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Thoroughly Modern Mother: Jewish Homemaking Guides Confront Modernity in the 19th Century

Mon, December 16, 10:30am to 12:00pm, Hilton Bayfront San Diego, Sapphire 410B

Abstract

As Jewish families faced the diasporic problem of maintaining cultural continuity within a dominant society that held conflicting values and norms, Jewish homemaking guidebooks and cookbooks took on increased importance in the lives of Jewish mothers. This paper offers a brief overview of the Jewish American experience in the mid-19th Century and discusses the emergence of Jewish homemaking guidebooks, paying particular attention to their description of Sabbath preparation, the Jewish mother’s role in the Sabbath, and the parallelization of the Sabbath Queen to the Jewish mother. These guidebooks aestheticized sacred rituals much as guides to interior decoration aestheticized middle-class homes. But would families follow this advice? And why should they? In this paper, I answer these key questions by addressing the emergence of Jewish homemaking guides, with particular attention to their description of sabbath preparation by women, culminating in an analysis of the feminization of the American Jewish sabbath. These guidebooks highlight a number of timely issues facing American Jews, including tensions of immigration, gender parity, and the blending of varying iterations of Jewishness. Ultimately, I argue that through a contextualized understanding of the changes in sabbath observance, the feminization of the sabbath was seen as necessary to ensure the survival of Judaism in America.

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