11 Gender, Religion, and the Search for a Modern Jewish Identity in “La rabina” by Silvia Plager

Abstract

The main interest of the novel La rabina by Silvia Plager lies in the fact that its plot brings together themes that are seldom seriously dealt with in most Latin American literature by Jewish authors-Jewish religion, and Israel both as setting of plot and as expression of Jewish identity. In La rabina these themes are linked to questions of gender, namely the position and possibilities of choice of Jewish woman in last decades of twentieth century. This chapter describes these components as general context in which this novel inscribes itself, and then discusses the way they are represented in the text. Though issues of gender regarding the place of women in Judaism have become an important object of research and literary writing within the frameworks of different currents in Jewish religion and also in secular thought, both in Israel and in Diaspora, they still stand far from general consensus. Keywords: Diaspora; gender; Israel; Jewish identity; Jewish religion; Jewish women; La rabina ; Silvia Plager