Lecture Series: Feminism & ScepticismHassidism and Gender: Shades of Scepticism - CANCELLED

16 March 2017

THE LECTURE IS CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS. The second lecture of our lecture series "Feminism and Scepticism" will be given by Tsippi Kauffman (Bar-Ilan University Ramat Gan). She will talk about "Hassidism and Gender: Shades of Scepticism."

Did the Hassidic movement’s revolution of the Jewish world include women? We will examine the case of Temer’l Sonenberg-Bergson, a patron of Polish tsaddikim. Using feminist criticism of religion studies, Iwill demonstrate the implications of the patriarchal approach to setting the boundaries of religious phenomena – in this instance, the question of whether this extraordinary woman may properly be called a hasida. A review of several Hassidic stories will show how Temer’l expressed her Hassidism and how she was viewed within Hassidic circles as a sort of hermaphrodite, with scepticism towards both her femininity and her religiosity.

Tsippi Kauffman is a faculty member of the Department of Jewish Thought at Bar-Ilan University, specialising in Hassidism and Kabbalah. She is the author of In All Your Ways Know Him: The Concept of God and Avodah be-Gashmiyut in the Early Stages of Hassidism (Hebrew).

Time:

Thursday, 16 March 2017, 18:15-19:45

Location:

Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies/ 5th Floor, Seminar Room 5060/Schlüterstraße 51/20146 Hamburg