Conference:
Untying the Knots:  Theorizing Conflicts Between Gender Equality and Religious Laws (2008)

Developed by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law, (GCRL) this international conference that brought together theorists, policymakers and activists to discuss ways of conceptualizing and engaging with gender and culture/religion conflicts.  Speakers discussed struggles in Canada, Israel, Senegal, South Africa, and the U.S.A. Featured Keynote speaker was Martha Minnow, Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.
This conference was generously funded by gifts from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Hadassah Endowment and the Dan Fischel and Sylvia Neil Philanthropic Fund.
This conference was also co-sponsored by the following:
Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Center for the  Study of Women in Judaism at Bar Ilan University, The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

Poetry Reading with Israeli poet, Linda Zisquit: Words with the Poet (2008)

Israeli poet Linda Zisquit, whose beautiful short lyrics are written in her native English tongue, read new poems in Golding 107 on the Brandeis campus. Linda Zisquit has published three full-length collections of poetry, most recently, The Face in the Window (Sheep Meadow, 2004), as well as translations from Hebrew poetry, including Wild Light (Sheep Meadow, 1997) for which she received an NEA Translation Grant, and Let the Words: Selected Poems of Yona Wallach (Sheep Meadow, 2006). Her translation of Rivka Miriam’s poetry will be published this year by Toby Press. She has recently completed a new manuscript of poems called Porous. Born in Buffalo, NY, she has lived in Jerusalem since 1978; she is Poetry Coordinator for the Shaindy Rudoff Creative Writing Program at Bar Ilan University, and runs ARTSPACE, an art gallery in Jerusalem representing contemporary Israeli artists.

Lecture and Book Signing with Brandeis Alumn, Alicia Ostriker:
The Book of Ruth and the Love of the Land (2008)

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) at Brandeis University welcomed author and poet, Alicia Ostriker ’59, for a lecture and book signing. Ostriker spoke about her book, “For the Love of God: The Bible as an Open Book,” which offers a provocative re-interpretation of six essential Biblical texts. This program was a related event to the HBI exhibition, “A Thousand and One Inventions,” which expands on the themes in Lynne Avadenka’s limited edition artist’s book, “By A Thread.” 

Film: New England Premiere of Nina's Journey (2008)
As part of The National Center for Jewish Film's 11th Annual Film Festival, this award-winning film is the true story of one woman's struggle to escape the Nazi pogroms of World War II inspired this historical drama from writer and director Lena Einhorn. Nina Rajmic (Agnieszka Grochowska) was born and raised in Warsaw, but when Poland was invaded by Germany, she and her family discovered their nationality didn't matter as much as the fact they were Jewish. Nina, her brother Rudolph (Pawel Iwanicki) and her parents were driven from their home and relocated to the Warsaw ghetto, where they became second-class citizens and learned first hand about the ruthlessness of the Third Reich. While Nina and Rudolph were lucky enough to survive the abuse that the occupying forces meted out, their parents were not so lucky, and in time Nina fled Poland in the company of fellow student Jerzy Einhorn (Andrzej Niemczyk) and settled in Sweden, where they completed their education and enjoyed successful careers in medicine. Ninas Resa (aka Nina's Journey) was adapted from Lena Einhorn's book about the life of her mother Nina Rajmic-Einhorn, with recordings of Nina used on the soundtrack for narration.
This film was co-Presented by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry.

Lecture by HBI Scholar-In-Residence, Stephen Glantz:
Partisan life with the Bielski Brothers through the eyes of three teenaged siblings (2008)

Mike, Bella and Ann Stoll lived with the Bielski brothers and another partisan group in the last two years of the war. Mike and Bella fought as 16 and 17 year olds, committed many acts of sabotauge and sometimes revenge. Ann was very young and part of a dance troupe that was the USO of Jewish partisans.  Stephen Glantz's talk will gave an inside look at the life of teenaged Jewish partisans.

