Three Generations Of Jewish Women

Motivated by her Auschwitz-survivor mother's death to explore her world, psychologist Alteras (Hunter College, City College of New York) takes testimony from three generations of women and finds connecting themes in their life stories. She studies her mother's generation who grew up in Eastern Europe, her own cohorts who had immigrated to the US as youngsters, and their children who were born into an environ of heightened Jewish and feminist consciousness. The book concludes with reflections on shifts in, and survival of, Jewish identity. Includes photos of each generation. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Gold Medalist, 2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Religion category Saba Soomekh offers a fascinating portrait of three generations of women in an ethnically distinctive and little-known American Jewish community, Jews of Iranian origin living in Los Angeles. Most of Iran's Jewish community immigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the government-sponsored discrimination that followed. Based on interviews with women raised during the constitutional monarchy of the earlier part of the twentieth century, those raised during the modernizing Pahlavi regime of mid-century, and those who have grown up in Los Angeles, the book presents an ethnographic portrait of what life was and is like for Iranian Jewish women. Featuring the voices of all generations, the book concentrates on religiosity and ritual observance, the relationship between men and women, and women's self-concept as Iranian Jewish women. Mother-daughter relationships, double standards for sons and daughters, marriage customs, the appeal of American forms of Jewish practices, social customs and pressures, and the alternate attraction to and critique of materialism and attention to outward appearance are discussed by the author and through the voices of her informants.

This dissertation presents an ethnographic portrait of what life was like for Iranian Jewish women living in Iran and now in America. From 2004 to 2006, I have conducted interviews with three generations of Iranian Jewish women-- grandmothers, mothers, and daughters--who currently reside in Los Angeles. The three major incidents that I will focus on in terms of their affect on Iran and, consequently, the Jewish community, are: the Constitutionalist Revolution in 1906 and the granting of the throne to Reza Shah Pahlavi (1925-1941); Muhammad Reza Shah Pahalavi taking the throne (1941-1979); and finally, the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and the immigration to Los Angeles. I explore these different generations to see how history, political change, social change, assimilation, financial mobility, and immigration have affected their religiosity, their concepts of womanhood, inter-generational relationships, and their identity. In particular, I look at the concept of sacrality throughout these three generations and see how it has changed. Although different generations of women have different interpretations of sacrality, one overarching theme is the emphasis placed on women's religious and social rituals and maintaining their najeebness (sexual modesty) -- all of which upholds the community's Jewish beliefs and distinguish them from other Iranians, Americans, and Jews. The emphasis on religious tradition and najeebness among Iranian Jewish women allows them to create meaning in their lives, establish authoritative figures within the community, and, most importantly, reinforce the collective morals and social norms held within the community.

Saba Soomekh offers a fascinating portrait of three generations of women in an ethnically distinctive and little-known American Jewish community, Jews of Iranian origin living in Los Angeles. Most of Iran’s Jewish community immigrated to the United States and settled in Los Angeles in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the government-sponsored discrimination that followed. Based on interviews with women raised during the constitutional monarchy of the earlier part of the twentieth century, those raised during the modernizing Pahlavi regime of mid-century, and those who have grown up in Los Angeles, the book presents an ethnographic portrait of what life was and is like for Iranian Jewish women. Featuring the voices of all generations, the book concentrates on religiosity and ritual observance, the relationship between men and women, and women’s self-concept as Iranian Jewish women. Mother-daughter relationships, double standards for sons and daughters, marriage customs, the appeal of American forms of Jewish practices, social customs and pressures, and the alternate attraction to and critique of materialism and attention to outward appearance are discussed by the author and through the voices of her informants.

a·li·ya, n., also aliyah. pl. aliyas or aliyot. The immigration of Jews into Israel. Why would American Jews---not just materially successful in this country but perhaps for the first time in the two-thousand-year Jewish Diaspora truly socially accepted and at home---choose to leave the material comforts, safety, and peace of the United States for the uncertainty and violence of Israel? Still, aliya is a phenomenon that affects all American Jews. Understanding this phenomenon means understanding what is arguably the fundamental question of American Jewry; it is that question that Liel Leibovitz sets out to answer in Aliya. Leibovitz focuses on the stories of three generations of immigrants. Marlin and Betty Levin, searching for excitement and ideology, traveled to Palestine before Israel was even created. There, with Marlin working as a reporter and Betty volunteering with the Jewish underground movement, the two witnessed the bloody birth of the Jewish state. Two decades later, Mike Ginsberg, overcome with awe at the heroic Jews who fought for their country in the l967 war, immigrated as well and was involved in much of Israel's tumultuous history, including the Yom Kippur War. He was a member of Kibbutz Misgav Am during the famous terrorist attack on the infants' nursery there, and he helped repel numerous waves of terrorists attacks on his kibbutz. Finally, Danny and Sharon Kalker and their children left their home in Queens, New York, to move to a West Bank settlement in 2001, during one of the most unsettled phases in Israel's existence. With a keen writer's eye and unfeigned passion for his subject, Leibovitz explores the fears, hopes, and dreams of the American-Jewish immigrants to Israel and the journey they undertook, a journey that lies at the very heart of what it means to be a Jew.

Translated into English. This book doesn't just fill a niche, it opens up a new perspective on the relations among Jewishness, gender and modernity in Europe. It will certainly spark new and creative thinking by anyone wise or lucky enough to dip into its contents. The writings are made all the more valuable by an excellent introduction that provides a context for the history of Jews and women in France as well as the position of women with the Jewish tradition.

Mommieis a remarkable photographic portrait of three generations of women in the family of photographer Arlene Gottfried and an intimate story of the inevitable passage of time and aging. Pictured within, we are introduced to Gottfried's 100 year old immigrant grandmother, fragile mother, and reluctant sister over the breathtaking course of 35 years. An artist turning their eye on their own immediate family is a well explored theme, but Gottfried has achieved the sublime with a multi-decade long commitment to document the intimate lives of her nearest kin. Gottfried succeeds in creating a complete twentieth century portrait of four lives inextricably interwoven through relation, sickness, need, love, and the absence of her father-who passed away while Arlene was still young. Living as many mid-century Jewish New York families did, the Gottfrieds were not wealthy and lacked any trappings of luxury. Close examination of their world on Avenue A in Manhattan's Lower East Side reveals a dimly lit small apartment, cartons of budget saltines and groceries, chipped paint, damaged floor tiles, guarded loose change, and well worn clothes - details natural to the lives of many families of immigrants in New York. Mommieis testament to the passage of time, changes in the generations, losing loved ones and a familial experience at once both similar and unique to all.