0AULA (YMAN WAS THE ,UCY -OSES 0ROFESSOR OF -ODERN *EWISH (ISTORY AT 9ALE 5NIVERSITY 3HE HAD BEEN THE FIRST FEMALE DEAN OF THE !LBERT ! ,IST #OLLEGE OF THE *EWISH 4HEOLOGICAL 3EMINARY THE FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT OF THE !MERICAN !CADEMY FOR *EWISH 2ESEARCH AND CO FOUNDER OF THE GER- MINAL *EWISH FEMINIST GROUP OF THE S %ZRAT .ASHIM 7HILE STILL A GRADUATE STUDENT SHE AUTHORED WHAT MAY have been the first social history of Jewish women, The Jewish Woman in America [1976], and then proceeded to transform the way that Jewish scholars think of such basic historical paradigms as assimilation and acculturation BY VIEWING THESE PHENOMENA THROUGH THE LENS OF GENDER 3EE HER BIBLIOGRAPHY AT Lilith.org.) -OST OF THE *EWISH GIRLS BORN IN !MERICA TODAY WILL TAKE IT FOR GRANTED THAT WOMEN CAN BE RABBIS COUNT in a minyan, and read from the Torah. And Jewish historians being trained today are called to task when THEY DO NOT TAKE GENDER INTO ACCOUNT 0AULA (YMAN WAS AT the forefront of the religious and intellectual struggles that GENERATED THESE CHANGES (ER INFLUENCE EXTENDED BOTH INTO the academy and far beyond it, affecting the lives of Jewish females in schools and congregations in ways of which many are still unaware. The reflections that follow give some glimpses into her LEGACY AND THE EXTRAORDINARY WAYS IN WHICH SHE SHAPED THE Jewish feminist world we live in today. Rachel Kranson teaches in the religious studies faculty at the University of amy stone amy Pittsburgh. She is co-editor of ! *EWISH &EMININE -YSTIQUE *EWISH 7OMEN IN Hyman and her daughter Judith Rosenbaum, 2010. Postwar America (2010) and a contributing editor at Lilith.
undergraduate major concentration). One Paula and I were both regular attend- Martha Ackelsberg semester, we actually took all four of our EES AT &RIDAY NIGHT DINNERS AND SERVICES classes together — and this without any AT (ILLEL AND ALSO AT #ONSERVATIVE SER- aula and I first met early in our ADVANCE PLANNING OR COORDINATION VICES ON 3HABBAT MORNINGS "UT DESPITE freshman year at Radcliffe — prob- I would say that it was probably in THE PRODDINGS OF 2ABBI "EN :ION 'OLD P ably during the first week, AND THROUGH (ARVARD (ILLEL THAT WE CAME DIRECTOR OF (ILLEL AT THE TIME BOTH OF US although I cannot remember for sure. to be close friends — and, probably not hesitated to take on the honor of leading Really, I cannot remember not know- coincidentally, began to develop at least services, because we fully accepted the ing Paula once we were at college. an initial feminist consciousness. Paula view, dominant at the time, that leading 3OMEHOW WE ALMOST ALWAYS FOUND OUR- AND ) WERE BOTH PRODUCTS OF *UDAISMS SERVICES WAS hMENSv ROLE ) REMEMBER selves doing the same things, in the #ONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT WE GREW UP IN VERY CLEARLY HOWEVER AN IMPORTANT hCLICKv same places — (ARVARD (ILLEL 0HILLIPS synagogues that educated girls and boys moment, when I was sitting with Paula at "ROOKS (OUSE THE SOCIAL SERVICE ORGA- together, but did not count women in SERVICES ON EITHER 2OSH (ASHANAH OR 9OM NIZATION THE #OMMITTEE ON $EGREES IN a minyan, and did not allow girls to be +IPPUR ) BELIEVE IT MAY HAVE BEEN DURING 3OCIAL 3TUDIES A SMALL INTERDISCIPLINARY CALLED FOR AN ALIYAH AS A BAT MITZVAH our sophomore year). A fellow student
