University College London
Sarah Schenirer and the Formation of Bais Ya’akov. Gender and Religious Identity Constructions in Orthodox Judaism
Bais Ya’akov was established in 1917 in Krakow by Sarah Schenirer, who was particularly impressed with the teachings and writings of the German neo-Orthodox thinkers. It was the first religious school for girls in Eastern Europe. The take-over of the school by Agudat Israel in 1919 was a significant watershed in the school’s development. Its rapid growth made it a popular educational institution among the Orthodox Jews in Central and Eastern Europe. Although opponents of women’s religious education believed it transgressed halakhic rules, Schenirermanaged to create an institutionalized framework for the education of Jewish girls. The establishment of Bais Ya’akov confronted the Orthodox elite of Galicia not only with the question of social gender roles, but also, introducing neo-Orthodox ideas, with a different approach to religious observance. Accordingly, the emergence of the Bais Ya’akov movement can be seen as a display of complex relations in the context of Polish and German Orthodox Jewry.
Sarah Schenirer’s innovations triggered discussions among Polish and German Orthodoxy about the social and religious position of women and men. The history writing of the movement idealized Schenirer and transformed her into a mythical figure of a «mother of generations» and a «pious seamstress», who despite her basic educational background became the school’s symbol and a role model of a female piety, while creating tension between the more «modern» Western and the «traditional» Eastern European Orthodox Jewry. Nevertheless, according to WEISSMAN (1977:45) Schenirer symbolized «the fortunate synthesis of fervent Polish Chassidism with the more enlightened orientation of Western Jewries».
My research project will take into account the historical context of Jewish tradition and set it within the theoretical framework of Gender Studies regarding power and knowledge. The purpose of the research is to explore the Orthodox gender discourse within the history writing of the movement and the formation of a new religious identity resulting from interactions between Polish and German Orthodoxy. Furthermore, the study aims to place the history of Bais Ya’akov within a broader context of the interwar Jewish culture. Following theories of Cultural Studies, I perceive literary and historical sources as cultural products reflecting the mechanisms of power. Historiography appears as a site of knowledge production, where the link between power and knowledge is revealed not only through why questions, but also through how the events are reported. My project refers to what Joan Wallach SCOTT (1996:9–13) calls «historicizing difference». The diversity of categories constructed in the historical process allows us to question the homogeneous concept of the «Orthodox Jewish female» and the «Orthodox Jewish male» and to explore the relations between them.
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Agnieszka Oleszak, The Beit Ya’akov School in Kraków as an Encounter between East and West Polin 23 (2011)