Esther Fuchs

Israeli Feminist Scholarship: Gender, Zionism, and Difference Esther Fuchs

Commendation Quotes: "An excellent volume. Many of us who teach Women and Judaism courses have longed for a good book that would serve to introduce students to the many concerns in Israeli feminist scholarship and life. This book fits the bill."Table of Contents: Preface Introduction. Israeli Feminist Scholarship: Gender, Zionism, and Difference Esther Fuchs Chapter One. The Evolution of Critical Paradigms in Israeli Feminist Scholarship: A Theoretical Model Esther Fuchs Chapter Two. Politicizing Masculinities: Shahada and Haganah Sheila H. Katz Chapter Three. The Double or Multiple Image of the New Hebrew Woman Margalit Shilo Chapter Four. The Heroism of Hannah Senesz: An Exercise in Creating Collective National Memory in the State of Israel Judith T. Baumel Chapter Five. The Feminisation of Stigma in the Relationship between Israelis and Shoah Survivors Ronit Lentin Chapter Six. Gendering Military Service in the Israel Defense Forces Dafna N. Izraeli Chapter Seven. The Halachic Trap: Marriage and Family Life Ruth Halperin-Kaddari Chapter Eight. Motherhood as a National Mission: The Construction of Womanhood in the Legal Discourse in Israel Nitza Berkovitch Chapter Nine. No Home at Home: Women?s Fiction vs. Zionist Practice Yaffah Berlovitz Chapter Ten. Wasteland Revisited: An Ecofeminist Strategy Hannah Naveh Chapter Eleven. Tensions in Israeli Feminism: The Mizrahi Ashkenazi Rift Henriette Dahan-Kalev Chapter Twelve. Scholarship, Identity, and Power: Mizrahi Women in Israel Pnina Motzafi-Haller Chapter Thirteen. Reexamining Femicide: Breaking the Silence and Crossing ?Scientific? Borders Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian Chapter Fourteen. The Construction of Lesbianism as Nonissue in Israel Erella Shadmi Chapter Fifteen. From Gender to Genders: Feminists Read Women?s Locations in Israeli Society Hanna Herzog Acknowledgments Contributors IndexPublisher Marketing: The last two decades have given rise to a proliferation of scholarship by Israeli feminists working in diverse fields, ranging from sociology to literature, anthropology, and history. As the Israeli feminist movement continually decentralizes and diversifies, it has become less Eurocentric and heterocentric, making way for pluralistic concerns. Collecting fifteen previously published essays that give voice to this diversity, Israeli Feminist Scholarship showcases articles on Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, Palestinian, and lesbian identities as well as on Israeli women's roles as mothers, citizens and activists, and soldiers. Citing evidence that these scholars have redefined their object of inquiry as an open site of contested and constructed identity, luminary Esther Fuchs traces the history of Israeli feminism. Among the essays are Jewish historian Margalit Shilo's study of the New Hebrew Woman, sociologist Ronit Lentin's analysis of gendered representations of the Holocaust in Israeli culture, peace activist Erella Shadmi on lesbianism as a nonissue in Israel, and cultural critic Nitza Berkovitch's examination of womanhood as constructed in Israeli legal discourse. Creating a space for a critical examination of the relationship between disparate yet analogous discourses within feminism and Zionism, this anthology reclaims the mobilizing, inclusive role of these multifaceted discourses beyond the postmodern paradigm.

Contributor Bio:  Fuchs, Esther Born in Tel Aviv, ESTHER FUCHS is Professor of Hebrew Literature at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Her many previous books include Israeli Women?s Studies and Sexual Politics in the Biblical Narrative.