24 LILITH s Spring 2012 (male, of course) was leading the daven- SOME CALLED THAT INSISTENCE hDIVISIVEv 3O uncompromising in her view that it would ING NOT VERY EXPERTLY AND 0AULA TURNED FOR EXAMPLE WHEN A GROUP OF 9ALE STUDENTS be utterly unacceptable for a gathering of TO ME AND SAID h7E COULD DO BETTER THAN (many of whom had studied with Paula) WOMEN NOT TO CONSIDER OURSELVES A PAUL A HYMAN THATv &OR BOTH OF US THAT TURNED OUT TO ORGANIZED A CONFERENCE ON h*EWISH 7OMEN minyan. The decision we reached, which be the first, cautious step in an awaken- AND &REEDOMv IN !PRIL OF AND WAS ACCEPTABLE TO THE /RTHODOX WOMEN ing Jewish-feminist consciousness: before INCLUDED ON THE PROGRAM A &RIDAY NIGHT present, was that there would be a full (1946–2011) the end of that academic year, we were service in which the hundreds of women SERVICE AND THAT /RTHODOX WOMEN WOULD both taking regular turns leading the present would not constitute a minyan (the simply not respond to bor’chu or kaddish. congregation in prayer. Needless to say, QUORUM NECESSARY FOR *EWISH PRAYER 0AULA 7OMEN CALLED TO THE 4ORAH COULD RECITE the foundations of Judaism did not come TUMBLING DOWN Paula and I continued our feminist EXPLORATIONS TOGETHER IN .EW 9ORK AFTER She was one of the most fearless people I have we started graduate school — I at Princeton AND SHE AT #OLUMBIA 7E BECAME PART OF ever known. I remember going to a panel on a feminist consciousness-raising group modern Jewish history. Everyone paid hom- made up of wives of medical students, and spent many hours sharing stories and age to the “great minds” and she said, “I didn’t developing a more systematic analysis of the difficulties we were confronting in our think they were great minds; they never wrote lives and relationships. about women.” And it was breathtaking. Not surprisingly, then, when — as a MEMBER OF THE .EW 9ORK (AVURAH — I Riv-Ellen Prell HELPED TO ORGANIZE A CLASS ON hWOMEN AND *UDAISM v 0AULA WAS ONE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE WE INVITED TO JOIN (ER ENERGY AND ENTHU- siasm — as well as her deep knowledge of HELPED TO ORGANIZE RESISTANCE INSISTING THAT whole or partial blessings as they wished. and commitment to Judaism — were criti- THE EGALITARIAN GOALS FOR WHICH SHEWE HAD !S ) RECALL 0AULA READ FROM THE 4ORAH &OR cal to the group. Although we began with fought for so long should not be dismissed the vast majority of people present, it was the simple goal of educating ourselves OR IGNORED EVEN IN THE NAME OF hINCLUDINGv the first time we had ever heard a woman about Jewish sources on the status of /RTHODOX *EWISH WOMEN read Torah. WOMEN WE EVENTUALLY CAME TO REALIZE THAT ) SPENT THE FOLLOWING 2OSH (ASHANAH Martha Ackelsberg is the William R. Kenan, we needed to take action to try to change Jr., Professor of Government and of the Study WITH THE .EW 9ORK (AVURAH 0AULA WAS the actual situation of Jewish women. of Women and Gender at Smith College. She is eight months pregnant. I can still picture 7E TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY OFFERED BY THE author of, among other works, &REE 7OMEN OF so clearly the way she carried the baby ANNUAL MEETING OF THE #ONSERVATIVE 3PAIN !NARCHISM AND THE 3TRUGGLE FOR THE in the straight-out-in-front way that led MOVEMENTS 2ABBINICAL !SSEMBLY AT THE %MANCIPATION OF 7OMEN and of Resisting people to say she was carrying a boy. #ONCORD (OTEL IN -ARCH OF TO GIVE #ITIZENSHIP &EMINIST %SSAYS ON 0OLITICS !LWAYS OVERTURNING EXPECTATIONS 0AULA ourselves a name — %ZRAT .ASHIM WE #OMMUNITY AND $EMOCRACY. HAD A GIRL *UDITH 2OSENBAUM !T 0AULAS took this because it referred to the wom- prompting, I was given an aliyah — my ENS SECTION