My dissertation analyzes the portrayal of women in Jewish novels of the Greco-Roman period (300 BCE-100CE): Greek Esther, Judith, Susanna, and Aseneth. During the Greco-Roman period, the female heroine frequently became the focus in Jewish novels. This innovation coincides with a concern over maintaining Jewishness. Several areas surrounding the maintenance of social identity appear in the Jewish novels, including dietary restrictions and the preservation of the family. Although a great deal of literature exists regarding the above texts, there are currently no systematic examinations of the portrayal of women’s Jewishness in regards to the Jewish novels. My dissertation examines the portrayal of women in the Jewish novels through a literary critical approach and questions how their representation can inform scholarship on how authors depicted Jewishness during this period. This dissertation treats the Jewish novels collectively and contributes to the scholarly discussion with a systematic examination of depictions of Jewish women in these texts. Following a brief introduction in Chapter 1, where I provide an overview and assessment of earlier treatments on the Jewish novels and the topics of women and Jewishness, Chapters 2 through 5 examine the portrayal of women in the Jewish novels. These chapters are organized around four distinct aspects of Jewishness which center on the representation of the female protagonists and their relationships in the narratives: 1) the representation of women’s sexuality, 2) the preservation of foodways, 3) kinship ties, and 4) the role of the protagonist in their Jewish community. In Chapter 6, I use a comparative approach to examine the depiction of women’s Jewishness in the novels, which demonstrates women’s active roles in maintaining and defining Jewishness. Chapter 7 concludes the dissertation with a summary and recommendations for future work. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation analyzes the portrayal of women in Jewish novels of the Greco-Roman period (300 BCE-100CE): Greek Esther, Judith, Susanna, and Aseneth. I question how women’s representation in the Jewish novels can inform scholarship on how authors depicted Jewishness during this period. The analysis of women is organized around four categories of Jewishness centered on the representation of the female protagonists and their relationships in the narratives: 1) the representation of women’s sexuality, 2) the preservation of foodways, 3) kinship ties, and 4) the role of the protagonist in their broader Jewish community. This dissertation contributes to the scholarly discussion by providing a systematic examination of depictions of Jewish women found in these texts and demonstrates that the authors of the Jewish novels depict women playing active roles in maintaining and defining Jewishness.

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This thesis examines Irish and Jewish mothers' experience of maternity provision and infant care services in East London in the years 1870-1939. As newcomers these immigrants not only had to cope with poverty but also the barriers of language and different cultural customs. Leaving their family and kinship networks behind them, Irish and Jewish mothers had to find new sources of support when incapacitated through pregnancy or childbirth. Living in one of the poorest areas of London and unfamiliar with the local medical and welfare services, these immigrants might be expected to have suffered very poor health. On closer examination, however, Irish and Jewish immigrants appear to have had remarkably low rates of infant and maternal mortality. Despite the difficulties they faced as newcomers, Irish and Jewish mothers had certain advantages over the local population in East London. They were not only able to rely on the prolific and diverse services already present in East London, but could also call upon their own communal organisations. This provision offered a wide range of care and was a vital support to the newcomers. After examining the social and economic background to Irish and Jewish emigration and settlement the thesis examines what impact this had on their health patterns, particularly infant and maternal mortality. The following chapters explore what forms of support were available to married Irish and Jewish mothers through their own family and local neighbourhood and communal agencies. Chapter five concerns the unmarried mother and what provision was made specifically for her. The care offered by the host society to immigrant mothers and their infants is explored in chapters 6 to 8. Institutions covered by these chapters include voluntary hospitals, Poor Law infirmaries, and charitable organisations such as district nursing associations and medical missions. The thesis examines not only the services available to Irish and Jewish mothers, but also the attitudes of health professionals and philanthropists towards immigrants and how these affected the accessibility and acceptability of maternity and infant welfare services to Irish and East European Jewish mothers.

Thesis (M.A.)--Wake Forest University. Dept. of Religion, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-99).

