March 13 – March 15, 2019
School of Social Work
The Jewish Communal Leadership Program at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, working in partnership with the Jewish Women’s Archive, present Jewish Feminisms/American Visions: Perspectives from Fifty Years of Activism. This historic event brings together 36 pioneering and contemporary feminist activists, leaders, and thinkers to consider the role of Jewish identity in the framing and development of second wave American feminism. Building on the interpretations offered by historian Joyce Antler in her recent book, "Jewish Radical Feminism: Voices from the Women's Liberation Movement", activists from the 1960s through today will reexamine the contexts, experiences, and identities that went into creating American feminism and its impact on Jewish culture, politics, and religion.
Day 1
Welcome from Karla Goldman and Introduction to Symposium from Joyce Antler
From Radical to Feminist with Heather Booth, Vivian Rothstein, Miriam Hawley, Marilyn Webb with Moderator Deborah Dash Moore
Moderator: Deborah Dash Moore
Periphery and Core: The View from Ann Arbor
With Karen Brodkin, Debra Kaufman, Ellen Meeropol, Rayna Rapp
Moderator: Marla Brettschneider
Adding Jewish to Feminist
With Martha Ackelsberg, Rabbi Maralee Gordon, Clare Kinberg, Judith Plaskow
Moderator: Kate Rosenblatt
Claiming Identities: Lesbian Jews, Radical Politics, and Secular Jewish Culture
With Evelyn Torton Beck, Elana Dykewomon, Irena Klepfisz, Alicia Svigals
Moderator: Alice Mishkin
Day 2
Feminism/Jewish Feminisms and the Complication(s) of Israel
With Joyce Antler, Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Ruth Tsoffar
Moderator: Judith Rosenbaum
Contemporary Leaders Consider the Legacies of Feminism
With Rabbi Alana Alpert, April Baskin, Rabbi Georgette Kennebrae, Judith Rosenbaum, Tilly Shames
Moderator: Samira Mehta