Workshop:
Begin the Book: Simple, Elegant, Adaptable Structures (2008)

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) at Brandeis University held a bookmaking workshop with inaugural HBI artist-in-residence Lynne Avadenka. Avadenka’s site-specific installation, “A Thousand and One Inventions,” expands on the themes in her limited edition artist’s book, “By A Thread.”

Opening Reception for HBI Artist-in-Residence, Lynne Avadenka:
A Thousand and One Inventions (2008)

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute hosts its inaugural artist-in-residence, Lynne Avadenka, from March 17 to May 21. Lynne Avadenka’s site-specific installation “A Thousand and One Inventions” boldly transformed the Kniznick Gallery’s unique architecture into a work of art.  Painting, drawing and assemblage created an environment that opens up and reveals layers visually, as a book does conceptually. “A Thousand and One Inventions” expands on the themes in Avadenka’s limited edition artist’s book, “By A Thread.” Created in 2004 with a grant from the HBI, the book imagines a conversation between Queen Esther, the heroine of Purim, and Scheherazade, the teller of a thousand and one tales. Both women spoke up when they could have remained silent, and saved many lives through their fortitude.

Lecture by HBI Scholar-In-Residence, Lenore Weitzman:
Kashariyot: Women in the Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust (2008)

The Kashariyot were secret couriers for the Jewish resistance who traveled illegally on false documents and smuggled underground papers, money, food, false documents, medicine, news -- and other Jews -- in and out of the ghettos of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. The Kashariyot were also an underground voice-radio that carried the news of what the Germans were doing and revealed their highly secret operations and the mass killings – and warned and urged the Jews to mobilize for resistance. The Kashariyot also played a critical role in that resistance by securing and smuggling weapons into the ghettos for the would-be revolts. Finally, in the last stage of the ghettos, when it became clear that the ghettos were going to be liquidated, the kashariyot focused on rescuing Jews from the ghettos and to saving their lives. While the heroic activities of the kashariyot were a source of great pride during the Holocaust, their contributions have been ignored by most postwar historians. In this talk, Weitzman raised questions about how that history has been written and explores the extent to which it has been influenced by gender-based assumptions about the nature of resistance during the Holocaust.

Community Program: Book Launch and Conversation:
Resistance and Accommodation: Creating Halakhic Partnerships (2008)

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI), in partnership with the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) hosted a historic evening of discussion with Tova Hartman, author of Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism. The latest publication in the HBI Series on Jewish Women, Hartman provided an innovative analysis of how creative tensions between modern Orthodoxy Judaism and feminism can lead to unexpected perspectives and beliefs.

Lecture by HBI Scholar-In-Residence, Dr. Judith Lewin:
Binding Oneself to Judaism in Contemporary Jewish Women’s Fiction (Allegra Goodman, Dara Horn, Ruchama King) (2008)

This talk by Judith Lewin examined two contemporary first novels by Jewish women in relation to Allegra Goodman as a model for depicting religious practice sympathetically. Lewin argued that Goodman (Kaaterskill Falls), Dara Horn (In the Image) and Ruchama King (Seven Blessings) portray religion, spirituality and religious learning as integral to women’s lives. This contrasts with writers who portray the transition toward secularity, anxious relations toward being a Jew, or the struggle to assimilate in other, perhaps prior strands of Jewish writing. Dr. Lewin offered contextualized close readings of the negotiation between the religious and the secular focused on the gendered symbols of water and tefillin and the fraught relation between women’s bodies and their minds.

Lecture: Wine & Water: An intriguing look at women and ritual (2008)
with panelists Dr. Vanessa Ochs, Deb Kram and Dr. Rahel Wasserfall. Moderated by Sylvia Barack Fishman

This HBI event was an intriguing look at women and ritual. Participants discussed a diverse range of perspectives on new and old rituals, in new settings with new interpretations. The panelists explored such issues as: Why we need these rituals? What does ritual mean and do for Jewish women? What kind of connection do we want by reclaiming these rituals? 
This program was related program to "The Mikvah Project," a photography exhibition by Janice Rubin and Leah Lax featuring Jewish women returning to, and reclaiming, Jewish ritual immersion, an ancient Jewish ritual being personalized for modern use.