IN THE ANCIENT TEMPLE BUT first — and afterwards she congratulated LITERALLY IT MEANS hHELP FOR WOMENv — and ME ON MY BAT MITZVAH to present a set of demands: “Jewish 7HEN THE *EWISH 4HEOLOGICAL 3EMINARY 7OMEN #ALL FOR #HANGEv !MONG THE Judith Plaskow decided in 1983 to admit women into the changes called for in that document were MET 0AULA (YMAN AT THE FIRST NATION- RABBINICAL SCHOOL A GROUP OF %ZRAT .ASHIM access by women to institutions of Jewish AL *EWISH &EMINIST #ONFERENCE members went out to dinner to celebrate. higher learning, including rabbinical and I IN .EW 9ORK #ITY IN !FTER There, I remember Paula saying that her cantorial schools; counting of women in a the opening sessions, several members MEMBERSHIP IN %ZRAT .ASHIM WAS VERY minyan; full membership in Jewish com- OF %ZRAT .ASHIM WENT TO A HOTEL ROOM important to her as a historian because MUNAL ORGANIZATIONS ABILITY TO BE HEARD TO DISCUSS HOW TO HANDLE THE QUESTION IT MADE HER REALIZE THAT SMALL GROUPS OF as witnesses in courts of Jewish law and of whether women could make up a people really could make history. to initiate divorce…(the full document is VALID MINYAN AT 3HABBAT SERVICES THE Judith Plaskow is professor emerita of religious AVAILABLE AT ,ILITHORG 0AULA WAS ONE OF NEXT MORNING ) WAS PART OF THE PASSION- studies at Manhattan College, a Jewish femi- THE GROUPS MAIN SPOKESPERSONS ate conversation about how we could nist theologian, and co-founder of the Journal of Paula never suffered fools gladly, and function as a minyan at a conference Feminist Studies in Religion. Her best-known DID NOT MINCE WORDS 3HE INSISTED ON WITH BOTH /RTHODOX AND NON /RTHODOX book is 3TANDING !GAIN AT 3INAI *UDAISM WOMENS EQUALITY EVEN IN CONTEXTS WHERE participants. Paula, like others of us, was FROM A &EMINIST 0ERSPECTIVE.
www.Lilith.org s LILITH 25 Once Paula supported a cause, a move- Alice Shalvi Keren McGinity ment, or a principle, she was unshakeable. ,IKEWISE WHEN SHE BELIEVED IN SOMEONE he first time I met Paula was in hen I saw Paula at the she never wavered, though privately she WHEN WE WERE BOTH AMONG !SSOCIATION FOR *EWISH would always tell people what she felt they T the participants at a conference on 7 3TUDIES CONFERENCE IN NEEDED TO HEAR 7HEN TIMES WERE TOUGH GENDER AND *UDAISM AT /HIO 3TATE 5NIVERSITY Boston I asked her to inscribe a copy of and even when she did not agree with my )T SO HAPPENED THAT 2OSH (ODESH FELL ON THE Gender and Jewish History which I had just decisions, Paula remained in my corner. second day of the conference. I suggested we PURCHASED 3HE WROTE h4O +EREN 4HANK Beth S. Wenger is Professor of History at the HAVE A WOMENS TEFILA AND TO MY ASTONISH- you for bringing our work further. All the University of Pennsylvania and director of ment, within 10 minutes everything was BEST 0AULAv 4HESE WORDS SIMULTANEOUSLY its Jewish Studies program. Her books include (ISTORY ,ESSONS 4HE #REATION OF !MERICAN *EWISH (ERITAGE AND 4HE *EWISH !MERICANS 4HREE #ENTURIES OF *EWISH 6OICES IN !MERICA, We should think about what she used to call companion volume to the 2008 PBS series. “passing it down.” We can’t help the older people but we can pass it down. Academia was competitive and cutthroat, and that’s totally Rebecca Kobrin rom the moment I stepped into the opposite of what I got from Paula. 