Description
Book SynopsisFinalist, 2019 PROSE Award in Biography, given by the Association of American Publishers
Fifty years after the start of the women's liberation movement, a book that at last illuminates the profound impact Jewishness and second-wave feminism had on each other
Jewish women were undeniably instrumental in shaping the women's liberation movement of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Yet historians and participants themselves have overlooked their contributions as Jews. This has left many vital questions unasked and unanswereduntil now. Delving into archival sources and conducting extensive interviews with these fierce pioneers, Joyce Antler has at last broken the silence about the confluence of feminism and Jewish identity.
Antler's exhilarating new book features dozens of compelling biographical narratives that reveal the struggles and achievements of Jewish radical feminists in Chicago, New York and Boston, as well as those who participated in the later, self-consciously
Trade Review
From consciousness-raising groups, to health collectives, to militant lesbians and women standing up to religious patriarchy, historianAntlerspends time with the dozens of Jewish personalities of radical feminist movementswomen who challenged the structure of society far beyond the reach of laws. * Lilith *
"Jewish women were a major force in second wave feminism in the 1960s and 1970s. [Antler] illuminates this previously underappreciated history and draws clear parallels to forces shaping contemporary political and social movements . . . A critical volume for feminist Jews to understand the past and a useful primary source for historians of feminism and Judaism. * Library Journal *
Jewish Radical Feminism traces the emergence of [womens liberation] collectives, including in Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., and Boston, and the backgrounds of these bold and inspirational women and the influence their Jewish roots played in shaping their lives and views. It also tells a parallel story, that of Jewish women who, beginning in the 1970s, confronted the male-dominated Jewish institutions and transformed them. * The Jewish Journal *
A captivating and timely new book... that brings to light, for the first time, the ways in which feminist trailblazers were influenced by their divergent and often unspoken Jewish backgrounds. * Jewish Telegraphic Agency *
Antler broadens intersectional understandings about the day-to-day workings of the U.S. women’s movement in a period of intense activity and rapid change, and about the lives and thought processes of modern Jewish American women...the book is a remarkable achievement—a thorough and engaging study. * American Historical Review *
Compelling, original, and urgent reexamination of the past . . . ReadingJewish Radical Feminismfeels like witnessing a collective in the making.Those deeply committed to understanding, learning from, and building on the vital social and civil rights movements of the pastwould do well to invest in this captivating history. * Contemporary Jewry *
Its reassuring to learn how these iconic women navigated their own struggles with multiple identities in their own time, and to recognize the tremendous contributions they made, even from outside the mainstream. * Forward *
Antler is a deservedly esteemed historian, a complex thinker, a compelling storyteller, and a feminist with a flair, who, once again, has expanded the terrain of women's history and the history of feminism, especially second-wave feminism, American-Jewish history, the history of radicalism, the Left, histories of anti-Semitism, and multiculturalism. Jewish Radical Feminism transforms our understandings of late twentieth-century social activism and offers a powerful corrective to narrow notions of identity feminism and Judaism. -- Journal of American History
Antler’s thorough and meticulously researched study examines the convergence of Jewishness and activism through a nuanced analysis of Jewish radical feminism and Jewish feminism. Antler demonstrates how these two streams of feminist activism are simultaneously distinct and intricately woven together. -- Journal of Religion and Culture
The most profound reasonJewish Radical Feminismshould be widely read is that it puts many current disputes about gender and Jewish identity into long perspective. * Tablet *
Antler is a first-rate historian. Her work manages to answer the question of Jewish women’s representation and self-understanding in the context of feminist movements without either overgeneralizing or individualizing; the answers were not the same for everyone but neither were they wholly unique to each person. Jewish Radical Feminism collects and tells stories from a feminist movement whose importance continues to affect American Jewish life. -- H-Net Reviews
Joyce Antler offers us a new understanding of the struggles, themes, accomplishments, and failures of my generation. It's a remarkable synthesis of landmark moments in late-20th Century Jewish feminism and an important contribution to the history of women. -- Letty Cottin Pogrebin,author and co-founder of Ms. Magazine
Antler complicates histories of feminist activism by revealing the presence of Jewishness in the backgrounds of dozens of influential radical women. * Studies in Contemporary Jewry *
Antler’s work makes visible Jewish feminists contributions to Jewish history and women’s history; the interviews also served to make some of the participants' Jewish identity more visible to themselves. -- CHOICE
Displayed over the interior pages are the labeled photographs of forty seminal radical American feminists who advocated for change from both inside and outside the Jewish community...never before has a scholar brought these diverse voices together to explore the impact of Jewishness on these women’s actions and life choices. * Journal of Jewish Identities *
Antler is a first-rate historian. Her work manages to answer the question of Jewish women’s representation and self-understanding in the context of feminist movements without either overgeneralizing or individualizing; the answers were not the same for everyone but neither were they wholly unique to each person. Jewish Radical Feminism collects and tells stories from a feminist movement whose importance continues to affect American Jewish life. * H-Net Reviews *
Joyce Antler provocatively explores the special qualities of being Jewish and Feminist in the 1960s and 70s. She cogently unwinds the personal stories of leading activists to trace how intertwined identities produced powerful political consequences. This enjoyable and illuminating book will encourage readers to probe their own complicated heritages. -- Alice Kessler-Harris,author of A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman
This is an utterly absorbing and valuable book. Having the insight and courage to probe many questions unasked before, and not trying to press the answers into a simple story or a single model, Antler succeeds beautifully in illuminating the underrecognized ways in which feminist convictions have been related to Jewishness. Her oral interviews with scores of women having differing levels of Jewish attachment provide the books mainspring, and supply original perspectives on matters from the 1960s New Left to the 1980s World Conferences on Women. -- Nancy F. Cott,author of The Grounding of Modern Feminism
This is the book we've been waiting for. Based on exhaustive historical scholarship and written with elegance and grace, Joyce Antler has given us the gift of knowledge, ending the silence about Jewish feminists and feminist Jews. -- Ruth Rosen,author of The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America
