Gender and Religious Leadership

Hartmut Bomhoff is senior research fellow at the Abraham Geiger College, University of Potsdam.Denise L. Eger is an international Jewish leader and social justice activist and founding rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami (West Hollywood, CA).Kathy Ehrensperger is research professor of New Testament in Jewish perspective at theAbraham Geiger Kolleg, University of Potsdam.Walter Homolka is professor of Jewish theology at the University of Potsdam and coeditor of the Encyclopedia of Jewish-Christian Relations.

This volume analyzes historical and recent developments in female religious leadership and the larger issues shaping the scholarly debate at the intersection of gender and religious studies. Jewish activism and scholarship have been crucial in linking theology and gender issues since the early twentieth century. Academic and vocational leadership and training have had significant, concrete impact on religious communal practices and formation across the US and Europe. At the same time, these models provide important avenues of constructive dialogue and comparative ecumenical and interfaith enterprises. This volume investigates those possibilities towards constructive, activist, holistic female ministerial leadership for religious faith communities.

Preface - Honoring the Legacy of Rabbiner Regina Jonas: A Call to Let Religious Women Write Alternative Narratives of the Future, Denise L. EgerAcknowledgmentsIntroduction - Women as Religious Leaders, Hartmut Bomhoff, Denise L. Eger, Kathy Ehrensperger, Walter HomolkaI. New Roles for Jewish Women in Modernizing Germany and America1.The Discourse of the Other: The Transformation of the Jewish Woman in Nineteenth-Century Germany, Yael Kupferberg2.Patterns of Reform: Tracking Women's Changing Roles in Synagogues and Communal Life within Nineteenth-Century American and German Judaism, Karla Goldman3.Women Students at the Berlin Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, Esther Seidel4."The Woman in the House of God" (1926) Revisited, Hartmut Bomhoff5.Paving the Road to Women Rabbis, 1889-2015, Pamela NadellII. Three Pioneers of Female Leadership: Henrietta Szold, Margarete Susman, and Regina Jonas6.Henrietta Szold: A "Pretty Certain Miriam", Gail Twersky Reimer7.The Religious as the Political in Margarete Susman, Elisa Klapheck8.Remembering Regina Jonas: On the Intersectionality of Women's, Jewish, German, and Holocaust History, Katharina von Kellenbach9.Memory and Identity: Female Leadership and the Legacy of Regina Jonas, Stefanie SinclairIII. Personal Reflections10.They Married What They Wanted to Be? Rebbetzins and their Unconventional Paths to Power, Shuly Rubin Schwartz11.Looking Back: Religion as Container for Memory and Tradition, Sandy Eisenberg SassoIV. Comparing Notes: Female Religious Leadership Today12.Women's Leadership in the Roman Catholic Church: A Survey of Half a Century's Development with Particular Reference to Germany, Marie-Theres Wacker13.The Impact of Women in Protestant Christian Ministry Today, Renate Jost14.Rereading Male Chauvinism: Muslim Women's Own Approach to Their Holy Text, Katajun Amirpur15.The Ordination of Women and the Question of Religious Authority, Judith FrishmanAbout the EditorsAbout the Contributors