RS Seminar: Traditional prayers, returning voices: Orthodox Jewish women and girls’ singing in communal prayer

Abstract

This seminar will examine the contentious practice of Orthodox Jewish female voices being heard in communal prayer. It draws on ethnographic research that recorded and analysed how two UK-based online groups of Orthodox Jewish women and girls synthesized tradition and innovation to fill a gap in ritual provision during the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. The case study reveals an intricate combination of authorised liturgy, technological opportunities, gaps in collective memory, and the critical mass of skills, determination and participant numbers.

While the pandemic acted as a catalyst to innovation, the case serves to test the utility of Ronit Irshai’s concept of ‘narrative ripeness’ that measures a community’s readiness to accept and enact gender equality change, and systematically identifies contributing factors. The research was conducted as part of the project ‘Social Distance, Digital Congregation: British Ritual Innovation under COVID19’ supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s COVID-19 emergency response funding stream. My case study challenges the dominant narrative that ritual adaptations made under the pandemic offered poorer experiences than previous face-to-face delivery. Instead, it demonstrates stakeholder-generated improvements in accessibility and inclusion.

Speaker

In her role as Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies in Religion at the University of Manchester, Dr Katja Stuerzenhofecker has been delivering a gender-focused undergraduate course on contemporary religious Jews and Christians for two decades. Specializing in lived religion, she supervises dissertations on Jewish and Christian gender identities, gender roles, gendered religious rituals, and the gendered impact of religious institutions. Together with Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz, she organized the Sherman Conversation 2024 ‘Encountering Others, Encountering Ourselves: Reflexivity and the Jewish Studies Researcher’ at the University of Manchester’s Centre for Jewish Studies. At the University of Chester, she contributes to delivery of the Professional Doctorate in Theology and Religious Studies.

Series

The Religious Studies seminar is a Faculty of Divinity seminar series. The convenor this term is Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz.