Jewish Women's Archive

And the comedy is the release valve for all of it.

There's a nice formulation from the Jewish Women's Archive.

Judaism is diasporic.

which brings a legacy of restlessness, fear, and loneliness.

But just to pause and name that Judaism today is not the Judaism of 50 years ago because of the gifts of the feminist and women's movement and the mirror that those movements held up to Jews, Judaism, and the Jewish community, asking simply Can the half of us who are equally Jewish and equally human be understood and respected for the simple dignity of our existence? In the face of such a question, what can a person do but reexamine everything? So in memory of Gloria Steinem, daughter of a Jewish father, a world changer, and honoring Judaism's primary commitment that people treat others as they wish to be treated, I'm thrilled to be speaking today to a friend and colleague, Dr.

Judith Rosenbaum, the CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, a public historian.

And I think what's particularly exciting to me is also a peer.

One of the things that is implied in this introduction that I wanna actually get into is the generational change that is demanded by movements like this, and what it looks like for those of us who were not of Steinem's generation.

I think part of it is that Gloria always identified as an outsider, and she understood Jews, as many people do, as a kind of quintessential outsider identity, so there was a kind of natural affinity there.

I think also there were external forces that wanted to also name her as a Jew in the way that Jews were held responsible for feminism and its, quote-unquote, you know, "destruction of the family." And that is an old conspiracy, and an ongoing one.

In fact, I will say that I got a Google alert this morning for an article that ironically used one of the Jewish Women's Archive photos of Gloria in an article titled Gloria Steinem and the Zionist Feminism of Empire.

So, you know, that kind of, uh-

We hope you enjoy it, and we'll be back with brand new episodes of Can We Talk very soon.

Welcome back to Can We Talk, the podcast of the Jewish Women's Archive, where gender, history, and Jewish culture meet.

I'm Nahani Rouse.

And I'm Judith Rosenbaum.

But that doesn't take away from all the new things that she did.

There wasn't anyone like her.

Thank you for joining us for Can We Talk, the podcast of the Jewish Women's Archive.

Sarah Ventry helped edit this episode.

lifeI always love to bring up this website, um, when we talk about Jewish women.

It's the Jewish Women's Archives.

Annie has an entry.

They, it won't tell you anything that we just didn't, but the whole site is just full of Jewish women who've, you know, done remarkable things in their life, and I really love that one.

In a movement too frequently riven by generational differences, Gloria stood out as a model of learning from younger people.

something we at JWA strive to emulate with our Teen Rising Voices fellows.

Perhaps that is because her feminist awakening came in her 30s from an encounter with younger women at an abortion speak out in 1969.

So intergenerational learning was embedded in her feminist origin.

She was a regular participant in the famous New York Women's Seders led over the years by her friends Leti Cotton Pogrebin, Esther Broner, Bella Abzug, and other leading Jewish feminists.

But another key figure in Gloria's Jewish identity was her own grandmother, Pauline Perlmutter Steinem.

Gloria not only wrote about her for JWA's Shelby Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, but also invoked her name when she hosted Jewish Feminist Trivia at JWA's 25th anniversary celebration in 2021.

And that's another notable characteristic of Gloria.