Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 3-29-2011 Imah on the Bimah: Gender and the Roles of Latin American Conservative Congregational Rabinas Valeria N. Schindler Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FI11042002 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Gender and Sexuality Commons, Other Religion Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Schindler, Valeria N., "Imah on the Bimah: Gender and the Roles of Latin American Conservative Congregational Rabinas" (2011). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 353. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/353 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida IMAH ON THE BIMAH: GENDER AND THE ROLES OF LATIN AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE CONGREGATIONAL RABINAS A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in RELIGIOUS STUDIES by Valeria Schindler 2011 To: Dean Kenneth Furton College of Arts and Sciences This thesis, written by Valeria Schindler, and entitled Imah on the Bimah: Gender and the Roles of Latin American Conservative Congregational Rabinas, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this thesis and recommend that it be approved. _______________________________________ Ana María Bidegain _______________________________________ Albert Wuaku _______________________________________ Oren Baruch Stier, Major Professor Date of Defense: March 29, 2011 The thesis of Valeria Schindler is approved. _______________________________________ Dean Kenneth Furton College of Arts and Sciences _______________________________________ Interim Dean Kevin O’Shea University Graduate School Florida International University, 2011 ii © Copyright 2011 by Valeria Schindler All rights reserved. iii DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my parents, Daniel and Graciela Cababié for instilling positive values as well as love for Judaism in me since a very young age. To my husband Ozzie Schindler for all of his support and understanding. And to my daughters Daniela and Gylian Schindler for their unconditional love and incredible amount of patience. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the major professor on my thesis committee, Dr. Oren Baruch Stier who had faith in this project from the very beginning, providing a great deal of guidance and support. His knowledge on diverse areas of Judaism and his own passion for teaching were a great influence on my work. I am very proud and lucky to have been able to learn from him. I am thankful to Dr. Ana María Bidegain who as a Latin American immigrant to the United States, taught me the importance of recovering the history of women and religion in Latin America, because both matter. Her knowledge and expertise in the area of women in Latin America was a source of inspiration to me. And I am indebted to Dr. Albert Wuaku whose proficiency in fieldwork helped me shed light on my own experience, providing useful advice before and after my interviews. His insights on how to organize and contextualize all the information gathered were extremely helpful. I would like to express my gratitude to the Tinker Foundation Inc. for awarding me a fieldwork grant in 2010. Without their generous financial support I would have not been able to personally meet the rabinas and interact with people of their congregations. Furthermore, I would like to thank Florida International University and the Latin American and Caribbean Center for introducing the Tinker Foundation Grant and for their support on this research. I am also grateful to the Department of Religious Studies and its professors for providing a stimulating and thoughtful curriculum. I would like to express my appreciation to Rabinas Analía Bortz and Sandra Kochmann, who even though they are not part of this work (they are currently working in the United States and Israel), were extremely helpful and supported my research. Also v Rabinos Ariel Avruj, Daniel Goldman, Abraham Skorka, and Rami Pavolotzky who generously shared their stories as well as their views on rabinas with me. I would also like to thank Rabino Adrian Gottfried for facilitating my introduction to Rabina Pajecki- Lederman and supporting this research. And finally I cannot thank enough Rabinas Margit Baumatz, Silvina Chemen, Karina Finkielsztein, Graciela Grynberg, Luciana Pajecki-Lederman, Daniela Szuster, and Sarina Vitas who have been kind enough to share their personal stories, opening their hearts, congregations, and even their homes to me. I appreciate their participation and cooperation and they have been great supporters throughout my research. I would have not been able to present this work without them. vi ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS IMAH ON THE BIMAH: GENDER AND THE ROLES OF LATIN AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE CONGREGATIONAL RABINAS by Valeria Schindler Florida International University, 2011 Miami, Florida Professor Oren Baruch Stier, Major Professor The aim of this research is to analyze the impact of gender on the work of Latin American rabinas within Conservative congregations in Latin America. The fact that women’s roles in Latin America and in Judaism have been traditionally linked to nurturing and caring serves as the point of departure for my hypothesis, which is that the role rabinas play within their congregations is also linked to those traits. In this research I utilize a social scientific approach and qualitative methodology, conducting personal interviews with the rabinas. While this work proves that Conservative congregations in Latin America are gendered, my research demonstrates that this gendered division of labor does not have a negative impact on the work of rabinas. On the contrary, by embracing attributes of womanhood and motherhood rabinas become imah (mother) on the bimah (pulpit), educating, caring, and nurturing their congregations in a special and unique way. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 I. FEMINISM: Its Development, Ideas, and Influence .......................................16 What is Feminism? ..........................................................................................17 Theories on Motherhood ..................................................................................22 II. JUDAISM: Jewish Denominations and Jewish Feminism ..............................26 Understanding Judaism ....................................................................................28 Understanding Jewish Denominations .............................................................35 The Reform Movement ..............................................................................35 The Orthodox Movement ...........................................................................36 The Conservative Movement ....................................................................38. The Reconstructionist Movement ..............................................................40 Jewish Feminism ..............................................................................................41 Understanding the Basics of Jewish Feminist Thought ...................................42 Jewish Feminist Theology ...............................................................................44 The Halakhah from a Feminist Perspective .....................................................46 Women and the Synagogue .......................................................................47 Women, Prayers, and Ceremonies .............................................................49 Women Ordained as Rabbis in the Conservative Movement ..........................56 III. LATIN AMERICA: Understanding the Region in Context ............................62 History of Women in Latin America ...............................................................64 Women and Motherhood .................................................................................69 Feminism in Latin America: a Brief History ...................................................71 Jewish Migration to Latin America .................................................................78 Religious Considerations: The Conservative Movement ...............................85 The Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano ......................................................88 IV. MEETING THE RABINAS: My Fieldwork Experience ................................93 V. RABINAS AND EDUCATION ....................................................................110 Their Beginnings ............................................................................................111 Educational Work as Rabinas ........................................................................115 The Importance of Women and Education ....................................................119 VI. RABINAS: Public Roles and Private Lives...................................................124 Rabinas’ Ritual Practices ...............................................................................124 Rabinas