Artist Exhibit and Opening Reception: "The Mikvah Project" (2007)

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University and Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh presented a photography exhibition by Janice Rubin and Leah Lax entitled The Mikvah Project at the Mayyim Hayyim Gallery. The exhibition featured Jewish women returning to, and reclaiming, Jewish ritual immersion, an ancient Jewish ritual being personalized for modern use. Two collections of photographs, accompanied by women’s personal stories, explore the role of mikvah and the range of meanings it has for many different women.

This exhibit was sponsored by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh.

Pacifists and Patriots:  American Jewish Women and the Peace Movement Between the World Wars by HBI Scholar-in-Residence, Melissa Klapper (2007)

Throughout the difficult years of World War I and especially the 1920s and 1930s, American Jewish women agitated for pacifist solutions to international disputes.  They joined groups like the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, worked through separate Jewish women's organizations such as the National Council of Jewish Women, organized comprehensive foreign policy education in their communities, conducted peace rallies, supported arms reduction, pushed hard for the U.S.'s entrance into the League of Nations and the World Court, and developed peace curricula for religious schools.  A women's peace movement based on ideas about universal motherhood appealed to Jewish women, who often valued their own traditional roles as mothers. Yet they were faced with a crisis during the 1930s as their commitment to universal peace came into conflict with their deep concern over particular threats to Jews and Judaism at home and abroad.

Boston Jewish Film Festival (2007)
The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute proudly sponsored two films: The Powder and the Glory and The Cemetery Club at the 19th Annual Boston Jewish Film Festival.

Film Screening: Pickles, Inc. (2007)
The HBI held a film screening and discussion with the film's director, Dalit Kimor.

Author Signing: Eternally Eve, Celebrating Eve: Revealing New Layers of Meaning (2007)
The HBI to honored the landmark publication “Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Modern Jewish Poetry” with special guest, author Anne Lapidus Lerner. Author Anne Lapidus Lerner provides a fascinating analysis of the story of Eve, using modern poetry in conversation with biblical texts and rabbinic rewritings to reveal new layers of meaning.

Lecture Lecture by Hadassah-Brandeis Scholar-in-Residence, Hannah Safran America in the Promised Land: Is Feminist Activism in Israel Local or Imported? (2007)
Following the title of the book written by Marcia Freedman “Exile in the Promised Land” that describes the amazing contribution of one American-Jewish woman to the creation of feminism in Israel in the 70’s, Safran discussed issues of originality and imitation in the history of feminist movements in Israel. Sharing her own story as a feminist and peace activist, Safran argued that feminism in Israel derives its analysis and its call to action from local struggles and local points of view. 

Create. Connect. Celebrate! (2007)
The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute launched their new desktop weekly planner: Creating Art, Promoting Change:  Works by Jewish Women.
The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) at Brandeis University launched their new calendar titled “Creating Art, Promoting Change: Works by Jewish Women.” The calendar features 16 artists from around the globe who embody the spirit of activism. Provocative and full-color glossy photos are accompanied by biographies about each woman’s art and life. The visual artworks selected for the calendar combine a range of media, from corten steel sculpture and needlework, to sprayed acrylic painting on canvas and works created from recycled materials. The opening reception will took place at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute,with the creation of a community art mosaic led by Brandeis alumna, Tova Speter. A discussion and signing with artist, Tarmar Hirschl along with a reception, followed.

Lecture by Hadassah-Brandeis Scholar-in-Residence, Lilach Rosenberg Stretching the Boundaries of Motherhood–Emissaries and Evacuees in Eretz Israel in the 1940s. (2007)

Rosenberg examined the formation of the female identity in Israel by focusing on mothers who left their own families behind in order to help women and children in displaced persons camps in post-Holocaust Europe. 