0AULA (YMANS CLASSROOM IN Marion Kaplan & as a Yale undergraduate, her pas- sion for teaching and for bringing the PAST TO LIFE INSPIRED ME (ER COURSE ON THE *EWISH IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE PRO- ORGANIZED 0AULA VOLUNTEERED TO DO BOTH validated my research and called on me voked me to rethink the ways in which I THE 4ORAH READING AND -USSAF — tasks she TO CONTINUE THE PURSUIT OF GENDER EQUAL- CONCEPTUALIZED AND NARRATED THIS CHAPTER PERFORMED WITH IMPRESSIVE SKILL 3HE WORE A ity — ONE SMALL EXAMPLE AMONG COUNTLESS IN *EWISH HISTORY 3HE PERSISTENTLY QUES- tallit and tefillin, for me a totally new phe- others illustrating that Paula was a con- tioned everyone in this seminar on their nomenon. At the time, such a thing could summate scholar and teacher. views, left no argument unchallenged and not have happened in Israel and was still made everyone feel they were part of a Keren R. McGinity, Ph.D., is a research associ- COMPARATIVELY RARE IN THE 53 ate at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. She larger mission to uncover aspects of the )T WAS NOT UNTIL THAT ) CAME is the author of 3TILL *EWISH ! (ISTORY OF PAST NO ONE HAD YET EXAMINED to know her more intimately, when she 7OMEN AND )NTERMARRIAGE IN !MERICA, and One of the great fortunes of my career enthusiastically agreed to partner with founding director of Love & Tradition (www. WAS BEING ABLE TO RETURN TO 9ALE IN AS 0ROFESSOR $ALIA /FER OF THE (EBREW loveandtradition.com). a postdoctoral fellow. Paula saw it as her University in editing the Comprehensive task to provide me with crucial mentoring Historical Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, not only on teaching and scholarship, but WHICH MY HUSBAND -OSHE 3HALVI HAD BALANCING MY PERSONAL LIFE AS WELL 7HEN LONG DREAMED OF PUBLISHING %VERY SUM- I once noted that I felt that I had failed as mer she came to Israel and spent countless Beth Wenger a postdoc because I had not yet found a HOURS WITH -OSHE AND MYSELF DISCUSSING MET 0AULA (YMAN IN THE MIDDLE OF publisher for my book, she retorted with- the progress, both actual and desired, her career and was the first graduate out missing a beat, “if you do not produce OF THE PROJECT (ER DETAILED COMMENTS I student to study with her after she a sibling for your daughter, you have failed revealed not only an astonishing range went to Yale. I was not a part of the pio- AS A POSTDOCv )NDEED ) HAVE MET FEW and profundity of knowledge, but also neering generation of Jewish feminists, but women like Paula in the academic world (more unusually) a punctilious attention to instead reaped the benefits of their efforts. who remained steadfastly committed to details of style, grammar and even punctu- I have always felt that there are two dif- making sure her students remain fully ation. It became clear to me that whatever ferent approaches taken by women from engaged in politics, community, academic project she undertook she carried out with that generation. One group says, “I had it life and family. all her heart, mind and soul. so tough; you should appreciate what you Rebecca Kobrin, Knapp Assistant Professor HAVE NOW v AND THE OTHER GROUP DOES NOT Alice Shalvi won the Israel Prize 2007 for her of American Jewish History, Columbia contribution to Israeli society and to the advance- WANT TODAYS WOMEN TO EXPERIENCE WHAT University. Her first book, Jewish Bialystok ment of women, founded the Israel Women’s they did, but rather wants to make it even AND )TS $IASPORA was a National Jewish Book Network and headed the Pelech Religious BETTER FOR THE NEXT GENERATION 0AULA CER- Award Finalist. Experimental High School for Girls. tainly fell into the latter category.
