HBI Blog: Fresh Ideas From HBI, Anniversary Edition
![collage of images related to HBI, faces, book covers, artwork](../about/images/no-blur-collage-updated.png)
2024
![Four members of the Boston Agunah Taskforce sit and stand around table filled with books.](../images/research/gcrl/batf/batf.jpg)
May 7, 2024
Part of the HBI Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law, the Boston Agunah Taskforce is devoted to research, education and advocacy for fairness in the Jewish divorce process. We believe that withholding a Jewish divorce is a form of domestic abuse. Women sometimes wait years for a solution, and are often referred to as “agunot,” women ‘chained’ to marriages that are no longer viable. Get refusal is not just an Orthodox issue. It can affect every segment of our Jewish community. People need a Get to remarry in a Conservative synagogue in the U.S., in the state of Israel and in more Orthodox oriented Jewish communities around the world.
The Boston Agunah Taskforce currently serves more than 200 women every year through our online hotline and our in-person services. In addition, our website, getyourget.com, generates traffic from women around the world seeking information on Get abuse, providing educational resources to women we don’t directly service. Since January 2020, the Boston Agunah Taskforce has responded to hundreds of questions and assisted in the delivery of 90 Jewish divorces.
The Boston Agunah Taskforce is grateful for the continued support of The Miriam Fund of CJP - Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
Learn more about the Boston Agunah Taskforce.
![Black and white images of family members smiling and together.](../images/website-pic-hrsg-event-updated.png)
Now I know their names: Family members murdered in the Holocaust
Photo Credit: ©Karin Rosenthal 2023
May 6, 2024
Today, on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember and mourn the six million Jews and others who perished in the Holocaust. Earlier in the day, HBI held its annual public program featuring the work of the HBI Holocaust Research Study Group (HRSG). A multi-disciplinary group of women scholars actively working on individual Holocaust related projects, our members include a journalist, a prose writer, a public artist, a poet, a fine art photographer, a sociologist, a public health professor, and a film-maker. This year’s program, “Listening to History: Memory of the Holocaust and Competing Narratives of the Israel/Palestine Crisis” was recorded and will be shared here in the coming days. Learn more about this research group and watch past events.
![book covers, on the left, Holy Rebellion, Religious Feminism and the Transformation of Judaism and Women's Rights in Israel by Ronit Irshai and Tanya Zion-Waldoks, in white letters on a black background showing a red Torah, and on the right, The Marital Knot: Agunot in the Ashkenazi Realm, 1648-1850 by Noa Shashar, in white letters on a gray background, showing an image of a dress made of hundreds of pieces of paper](../images/website-gcrl-books.png)
May 3, 2024
A publication series of the Brandeis University Press, the Brandeis Series on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law focuses on the conflict between women’s claims to gender equality and legal norms justified in terms of religious and cultural traditions. It seeks work that develops new theoretical tools for conceptualizing feminist projects for transforming the interpretation and justification of religious law, examines the interaction or application of civil law or remedies to gender issues in a religious context, and engages in analysis of conflicts over gender and culture/religion in a particular religious legal tradition, cultural community, or nation. Created under the auspices of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute in conjunction with its Project on Gender, Culture, Religion, and the Law, this series emphasizes cross-cultural and interdisciplinary scholarship concerning Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and other religious traditions.
Here are two of the newest books in the series, Holy Rebellion: Religious Feminism and the Transformation of Judaism and Women's Rights in Israel by Ronit Irshai and Tanya Zion-Waldoks, and coming in December, The Marital Knot: Agunot in the Ashkenazi Realm, 1648-1850 by Noa Shashar.
May 2, 2024
Today’s anniversary celebration installment focuses on the annual Diane Markowicz Lecture on Gender and Human Rights made possible by Sylvia Neil and her husband Dan Fischel in memory of Sylvia’s late sister, Diane Markowicz, to honor her commitment to gender equality and social justice.
The Lecture Series features internationally renowned scholars, judges and activists discussing ways of negotiating the tensions between gender equality and religious or cultural norms and seeks to illuminate a specific set of questions. What are the most pressing challenges in the quest for women’s human rights? Who are the most innovative thinkers taking on these issues? How can their work inform the struggle for gender equality around the world?
Our most recent speaker was Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, an international law and human rights expert and founder of The Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children. An independent, non-governmental collaboration of international human rights experts and women's rights organizations, the Civil Commission was created to advocate for and support the investigation of war crimes committed by Hamas against women and children during the massacre of the 7th of October 2023, and the continuous war crimes. On Oct. 31, Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy spoke before the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
The Markowicz Lecture Series features internationally renowned scholars, judges and activists discussing ways of negotiating the tensions between gender equality and religious or cultural norms. Past Markowicz speakers include Professor Yofi Tirosh, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, Professor Rachel Adler, Professor Catharine MacKinnon, Roya Hakakian, and others. Learn more and watch past lectures here.
![Images of HBI-related events - Markowicz Lecture, Agunah Taskforce - and the book cover for "Holy Rebellion"](../images/website-no-words-gcrl-for-post.png)
May 1, 2024
The mission of HBI’s Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law (GCRL) is to support research and activism which explores conflicts between women's claims to gender equality and legal norms justified in terms of religious and cultural traditions. Its location at HBI shapes its unique approach to exploring these issues. The project supports research on the rights of women in Jewish law, both in Israel and the Diaspora. It also supports comparative work that examines the issues of women's rights under religious laws in interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective.
The GCRL hosts scholars in residence and sponsors research. Within the Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law there is the Diane Markowicz Lecture on Gender and Human Rights, the Boston Agunah Task Force, and the HBI Series on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law. In the coming days, we will explore each of these. The HBI Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law was founded and is chaired by Sylvia Neil.
April 30, 2024
A publication series of the Brandeis University Press, the HBI Series on Jewish Women offers a wide range of books by and about Jewish women in diverse contexts and time periods. Of interest to scholars and the public, the HBI Series on Jewish Women fills major gaps in Jewish Studies and in Women and Gender Studies as well as their intersection. The HBI Series on Jewish Women is supported by a generous gift from Dr. Laura S. Schor. The 42 books in the HBI Series on Jewish Women are appropriate for course adoption in Jewish studies, women’s studies, gender studies, history, religion and many other fields of study as well as for general reading.
Tamar Biala, editor of Dirshuni: Contemporary Women’s Midrash, a publication in the HBI Series on Jewish Women, 2013 and 2015 Scholar in Residence, and current HBI Research Associate, reflects on HBI as a space where she was welcome to fully explore women’s midrash in a supportive environment.
![Neta Weiner and Stav Marin](../about/images/website-studio-israel-neta-weiner-and-stav-marin.png)
Neta Weiner and Stav Marin
April 29, 2024
Studio Israel began during the pandemic as an online conversation series that looks at Israeli culture and diversity through the lens of contemporary Israeli artists and creatives. This Thursday, May 2 at 6:30 pm, we launch the first Studio Israel Live: The Multilingual Music of Jaffa with Neta Weiner and Stav Marin. Joining Weiner and Marin is Yuval Gur, JArts x CJP Community Creative Fellow. For more information or tickets, visit our events page. Studio Israel is a partnership among Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Jewish Arts Collaborative, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, and the Vilna Shul and is made possible by generous support from Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
View recordings of our past programs on our Studio Israel web page.
April 26, 2024
The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute accepts six undergraduate and two graduate students with a demonstrated interest in women’s studies, Jewish women’s studies or topics related to Jewish women/Jewish gender issues around the world to participate in our paid residential internship program. Students have the opportunity to work on their own research project, support the research of a Brandeis affiliated scholar, learn about research and careers in Jewish and gender studies, and go on day trips of interest.An HBI survey found that one third of over 175 former HBI summer interns have pursued careers in academic Jewish-gender studies, or brought fresh perspectives to their work as clergy or Jewish professionals. In this way, the work of HBI finds paths into the world, making room for a more inclusive Judaism.
Dr. Samantha Pickette, an HBI 2018 Gilda Slifka Intern, former Internship Academic Advisor, internship mentor, current HBI Research Associate, and Brandeis Hillel Assistant Director, shares her journey with the internship, HBI, and how it influenced her career.
April 25, 2024
HBI has a number of opportunities for students both during the academic year and the summer. This past year HBI employed students for various roles including as student Kniznick gallery docents for the art exhibitions Deeply Rooted: Faith in Reproductive Justice and Lives Eliminated, Dreams Illuminated. Students also worked as research assistants for scholars in residence and for HBI affiliates. They are employed to help in the office, recruit for our Gilda Slifka Summer Internship and other events, and to help run events smoothly. Tomorrow, we will discuss the Gilda Slifka Summer Internship, one of HBI’s important student programs.
Today, Mara Lebovitz, Brandeis ‘24 HBI student assistant and gallery docent, shares her experiences working for HBI both in the Kniznick Gallery and the office.
April 24, 2024
The HBI Scholar in Residence program offers distinguished scholars, writers and communal professionals the opportunity to produce significant work in the area of Jewish studies and gender issues while being freed from their regular institutional responsibilities. Scholars in Residence contribute to the life of HBI by immersing in the institute’s weekly activities, participating in HBI conferences and programs, and delivering a public lecture. Since our founding HBI hosted 138 scholars in residence, working on a range of topics. For example, this year’s research areas included disability culture in Israel, fiction about the Jewish American family, emerging travel for Jewish women between 1860 and 1920, queer Niddah, and American Jews and the politics of abortion.
Dr. Max Strassfeld, 2022 Scholar in Residence, Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law, speaks to HBI’s relevance in today’s climate.
April 21, 2024
In the years following HBI’s founding, it had an enormous impact. Dr. Sylvia Barack Fishman, HBI’s founding co-director, explains HBI’s academic influence in both building and contributing to the field of Jewish women’s and gender studies.
April 19, 2024
How did HBI begin?
The genesis of HBI can be traced to a 1995 report of the Hadassah-sponsored National Commission on American Jewish Women, chaired by Brandeis sociologist Dr. Shulamit Reinharz, who ultimately became the founding director of HBI. Titled Voices for Change: Future Directions for American Jewish Women, the report summarized existing research and concluded that while information on Jewish women’s history, lives and culture existed, there was a need for robust support for future research. Thanks to a generous endowment from Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, HBI (originally known as the International Research Institute on Jewish Women) opened at Brandeis University in 1997. The mission of HBI was later expanded to include gender more generally.
Dr. Shulamit Reinharz, the founding director, describes the mission, “Fresh ways of thinking about Jews and gender worldwide – producing and promoting scholarly research, artistic projects and public engagement,” as broad and “multidimensional” so that it encourages “every field of inquiry.”
Watch Dr. Shulamit Reinharz, founding director, tell HBI’s origin story.
April 18, 2024
During these 25 days, we will feature testimonials from people who tell their own HBI stories. Today, we hear from Rachel Barenbaum, 2022 HBI Scholar in Residence, and author of A Bend in the Stars (2019) and Atomic Anna (2022). She reflects on HBI’s influence on her work.
![Lisa Fishbayn Joffe](../about/images/lisa-headshot-200-x-200.png)
Dr. Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, Shulamit Reinharz Director of HBI
April 17, 2024
Twenty-five years ago, in a small office at Brandeis, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute opened its doors to a single scholar, published one book, and gave out 20 HBI Research Awards. Read more from HBI Director Dr. Lisa Fishbayn Joffe.