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Second-Class Worshipers No More

In Taking Back God, observant Jew Leora Tanenbaum explores
the feminist struggles within Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Sandee Brawarsky
Special to the Jewish News

L

eora Tanenbaum traveled
along Billy Graham Parkway in
Charlotte, N.C., deep in America's
Bible Belt, to attend a four-day gathering
there of 70 Evangelical Christian feminists
in 2006. The writer arrived with a suitcase
of canned tuna, and expectations that her
hosts would seek to convert her.
While the tuna proved useful, as there
was no kosher food around, she found the
women to be very respectful of her Jewish
background, with several checking that
she was OK with their references to Jesus
Christ.
She found that these women love the
Bible, study the Bible, quote the Bible and
are open to reinterpreting texts used to
limit women and justify male dominance.
In other settings, Tanenbaum sought
out Catholics, mainline Protestants,
Muslims and observant Jewish women, all
of whom love their religion and refuse to
give it up, even as they might object to the
way they are treated as women. Instead,
they are working to bring change.

"Historically, men have monopolized
reader, as she has told it to the many
God. Today, women are taking back God
women she interviewed, to provide a con-
for themselves:' she writes in Taking
text to her own quest.
Back God: American Women Rising Up
She writes, "You should know that
for Religious Equality (Farrar, Straus and
religion is central in my life, as is mother-
Giroux; $27).
hood. I have chosen to
"When you look across
represent
the new class of
AMERICA N WOMEN
faiths, you see many simi-
devout
women
— those
RISING UP FOR
larities, and that is very
seeking to expand
RELIGIOU S EQUALITY
empowering:' she says
women's rights within
in an interview."When I
their faith — because,
look at Catholic women
well, I share many of their
struggling to be ordained
beliefs:' she writes.
as priests, it makes me
She describes herself
think of the Orthodox
as an observant Jew who
Jewish feminist move-
respects Jewish law and
ment, and our desire to
adheres to it to the fullest
have Orthodox female
of my abilities. Jewish law
rabbis."
guides many, if not most,
She says that she and
LEORA TANENBAUM
of the small and large
others have much to learn
actions I take every single
from Catholic women and
day."
"Reform is not impossible"
their 30-year movement,
A proud feminist,
how they go back to their
she attended Orthodox
sacred texts and use sources to advance
schools through high school and is grate-
their arguments.
ful for the training. She admits to days
At the outset of this well-written book, filled with contradictions in a life that is
Tanenbaum tells her own story to the
both modern and preserving of Jewish

Taking perk

CC

Leora Tanenbaum: "When you

look across faiths, you see many
similarities, and that is very

empowering."

traditions. As she takes Jewish law seri-
ously, she also leaves open the opportunity
to struggle with the law.
While Tanenbaum attends Orthodox
services, she doesn't appreciate sitting
upstairs and separate, far from the action.
But she says she gains spiritual strength
from many aspects of the service, and also
attends a monthly partnership minyan
near her home on the Upper East Side
where women have opportunities to have
a role in leading the service.
Tanenbaum sees her own struggle as
mild in comparison to what others face.
The author and her subjects seem to
connect, as fellow travelers along paths of
faith, even as their paths diverge. Women
were very open with her, welcoming her

Jews

ca
lm

I

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Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

Pigskin Hebrews, 2009

Here's my annual roundup of Jews in
the NFL, prepared with the help of
Jewish Sports Review newsletter. All
O the players are veterans – no rookies
made the final team rosters:
David Binn, 37,
San Diego, long
snapper. An All-Pro
player in 2007, Binn
holds the record
for the most games
anyone has played in
a Charger uniform.
David Binn
Igor Olshansky,
27, defensive end,
Dallas. A top player formerly with
San Diego, Igor signed a big money
contract with Dallas in the off-sea-
son. Adam Podlesh, 26, punter,
Jacksonville. Sage Rosenfels, 31,
back-up quarterback, Minnesota. Geoff
Schwartz, 23, outside tackle, Carolina.
Division I college football players

04
G

60

September 24 0 2009

with a Michigan connection include
Ben Samson, an Illinois native playing
outside tackle for Western Michigan,
and West Bloomfield natives Matt
Rubin (center, Toledo) and Andrew
Samson, Penn, a very good field goal
kicker who was first team all-Ivy
League last year.

New Flicks
The September Issue is a documen-

tary about how the September 2007
issue of Vogue, the famous fashion
magazine, was put together. Much
of the interest in the film is based
on seeing the behind-the-scenes
work of Vogue's powerful chief edi-
tor, Anna Wintour.
Lauren Weisberger,
who once worked
as Wintour's assis-
tant, admits that
her short novel, The
Devil Wears Prada,
was mostly based
Lauren
on her relationship
Weisberger
with the famously

demanding and difficult Wintour.
Advance reports say that those
interested in fashion will like the film
– but nobody interviewed had the
chutzpah to say anything even mildly
critical of Wintour. Opens Friday,
Sept. 25.
Also opening on the 25th are Fame
and Pandorium. The former is a re-
make of the hit 1980 film of the same
name about the lives of students and
teachers at a New York public high
school for the arts. Fame co-stars
Debbie Allen, who played a teacher
in the original film, and is the school
principal in the remake.
The cast also
includes Bebe
Neuwirth, 50, as
a ballet and dance
teacher. Neuwirth,
who played the
Jewish character
Lilith on Cheers, is a
Bebe Neuwirth very accomplished
Broadway dancer. She
says, "I was pleased that they asked a

real dancer to play a dancer, because
boy, they don't always do that."
The score includes two hit songs
from the original, "Fame" and "Out
Here on My Own." Both were written
by Michael Gore, 58, the brother of
singer Lesley Gore. Michael won the
best score Oscar for the original film
and "Fame" won the Oscar for best
song.
Pandorium is a sci-fi flick that co-
stars Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster,
28 (3:10 to Yuma). They play two
astronauts who wake up in space with
no memory of who they are.

Boteach On Jackson

NBC's Dateline will show a one-hour
special 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, on
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's latest book,
Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic
Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate
Conversation, out next week.
Boteach and Jackson shared a
commitment to turning Friday night
into family night throughout the
country, says the rabbi. I I