Judith Rebecca Hauptman (born 1943) is an American

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ic scholar.

Biography

She grew up in the

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Hauptman received a degree in Talmud from the Seminary College of Jewish Studies at Jewish Theological Seminary, a B.A. in economics from

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Talmudic studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary. She earned her PhD in 1982, and was the first woman to earn a PhD in Talmud, which she earned from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. She also studied at

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. Hauptman was ordained as a

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

in May 2003 by the Academy for Jewish Religion. She is the E. Billi Ivry Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Chair of the Department of Talmud and Rabbinics. She has taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary since 1973. Shortly after her ordination as a rabbi, she founded Ohel Ayalah, an outreach project to disaffected young Jews, named in memory of her mother. Ohel Ayalah runs free, walk-in High Holy Days services and Passover seders for people of all ages on the first night and for twenties and thirties on the second. Hauptman has analyzed the Talmudic

sugya A sugya is a self-contained passage of the Talmud that typically discusses a mishnah or other rabbinic statement, or offers an aggada, aggadic narrative.; see for overview. While the sugya is a literary unit in the Jerusalem Talmud, the term is m ...

(i.e., literary units of discussion) and written on Talmudic law and women's issues in Judaism. Her view is that the ancient rabbis gradually granted women more autonomy and enacted laws that dealt with women in a fairer manner. She was an early member of

Ezrat Nashim The Ezrat Nashim () or Vaybershul (), commonly referred to in English as the women's section or women's gallery, is an area of a synagogue sanctuary reserved exclusively for women. Scholars have long debated the existence of Ezrat Nashim in synago ...

, a group of women who lobbied in the 1970s for egalitarianism in Jewish life. In 1993, she wrote the article �
Women and Prayer: An Attempt to Dispel Some Fallacies
” (JUDAISM, Winter 1993). In it, she argued that Jewish women have always had an obligation to pray and for that reason can count in the

minyan In Judaism, a ''minyan'' ( ''mīnyān'' , Literal translation, lit. (noun) ''count, number''; pl. ''mīnyānīm'' ) is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain Mitzvah, religious obligations. In more traditional streams of Judaism ...

and even lead it in prayer. In 2014, she became the first guest lecturer from abroad to address the Israeli

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

’s weekly religious study session."Maltz, Judy 'Eight major victories for non-Orthodox Judaism in 2014' (Dec 15, 2014) Haaretz" http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/.premium-1.631933

References

Bibliography

* ''Rereading the Rabbis: A Woman's Voice'' (1987). * ''Development of the Talmudic Sugya: Relationship Between Tannaitic and Amoraic Sources'' (1988). * "Abortion: Where We Stand" (United Synagogue Review, Spring 1990). * "Women in the Conservative Synagogue," in Daughters of the King: Women and the Synagogue (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1992) * "A Time to Mourn, A Time to Heal" (Celebration and Renewal, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1993). *
Women and Prayer: An Attempt to Dispel Some Fallacies
(JUDAISM, Winter 1993). * "Judaism and a Just Economy," (Tikkun, January/February 1994). * "Conservative Judaism: The Ethical Challenge of Jewish Feminism" (The Americanization of the Jews, New York: New York University Press, 1995). * "Mishnah as a Response to Tosefta" (The Synoptic Problem in Rabbinic Literature, Shaye J.D. Cohen, Brown Judaic Series, 2000). * ''Rereading the Mishnah'' (Text and Studies in Ancient Judaism 109), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck (2005). {{DEFAULTSORT:Hauptman, Judith 1943 births Living people Academics from Brooklyn American Conservative rabbis American women non-fiction writers Feminist studies scholars Jewish American academics Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish scholars Jewish women writers Talmudists Conservative women rabbis Conservative Jewish feminists 21st-century American rabbis

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography