by Susan Sapiro
Whenever I go into Jewish bookstores, I’m fascinated by what seems to be a new type of Jewish literature by a group of women considered to be the most silenced in Judaism—the ultra-Orthodox. These women, mostly known for their large families and absence from public Jewish ritual, are publishing volumes of child-raising advice, essays and poetry, spiritual memoirs and self-help that mix cultural feminism, popular psychology and Orthodox-filtered “Torah wisdom.” It’s a genre ripe for feminist analysis, which is why I was initially pleased to find this study by Alyse Fisher Roller.