Women, Gender, and the New EJ
A recent post at On the Main Line discussed some of the shortcomings of the new edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica (EJ2). One of the comments written saw in a negative light the attempt to include more about the place of women in Jewish history and life. This very topic was recently treated by Prof. Judith Baskin, an Associate Editor of the EJ2. She describes her role in the following words,
In early 2004, I was invited to incorporate this new scholarship on women and gender in EJ2. My mandate as Associate Editor was to identify articles in the original encyclopedia that should be revised or supplemented to reflect recent developments in gender studies. I was also asked to propose new articles which would discuss the impact of gender on various aspects of the Jewish experience and to designate specific women whose biographies should be included in EJ2.
Baskin described the original Encyclopedia Judaica (EJ1) in these words,
The original Encyclopedia Judaica was produced by men who imagined Jewish religious life, history, culture and scholarship in essentially androcentric terms. Most of the articles, whether concerned with ritual and practice, cultural topics, historical overviews or Jewish literature, reflect a total disregard for gender as a category of analysis.
An example that she is brings is from the entry in EJ1 on Yiddish. This entry
all but ignores the ways in which early printed Yiddish literature was directed towards female readers and the development of a number of vernacular literary genres intended specifically for women.
I think that Baskins description of some of the changes which are found in EJ2 show how important it was to update the older EJ1. She does not hold back her criticism of EJ2. Because of a very strict timetable, there was no systematic updating of the entire encyclopedia, something which she sees as needing to be done. Let us hope that the publisher will see the need for a thorough updating of the entire encyclopedia and be willing to devote the time for this important endeavour.
N.B. In the same journal there was an article by Jeffrey Edelstein, the project director of The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. The encyclopedia is suppose to be ready in 2008, and from his comments it sounds like it is going to be a very important contribution to Jewish Studies.
Source:
Judith Baskin, Adding Women and Gender to the Second Edition of the Encyclopedia Judaica in Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, vol. 5 no. 6 (Nov. 2006), 343-348.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
The new EJ also totally ignores rather important women, especially if they were orthodox. Although, admittedly, due to the socialital make up of that community there were not as many, there is no reason to ignore the ones who were important. I hope to post in the next couple of days highlighting a rather important omission of this sort.
Further, I can’t get my head around how on the one hand the cost of this EJ is so expensive presumably justified by the extensive research etc. that went into it. Only to have comments from academics noting that the timetable forced them to be less than comprehensive and did not fully update it, thus it is, a sefer sheno mugah – one that one can’t even keep in their house, let alone justify the great expense.
Dan Rabinowitz | Homepage | 03.02.07 – 8:25 am | #
They ignore important Orthodox men as well. I simply can’t understand why R. JJ Schachter is more notable than R. Hershel Schachter (nothing against the former).
I thought the first EJ was fairly in tune with this issue and I was wondering long before EJ2 came out if it would stay on top of the game, but it didn’t. It may seem trivial, but it is simply unfathomable to me how R. Elyashiv isn’t mentioned even one time in EJ2. Not notable? Come on. I wonder if in some ways this doesn’t indicate how far apart non-Orthodox and Orthodox Jews have drifted in 35 years? Or maybe 35 years ago Jewish academics had more Orthodox roots and connections and were more likely to know what was going on in that world?
S. | Homepage | 03.02.07 – 10:50 am | #
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Eugene Gershin | 03.03.07 – 8:06 pm | #
This sounds like so much PC nonsense, although in this particular example, regarding Yiddish literature, she does have a valid point.
yehuda | 03.11.07 – 8:45 pm | #