26 LILITH s Spring 2012 Reflections on Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia Anne Lapidus Lerner by Deborah Dash Moore f I had to choose from among the 7E ENGAGED IN OUR OWN GENDERED MINI WHO IS A *EW DEBATE WHEN IN THE MID decades of my memories of Paula S 0AULA (YMAN AND ) PONDERED WHICH WOMEN TO INCLUDE IN OUR Jewish (YMAN JUST ONE IT WOULD BE HER Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Our arguments occurred in the I midst of heated debates among American Jews around intermarriage and a feared DAUGHTER *UDITHS BAT MITZVAH IN OUR LITTLE shul, Paula in her purple dress walking HEMORRHAGING OF NUMBERS OF *EWS TO A *EWISH FUTURE &OR US QUESTIONS REVOLVED confidently up the stairs on that clear around non-halakhic criteria since we considered either a Jewish mother or .OVEMBER 3HABBAT IN WITH HER FATHER AS BRINGING A WOMAN POTENTIALLY WITHIN OUR DOMAIN (OW IMPORTANT IS HUSBAND 3TANLEY 2OSENBAUM AND THEIR SELF IDENTIFICATION AS *EW (OW CRITICAL IS RECOGNITION BY OTHERS AS *EWISH (OW daughters Judith and Adina. DO WE EVALUATE CONVERSION TO *UDAISM (OW INTERPRET CONVERSION TO #HRISTIANITY On the surface it was a familiar scene: 0AULAS STEADFAST FEMINISM SHAPED THIS ENORMOUS PROJECT TO RESCUE UNHEARD a couple with their children approaching OF NUMBERS OF WOMEN FROM UNDESERVED OBSCURITY (ER VISION PROMPTED ME TO the synagogue to mark the coming of age join her and motivated most of the other female scholars to devote their energy, of their elder child. But things are not EXPERTISE AND TIME TO AN UNCOMPENSATED ADVENTURE )T SHAPED OUR DECISION TO ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM &OR WEEKS PRECED- include only women on the advisory board of the encyclopedia and in the end ING THE BAT MITZVAH 0AULA HAD NOT BEEN it led to the vast majority of entries written by women (many men turned us FEELING WELL 3HE SELDOM COMPLAINED BUT down when we asked them). she was clearly concerned — headaches, The project raised our consciousness and that of all of the women who par- DIZZINESS 3HE WAS RELIEVED WHEN SHE ticipated. In many ways, the encyclopedia represented that very special intersec- was running a fever because, as she said, tion of feminist activism with popular scholarship that Paula had pioneered as people who have had cancer can get the A GRADUATE STUDENT $ESIGNED TO OPEN NEW TERRITORY THE ENCYCLOPEDIA RADICALLY FLU TOO 3HE WAS WILLING TO GO TO THE DOC- challenged ways of thinking about the American Jewish past. tor, but wanted to wait until after the bat /NE OF OUR DECISIONS IN THE ONGOING WHO IS A *EWISH WOMAN DISCUSSION EXCLUD- MITZVAH NO POINT UPSETTING THINGS ED -ARILYN -ONROE WHO CONVERTED TO *UDAISM BEFORE MARRYING THE PLAYWRIGHT &INALLY ON &RIDAY MORNING EIGHT DAYS !RTHUR -ILLER 7E CONSULTED OUR CHILDREN OUR FEMINISM MEANT THAT THEY WERE NEVER — BEFORE THE BAT MITZVAH CEREMONY SHE far from the project several of them wrote entries), thrashed the issue out with our CALLED TO SAY THAT 3TAN INSISTED THAT SHE ADVISORY BOARD AND CONCLUDED THAT THE CONVERSION WAS EXPEDIENT (AD WE KNOWN wait no longer to see a doctor, so we WHAT SUBSEQUENT RESEARCH REVEALED WE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE INCLUDED HER might have to postpone our scheduled Nevertheless, like many feminist projects, it was fraught with controversy. FORAY TO THE ,OWER %AST 3IDE WHERE ) WAS 7HEN IT CAME TIME TO CELEBRATE PUBLICATION OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIA A NUMBER OF going to buy our gift for Judith — a pair FEMINIST ACTIVISTS ANGRY OVER THOSE WHO WERE EXCLUDED PICKETED THE PARTY ! of tefillin %VENTUALLY 3TAN CALLED TO SAY FEW JOINED THE CELEBRATION AT THE *EWISH 4HEOLOGICAL 3EMINARY TO PROTEST ) WAS THAT THEY WERE DOING TESTS (E SOUNDED DISTRAUGHT 0AULA HOWEVER WAS UNFAZED calm when he called again to tell me that Deborah Dash Moore is Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of History at the University 0AULAS BREAST CANCER HAD METASTASIZED of Michigan and director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies. Most recently she edited into a brain tumor that they would take with Marion Kaplan, 'ENDER AND *EWISH (ISTORY (2010), a collection of essays in honor OUT ON 3UNDAY ! DOCTOR HE CLAIMED THAT of Paula Hyman that won a National Jewish Book Award. it was not very complicated surgery. 3ATURDAY NIGHT IT SEEMED AS THOUGH the whole New York Jewish world was IN 0AULAS HOSPITAL ROOM TO WISH HER WELL 3HE WAS COMPOSED ASSURED THAT BY &RIDAY Once more Paula had courageously she would be able to be home. kept her cancer at bay, as she did for 33 Hasia Diner 0AULA DID RETURN HOME THAT &RIDAY years, just more than half her life, without afternoon and appeared in shul on compromising her standards, her love of AULA (YMAN MANAGED WITH GRACE 3HABBAT MORNING FULLY PREPARED TO leyn FAMILY OF *UDAISM OF (EBREW OF 4ORAH and aplomb to combine the roles the aliyot she had planned to read. No of learning, and of joy. P OF ACTIVIST AND SCHOLAR 3HE DID DRY EYES IN SHUL THAT MORNING (ER ONE not feel, as far as I could tell, obliged to Anne Lapidus Lerner is the author most concession to her illness was allowing me recently of %TERNALLY %VE )MAGES OF %VE IN bifurcate these two crucial concerns, nor to lead shaharit in her stead. That night at THE (EBREW "IBLE -IDRASH AND -ODERN did she consider herself obliged, when THE BAT MITZVAH PARTY THE DANCING WHICH Jewish Poetry. At the Jewish Theological doing the one, to bracket the other. Paula prudently sat out, was the most Seminary she has served as vice-chancellor, The easy marriage between scholar- ENERGIZED ) HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED )T WAS dean of List College, and associate dean of the ship and political commitment which completely cathartic as we gave physical Graduate School; she is founding director of its Paula both fostered and lived with is not EXPRESSION TO OUR RELIEF Jewish Women’s Studies Program. something that makes me comfortable.
www.Lilith.org s LILITH 25 er — writing politically INVISIBLE 3HE DEMANDED THAT THEY REDEFINE charged books and WHAT CONSTITUTED IDEAS AND TEXTS SO THAT articles and citing her women could become part of history. EXPERTISE AS AN HIS- It is highly likely that the revolution torian in her public in modern Jewish history as a field would works — allowed her to NOT HAVE TAKEN PLACE HAD 0AULA (YMAN reshape the nature of behaved more like I do, saving my activism modern Jewish history for one part of my life, and making sure as a scholarly endeav- that my scholarship stands as devoid of my or. Paula the feminist POLITICS AS POSSIBLE 3O EVEN THOUGH WHEN forced the field to I have taught her books, I have taken her to CHANGE 3HE PUSHED task with my students for the highly politi- and she prodded cal nature of the discussion, it is entirely Deborah Dash Moore and Paula Hyman, 1981. other scholars, men POSSIBLE THAT MY CLASSES IN *EWISH WOMENS in the main but not history would never have come into being ONLY TO RECOGNIZE THAT without her willingness to do what I would I like to think of myself as an activist, women had made history and that the sub- not, could not, and indeed will not do. engaged in the public sphere, and as well jects they studied would be enriched and Hasia Diner is the Paul and Sylvia Steinberg being a dedicated scholar. But I believe changed if they bothered to think about Professor of American Jewish History at New that the two should never meet. I do not GENDER 3HE CAJOLED THEM INTO REALIZING York University. She is the author, with Beryl want them to touch, or not very much. THAT BY VALORIZING SOME SUBJECTS PRIMARILY Benderly, of (ER 7ORKS 0RAISE (ER ! 9ET 0AULAS WILLINGNESS AND ABILITY TO INTELLECTUAL AND TEXTUAL AND DOWNPLAYING (ISTORY OF *EWISH 7OMEN IN !MERICA FROM fuse the two helped make her a leader others, namely social history, they pushed #OLONIAL 4IMES TO THE 0RESENT, as well as among scholars. Bringing the two togeth- women to the side and rendered them numerous other books.