Thesis (M.A.)--Brandeis University, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 29, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation takes as its subjects East European Jewish women who sold sex in their homelands and/or abroad and situates their engagement in sex work within the broader structures these women navigated – labor markets, state laws on residence and migration, community and family. This project turns working-class Jewish women, who migrated within and from Eastern Europe and sold sexual services, into protagonists in their own story and writes them back into modern Eastern European Jewish economic and migration histories. Between 1870 and 1939, Eastern European Jews suffered from consistent official and unofficial anti-Jewish discrimination in the labor market. This discrimination, combined with ongoing economic changes and crises, hindered Jewish socio-economic advancement and instead drove more and more Jews into poverty. Both married and single women were pressed financially to find gainful employment but encountered a labor market with too few opportunities. In these circumstances, the state-sanctioned sex industry, which was Jewish madams and pimps had their part, provided them with economic prospects and facilitated their physical mobility, which was a privilege in this period. By 1914, Jews, especially women, found it almost impossible to leave the Russian Empire legally. After the Great War, immigration restrictions became a virtually global phenomenon, again severely limiting the options of Jews for leaving Eastern Europe. In the interwar years, anxieties about trafficking turned into laws restricting single women's movement and preventing immigration to popular destinations, such as the United States or Argentina. Despite these challenges, some Eastern European Jewish women who sold sex turned out to be particularly mobile. They moved within Eastern Europe, crossing borders between empires, and regularly circulated across seas and oceans to the Middle East and the Americas. By viewing these women as economic actors and labor migrants, this dissertation seeks to reconceptualize prostitution as one of the ways in which Eastern European Jews from the working poor navigated the transformative and increasingly challenging period between 1870 and 1939. This rewriting of Jewish prostitution as a rich social history of Eastern European Jewish women from the lower classes relies on a wide range of sources that, on the one hand, provide access to the women’s voices (though rarely unmediated) and, on the other, expose how class-biased and moralistic interpretation has been imposed on their life stories. Unlike most of the previous studies on this topic, this project looks at Jewish prostitution from the Eastern European perspective and uses materials produced by this Jewish population and the surrounding society – Jewish and non-Jewish press in Polish, Yiddish, and Hebrew; Habsburg, Russian, and Polish state-produced labor and prostitution reports as well as ministerial and police records.

This diploma thesis outlines the view of women's life in traditional Judaism on the territory of the capital city of Prague. The work is not only focused on Jewish history from the First Republic to the present, the development of the social coexistence of Czechs and Jews over the last two centuries, but also on the preserved traditions and contemporary practices of Jewish women. The aim of my work is to clarify the traditions and customs that have been observed and changed in Prague and have evolved over time, under the influence of the surrounding world or migration. All this, with the emphasis on the fact that even though the life of pious Jewish women is full of statutes and provisions, these women are still given great respect, family, religion, culture, or society. Many years of thought and attitudes have persisted in the Jewish population in the form of dogmatism. On the part of the Czech population, motivated religious, social and even superstitious prejudices persisted. An unobtrusive observer may seem from the outside view that the lives of women in traditional Judaism or the practices of women in Prague since the First Republic are stable and unchanging. These ceremonies and practices have passed in the past with some developments that have culminated in the territory of Prague in the...

