Women and Religious Change in Israel: Rebellion or Revolution
Author(s)
Sered, Susan
Abstract
This paper examines three cases of conflict involving issues of gender and religious change in contemporary Israel. In all three cases women sought to enlarge women’s role into what had traditionally been male domain. It is argued that in those two cases in which the two sides to the conflict could agree to redefine the conflict as concerning secular rather than sacred matters, the conflict was fairly easily resolved and even very traditional religious groups were able to accommodate the change. In the third case, despite the attempt of the women seeking change to present their demands as “rebellion” rather than “revolution,” religious traditionalists perceived the proposed change as striking at the theological heart of Judaism and thus violently opposed the change.
