3-3:50 am ET: “Nobody can remain untouched by her words – not even men” - the zogerins of Jewish Eastern Europe with Kohenet Annie Gottfried Cohen

As we read about the revelation on Mount Sinai, we have to grapple with what Judith Plaskow describes as exclusion of women from 'the defining moment within Jewish tradition'. Preparing the people—in reality, the men—to hear the law, Moses says "Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman." From Sinai to the present day, the patriarchal Jewish tradition teaches us not only that women's religiosity is less important than that of men, but that women, who are also often represented as impure, pose a dangerous distraction to men's spirituality. Yet women have always played an important role in Jewish religious life, not only as wives, mothers and housekeepers, but also as midwives, healers, mourners, mediums and even preachers, prayer leaders and religious teachers. In this session, we will learn about some of the Jewish women who acted as spiritual leaders in recent, modern history, in the shtetls of Jewish Eastern Europe. We will look at rituals that centered, rather than marginalising, women's voices, both in the synagogue and the cemetery. We will also consider how male superstitions around 'impurity' may have left an important aspect of Jewish spiritual life—caring for the dead—primiarly in the hands of women spirit workers.