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In 1932 the well-known Afrikaans writer and politician, C.J. Langenhoven, died in Oudtshoorn in his home, Arbeidsgenot. In his testament he appointed Sarah Goldblatt as the person responsible for the administration of his literary works. Sarah, a Jewish woman, immigrated to the Cape together with her family in 1897. The aim of this research was to find the possible reasons why Langenhoven chose an English speaking Jewish woman as his administrator. Jews were not accepted with open arms into the South African community, especially not Jews from Eastern Europe, the area where Sarah and her family came from. Anti-semitic feelings amongst the Afriaans population were especially strong during the thirties and forties. It was during this time, in 1932, that Sarah received the job as administrator. The period of research stretches from 1889 to 1975, from Sarah's birth to her death. A look is taken at the changing South African attitude towards Jews during Sarah's life. The role and position of the Afrikanerwomen during this time is also investigated. Oudtshoorn, the town in which Langenhoven lived and where the friendship between him and Sarah started, will also be put under the spotlight. Many Jews settled in this town and played an active part in the Oudtshoorn community. Not only the South African attitude towards Jews and women will be discussed, but also Langenhoven's and Sarah's personal perspectives on these subjects. Both their friendship and work relationship will be discussed. Their philosophy of life and their relationship will cast light on the reasons why Langenhoven finally decided to appoint Sarah as the administrator of his literary works. Sarah's greatest achievements were directly involved with Langenhoven. Opinions differ about the influence Sarah had on the way the South African community saw Langenhoven. The work as administrator for the literary works was not all Sarah did. Therefore a review on Sarah's contribution to the Afrikaans language and culture is also provided. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In 1932 is die bekende Afrikaanse skrywer en politikus, C.J. Langenhoven, op Oudtshoorn in sy huis Arbeidsgenot oorlewe. In sy testament het hy vir Sarah Goldblatt as administratrise van sy letterkundige nalatenskap aangewys. Sarah, 'n Joodse vrou, het in 1897 saam met haar gesin na die Kaap geïmmigreer en die in die studie word ondersoek ingestel na die redes waarom Langenhoven hierdie vrou as sy administratrise aangewys het. Suid-Afrika het nie altyd die Jode met ope arms ontvang nie, veral nie Jode vanuit Oos-Europa, die gebied waarvan Sarah en haar gesin afkomstig was, nie. Spesifiek gedurende die dertiger- en veertigerjare was daar 'n sterk antisemitiese gevoelonder Afrikanergeledere teenwoordig. Dit was juis in 1932 wat Sarah die taak as administratrise opgelê is. Die tydperk waarna daar gekyk word is breedweg vanaf 1889 tot 1975, Sarah se lewensjare. Op hierdie manier word daar na die veranderende Suid- Afrikaanse houding teenoor Jode gekyk gedurende Sarah se lewe. Daar word ook na die rol en posisie van die Afrikanervrou gekyk om dieselfde rede gekyk. Oudtshoorn, die dorp waarop Langenhoven homself gevestig het en waar sy en Sarah se vriendskap begin het word onder die soeklik geplaas. 'n Groot getal Jode het hulleself in die dorp gevestig en hulle het 'n daadwerklike impak op die Oudtshoornse gemeenskap uitgeoefen. Hierdie ondersoek is nodig om te sien waarom dit so vreemd was vir In Joodse vrou en In Afrikaner man, om so In spesiale vriendskap te kon deel. Nie alleen die Suid-Afrikaanse houding teenoor die Jood en die vrou word ondersoek nie, maar daar word ook na Langenhoven en Sarah se onderskeie houdings teenoor die sake gekyk. Beide hulle werks- en vriendskapsverhouding word ondersoek. Altwee se lewensuitkyk en hulle verhouding werp lig op die redes waarom Langenhoven uiteindelik sou besluit om Sarah as sy administratrise aan te stel. Sarah se grootste werk hou verband met Langenhoven. Opinies verskiloor die uitwerking wat sy op sy nagedagtenis gehad het. Haar werk as administratrise was egter nie al wat Sarah verrig het nie. 'n Oorsig oor Sarah se bydraes tot die Afrikaner taal en kultuur word dus ook blootgelê.

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Background. While the prevalence of a pathogenic variant in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes occurs in about 1:400 (0.25%) in the general population, the prevalence is as high as 1:40 (2.5%) among the Ashkenazi Jewish population. Despite cost-effective preventive measures for mutation carriers, Orthodox Jews constitute a cultural and religious group that presents challenges to BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing. This study analyzed a dialogue of key stakeholders and community members to explore factors that influence decision-making about BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing in the New York Orthodox Jewish community. Methods. Qualitative research methods, based in Grounded Theory and Narrative Research, were utilized to analyze the narratives of key stakeholders and community members in an analysis of qualitative data collected from 49 stakeholders. A content analysis was conducted to identify themes; inter-rater reliability was 71%. Results. Facilitators to genetic testing were prevention and education, while barriers to genetic testing included negative emotions, impact on family/romantic relationships, cost, and stigma. The role of religious figures and healthcare professionals in medical decision-making were viewed as controversial. Education, health, and community were discussed as influential factors. There were issues around disclosure, implementation, and information needs. Conclusion. This study revealed the voices of the Orthodox Jewish women (decision-makers) and key stakeholders (influencers) who play a critical role in the medical decision-making process. The findings have broad implications for engaging community stakeholders within faith-based or culturally distinct groups to ensure better utilization of healthcare services for cancer screening and prevention designed to improve population health.