Feminist Jewish Philosophy: A Response

Abstract

This article is an examination of the ways that feminist and feminist Jewish theorists and philosophers, in executing their perspectives and commitments—in terms of justice, gender, embodiment and relationships—offer new insights into how important philosophical issues can be understood, engaged and mediated. The point of departure is Hava Tirosh-Samuelson’s insistence that while a conversation between feminist philosophy, Jewish philosophy and Jewish feminists is essential, contemporary male Jewish philosophers have failed to address these potential dialogue partners. The article begins with a discussion of the nature of the overlapping spheres of philosophy, Jewish philosophy, feminist philosophy and feminist Jewish philosophy. Particular issues raised by feminist Jewish philosophers are examined, and at the conclusion a stream within post-Freudian psychoanalysis is advanced as a new resource for feminist Jewish reflections on our concrete and multi-faceted life with others. It has been a little over ten years since the appearance of Hava Tirosh-Samuelson’s “ ‘Dare to Know’: Feminism and the Discipline of Jewish Philosophy.” 2 Recently, Tirosh-Samuelson supplemented her original appeal with the publication of Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy, containing both historical studies of and constructive essays about Jewish philosophy by a variety of authors. 3 Both works challenge contemporary Jewish philosophers, the first by affirming that Jewish philosophy has been impervious to the writings of feminist theorists and philosophers, and the second by providing a forum for feminist Jewish philosophers to “re-read” and “re-think” the tradition of Jewish philosophy. Tirosh-Samuelson’s efforts to initiate a “conversation between feminist philosophy, Jewish philosophy and Jewish feminism,” 4 and the critical writings of a growing group of feminist Jewish philosophers and historians of Jewish philosophy, require responses. In the following pages, I