From the introduction to Gender and Assimilation in Modern Jewish History by Paula Hyman
The beginning of my graduate studies in Jewish history WOMENS HISTORY AND RAISED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS coincided with my introduction to feminism as an intellec- OF WOMENS HISTORY FOR *EWISH HISTORIANS !S FEMINIST THEORY tual movement. That encounter shaped my self-definition HAS EXPLODED AND HISTORICAL STUDIES OF WOMEN HAVE PROLIFER- as a Jewish woman and opened my eyes to the absence of ATED ) HAVE BECOME ALL THE MORE EAGER TO APPLY THE EXCITING women from all that I was studying. As a graduate student I PERSPECTIVES THAT HAVE EMERGED IN GENERAL WOMENS HISTORY TO BECAME AN ACTIVIST IN THE NASCENT *EWISH WOMENS MOVEMENT the field of Jewish history… and joined with two friends in writing a popular history of Although the inclusion of women and gender in the Jewish women, The Jewish Woman in America, published in writing of history is important in itself, it is not, in historian 1976. The book, however, was not directly connected to my 'ERDA ,ERNERS TERMS SIMPLY A MATTER OF hADD WOMEN AND academic program, and I viewed it as a digression from my STIRv &EMINIST SCHOLARSHIP HAS ASPIRED TO AND ACHIEVED MORE hSERIOUS WORKv !S A SCHOLAR ) FOCUSED ON MY CHOSEN AREA OF THAN hFILLING THE GAPSv OF INFORMATION ABOUT HALF OF HUMAN- SPECIALIZATION THE HISTORY OF MODERN &RENCH *EWRY 4HE FIELD ity. In historical scholarship it has challenged such basic OF GENERAL WOMENS HISTORY WAS JUST ACHIEVING RECOGNITION PARADIGMS OF THE FIELD AS PERIODIZATION AND THE DETERMINA- 7ITHIN *UDAIC STUDIES THE FIRST STIRRINGS OF INTEREST IN RECOVER- tion of what is deemed historically significant… In Jewish ing the history of Jewish women manifested themselves in historiography of the modern period research on women and the early 1980s and had little impact in the field beyond a GENDER HAS ALREADY EXPANDED OUR CONCEPTUALIZATION OF *EWISH small coterie of primarily female scholars and students. religious life to include the subjects of domestic religion and 7HEN GIVEN THE OPTION TO PREPARE PAPERS FOR ACADEMIC PERSONAL SPIRITUALITY 7ITH THIS BOOK WHICH DRAWS UPON STUD- conferences, however, I increasingly chose subjects related ies by many of my colleagues as well as upon my own new TO WOMENS HISTORY 4HE PUBLICATION OF THESE PAPERS IN RESEARCH ) HOPE TO DEMONSTRATE THAT TO BE VALID AN EXAMINA- PARTICULAR MY ANTHOLOGIZED ARTICLE ON THE FEMALE LED tion of the processes of Jewish assimilation in the modern .EW 9ORK KOSHER MEAT BOYCOTT BROUGHT THE SPECIFIC EXPERI- and contemporary periods must include women and gender ence of Jewish women to the attention of scholars of general in its design.
28 LILITH s Spring 2012 those who, like herself, combined their mention that John was gay and how his David Ellenson academic work with a strong sense of HOMOSEXUALITY HAD DEFINED SUCH A LARGE SOCIAL JUSTICE 7HEN SHE SERVED AS JUDGE part of who John was. Paula felt that such N ) WAS A SECOND YEAR RABBINI- ON THE $OCTORAL 3CHOLARSHIP !WARDS a one-dimensional portrait was ultimately CAL STUDENT AT (5# *)2 AS WELL AS #OMMITTEE OF THE .ATIONAL &OUNDATION distorting, for it failed to capture the man I A DOCTORAL STUDENT IN THE #OLUMBIA FOR *EWISH #ULTURE AN ASPIRING FEMINIST and his significance. John consciously $EPARTMENT OF 2ELIGION 0AULA HAD JUST scholar writing a work on feminist theo- demonstrated that a gay man could be COMPLETED HER DOCTORATE AT #OLUMBIA AND logical concerns had applied for scholar- hOUT OF THE CLOSETv AND LEAD A LIFE OF BOTH was already serving as a faculty member ship support. A man on the commit- uncompromising academic integrity and personal dignity. John served as a public role model to everyone at Yale — especially its gay and lesbian students — that one She said “What I can’t stand about my need not divorce who one was as a person from who one was as a scholar. Paula colleagues is that they don’t understand how especially applauded John because he important my children are to me.” I thought REFUSED TO COMPARTMENTALIZE HIS LIFE INTO professional and personal components about that. And I realized that I had rarely had Paula was a great scholar who unceas- ingly and tirelessly labored to create a a teacher who revealed even the slightest part of world where there was greater opportuni- his personal life to me. And all of my teachers ty and justice for both women and men. had been HEs! She changed the way I teach and Rabbi David Ellenson, Ph.D. is President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute she changed the way I see my colleagues. of Religion. He co-authored with Rabbi Daniel Gordis the 2012 book Pledges of Robert Goldenberg *EWISH !LLEGIANCE #ONVERSION ,AW and Policymaking in Nineteenth- and 4WENTIETH #ENTURY /RTHODOX 2ESPONSA.
