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Conservative
One of the major source of feminist Jewish ethics literature for Conservative Judaism comes from Judith Plaskow. Growing up in a classical Reform family during the 1950s, Plaskow became interested in theology as a teenager, and was the first Jewish feminist to identify herself as a theologian. She began to write about feminist ethics and the role of women in Judaism in the 1970s, her most famous work being The Coming of Lilith.

Plaskow was part of the Ezrat Nashim, a small Jewish feminist group who presented the “Call for Change” to the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement on March 14, 1972. While the Reform movement was already starting to address the role of women in Judaism, these Conservative women wanted to start a conversation with the heads of the Conservative movement. This call for change represents a liberal feminist stance, arguing for equal access to positions of leadership and religious participation from which Jewish women were excluded because of their gender. The heads of the Conservative movement at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America finally responded to Feminist outcry, and on October 24, 1983 began admitting women into the Rabbinical School. In her essay The Right Question is Theological, Plaskow attempts to create a new imagining of Judaism for Conservative women. She argues that “the Jewish women’s movement of the past decade has been and remains a civil-rights movement rather than a movement for “women’s liberation”” . Feminism in Judaism, especially Conservative Judaism, is too concerned with the status of women in religious life, as well as the halakhic language involved with change. She argues that a better focus for women in the Conservative movement would be the origins of the images and treatment of women in the text, and how reinterpretation of these ideas is required for the Conservative movement to evolve as a modern sect of Judaism. Feminists in the Conservative movement attempted to apply a feminist lens to Torah, Israel, and God. Through Torah, Jews can uncover women’s histories and cultures throughout the biblical period. Analysis of Israel allows members of the Conservative community to look at Jewish women present, equal, and responsible members of the Jewish community. With respect to God, Conservative Jews can analyze halakhah while rejecting the overall patriarchal voice that dominates the religion. Yet there are more fundamental flaws in the theology that must be addressed as well. In particular, the image of God as superior. Arguing for a multiplicity of of God images is an essential aspect of Jewish Feminist Theology, and that the role of God as non-hierarchical must be stressed in Conservative feminist Judaism.

Conservative feminists also believe that changes in Jewish communal structure with regard to worship contribute to a new understanding of God without the use of a male-dominated metaphor or language. Synagogues and communities that have advocated for women’s leadership and allow women to play a larger role in the service gain access to a higher, spiritual diversity, in Chavurah prayer and study. Plaskow supports this, and defends this analysis as theology, claiming that "an established system can become self-perpetuating and lose its ability for introspection and re-examination of basic premises"

Reform
Fundamental sources of Feminist texts in Reform Judaism come from Rachel Adler. Originally married to an Orthodox rabbi, she eventually divorced in 1984 and remarried a committed Reform Jew. Her discontentment with the current status of women in Orthodox Judaism can be seen in her article I’ve Had Nothing Yet, So I Can’t Take More. She believes that some of the fundamental issues in Judaism can never be resolved, and Reform Judaism needs to reevaluate the entire halakhic system in order to assess ideas about women that Reform Judaism currently does not discuss.

Feminist Reform Jews attempt to define what it means to engender Judaism. “There is not and never was a Judaism unaffected by the gendered perspectives of its transmitters and augmenters” . Feminist Reform Jews attempt to explore a reading of the text that inflicts gender equality. Progressive Judaism has been consciously remaking itself, and this is an attempt to modernize the scripture for contemporary Reform Jews, as Halakhah is too central to the Jewish experience to completely eliminate.

Adler, and many other Reform women, live with conflicted Jewish identities. Women refuse to disavow the sacred stories and texts that are the foundations to Judaism, yet are constantly fighting to make their voice heard in a for-men, by-men religion . These women, and Reform feminist leaders attempt to reconcile a contemporary sense of female equality within Judaism.

Halakhah is not a sufficient narrative, yet it serves as a bridge between reality and the ideal. The goal here is to look at Halakhah as stories. There exists a master narrative that needs to be reinterpreted in Modern Reform Judaism to fit the modern, western American Jews live in today. By juxtaposing different stories, we are able to use this dichotomy between halakhah and aggadah to develop a modern theology that is inclusive of women’s experiences in Reform Judaism.

Orthodox
Tamar Ross, one of the leading Orthodox Feminists, hopes to outline a path for Orthodoxy that calls for the inclusion of Feminist values and an egalitarian setting in the Orthodox movement. A student of Rav Kook, she argues for change from within Orthodoxy, as opposed to bringing outside information in (different from Modern Orthodoxy). “It is the Torah that must absorb the world rather than the world the Torah” . She argues for a gradual process through which Orthodoxy can expand to include feminist thought.

Orthodox feminists believe that the Jewish tradition has room to accommodate space for both men and women in the patriarchal master narrative. Following Ross’s guidance, Orthodox Jews attempt to “expanding the palace of Torah” to accommodate both genders, while also staying true to Orthodoxy and halakhah . Many Orthodox Feminist clash with other Jewish Feminists over Dialectical Theology, an understanding of the Torah which “understands everything said about God as a human effort to convey or recapture certain religious moments” . This is problematic, as it suggests sections of the Torah was not written by God, a fundamental belief of Orthodoxy. Instead, many Orthodox feminists attempt to apply Process Theology to the text. This theology recognizes that God and the world are continually evolving, and everything in the world becomes a partner with God. This technology better fits Orthodoxy, as it does not attempt to challenge the fundamentals of Halakhah in Judaism.

In Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism, Tova Hartman, a Modern Orthodox Feminist, explores some of the major points of interest to feminists as it applies to contemporary women in Modern Orthodoxy. She, along with many other Modern Orthodox women, struggle with their own definition of Judaism, and hopes to explore the numerous ways to change feminine participation and experience in Judaism without leaving the comfort of Modern Orthodoxy, the faction of Judaism these women are most familiar with, and hold their alliance to. Hartman’s major topics of exploration include countering the patrilineal focus of biblical Judaism, the conflicting nature of male-regulated niddah rulings, and the benefits of experience women would provide to Judaism as a whole with a more united voice and active role. These topics are explored through three different responses: affirmation, rejection, and reinterpretation. Ultimately, Hartman supports the reinterpretation model, but all responses are available to Feminists critiquing the role of women in Modern Orthodoxy. Traditional representations of women are no longer acceptable, and Hartman attempts to lead women in the Modern Orthodox movement into a new era of Jewish Orthodoxy. Blu Greenberg, a second leading Modern Orthodox feminist, attempts to address the needs for reform within the leaders of Modern Orthodoxy. She claims that what Modern Orthodoxy needs today is “the creation of a dialectical tension between Jewish values and the mores of modern society in light of the far reaching implications of women’s liberation” . Tapping into how feminism relates directly to Judaism, how Halakha can apply directly to both genders, niddah, and the role of Jewish women in the family.

One of Greenberg’s leading points is that a larger role for women in Modern Orthodoxy shouldn’t be equated to “adding a fifth fringe on the tzitzit or a fifth variety to the lulav” . Women struggle to find their place in Modern Orthodoxy outside the stereotypical “mothering” role that has been the standard for years. Following Greenberg, Modern Orthodox feminists attempt to apply Halakha universally to male and female roles, without fundamentally altering history, the text, or all moral obligations.