AT #OLUMBIA ) REMEMBER HER ENTERING THE tee wanted to deny her application; he 5PPER 7EST 3IDE APARTMENT WHERE THE CLAIMED THAT THE WOMANS PROJECT WAS NOT .EW 9ORK (AVURAH GATHERED FOR ITS WEEK- worthy of support. Paula had only admi- LY 4HURSDAY MEETING %VERYONE CROWDED ration for this student and the significance Pamela S. Nadell around her, and wished her congratula- OF HER PROPOSED WORK 3HE ALSO KNEW HOW e all have turning points tions on her doctorate. Paula beamed, important this support was — both for IN OUR LIVES ,ONG BEFORE ) and I saw her golden hair and her broad the student personally and for the cause 7 EVER MET 0AULA (YMAN SHE SMILE AS THEY LIT UP THE ROOM 7E STARTED of Jewish feminist scholarship. Paula was played a role in mine. speaking that evening, and for 37 years infuriated by the attempt to deny this stu- )T WAS ) WAS FINISHING AN -! IN our conversations never ceased. dent the award; she defended the project Jewish history and bound for law school. )N ) SAT WITH 0AULA AT #OLUMBIA and the student, and threatened to resign I told one of my professors that, while I 0RESBYTERIAN (OSPITAL WHEN SHE HAD HER from the committee if this woman were really wanted a doctorate in Jewish his- first mastectomy. And in 1986, when not awarded a fellowship. Needless to say, tory, it seemed futile to get one. All the Paula was appointed to the faculty at the award was granted. professors I admired were trained both Yale, a number of her friends, including 0AULA OFTEN EXPRESSED ANGER AND INDIG- as rabbis and historians. The former had ME EXPRESSED GRAVE CONCERN OVER WHAT A nation when she felt an injustice had been only just become a possibility for women. MOVE FROM 4EANECK TO .EW (AVEN MIGHT done. This is how she felt at the funeral of Then I said: “Anyway, there are no women mean for her family should she die. I, and her Yale colleague John Boswell, who had IN THE FIELDv (E REPLIED h4HERES 0AULAv OTHER FRIENDS FELT THAT THE hSAFESTv THING been chair of the history department and Pamela S. Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen to do might be for her to stay in New whose books on the evolving attitudes of Chair of Women’s and Gender History at York. Paula wrestled with this decision for THE #HRISTIAN #HURCH TOWARDS HOMOSEXU- American University, and is author of several weeks. In the end, she said to me, ality were magisterial and path breaking. 7OMEN 7HO 7OULD "E 2ABBIS ! (ISTORY h$AVID IF ) WERE WELL ) ABSOLUTELY WOULD 7HEN *OHN DIED AT OF !)$3 0AULA OF 7OMENS /RDINATION n. accept the appointment to Yale. If I say WAS OUTRAGED BY THE EULOGY AN EXTREMELY NO ITS AS IF )M SAYING THAT )M GOING TO prominent Yale professor delivered. The die — AND ) WILL NOT ACCEPT THAT FATEv 9ALE PROFESSOR SPOKE ONLY OF *OHNS INTEL- Throughout her years as a scholar, lectual brilliance, and his scholarly and Paula fought relentlessly on behalf of PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS (E DID NOT
www.Lilith.org s LILITH 25