Lecture by Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Scholar-in-Residence. Israeli "Baby and Child Care": The Social Construction of Israeli Babies and Mothers by Parents' Manuals, Sachlav Stoler-Liss (2007)

HBI Scholar-in-Residence Sachlav Stoler-Liss discussed her work on early 1920s Israel, where a group of Israeli doctors and psychologists began a prolonged project of social guidance for parents. Focusing on the written parents' manuals published in Hebrew beginning in the 1920s, Stoler-Liss examined how these manuals describe in great detail the proper mother, and who is a proper child, with using the ongoing theme of "A Sound Mind in a Sound Body."

Lecture by Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Scholar-in-Residence. “The Audacity of Holiness”: Orthodox Women's Theater in Israel, Reina R. Reiner (2007)

Reiner survyed the theatrical activity of Israeli orthodox women during the past ten years and the rabbinical response. She offered an in-depth analysis of chosen performances as well as the complex relationships among various factions within orthodox society and the larger Israeli society. Reiner showed how orthodox women's theater strengthens the community from within, rather than reaching out to others.

Lecture by Professor Julie Cwikel: Using Social Epidemiology to Understand the Global Epidemic in Trafficking in Women for Sex Work. (2007)
Prof. Cwikel is the Founder and Director of The Center for Women’s Health Studies and Promotion, Israel’s only academic center of women’s health studies with a multi-disciplinary approach. While in residence at the HBI, her research will investigate how women learn about critical health behaviors in their lives including menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and maintaining health and mental health.

Film Screening: Three Mothers (2007)
New England Premiere! Part of the National Center for Jewish Film's 10th Annual Film Festival
A drama of loyalty, love and deceit spanning 3 generations and 3 languages. The Hakim triplets were born to a wealthy Egyptian-Jewish family in 1942. Sixty years later-after husbands and children, careers and love affiars-the sisters are living together again, in Israel. Moving between present and past, a suspenseful and poignant tale reveals the sisters' unshakable bond-and a long-hidden secret. Rose gets it right when she confesses: we were better sisters than we were mothers.
Co-presented by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.

Lecture by Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Federica Francesconi: Inside the Ghetto: Italian Jewish Women in Eighteenth-Century Modena (2007)
Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Scholar-In-Residence, Dr. Federica Francesconi's talk shed new light on eighteenth-century Italian Jewish life, analyzing if and how Italian Jewish women modified their own self-consciousness and changed the systems of balanced relations within the upper and lower middle classes, and between men and women within Jewish society. Dr. Francesconi’sadded another model of understanding of private and public spheres in the Italian context, the different roles that men and women had in it, and the formative influence of this particular religious and social environment.

Hannah Frank: 75 Years of Inspiration (2007)
Fiona Frank, M. Ed., niece of the artist, delivered a talk about her aunt's life and work. Frank pursued her passion for creating art and ultimately became one of Glasgow's most recognized artists. Co-sponsored by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and the Women's Studies Research Center, Hannah Frank: A Jewish Artist of Glasgow is the first U.S. showing of Scottish artist Hannah Frank.

This event was held in part of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute's 10-Year Anniversary Celebration at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University.

Reading by author and Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Scholar-in-Residence, Orly Castel-Bloom (2007)
Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Scholar-In-Residence and Israeli author Orly Castel-Bloom read selections from her book, Textiles. Castel-Bloom, one of Isreal's preeminent writers, is a part of the "Generation of the '80's" which marked a major change in Hebrew literature. Her novel Dolly City has been included in UNESCO's Collection of Representative Works, and in 1999 she was named one the fifty most influential women in Israel. Her work has been published in eighteen languages.

Seminar on Creating and Maintaining Jewish Families, (2007)
Recent studies indicate that men and women think, act, and react very differently to life situations that touch on connections to Jews and Judaism. However, very little research has focused directly on these differences - or their implications to Jewish communities. This seminar was a first step in launching a systematic study of the intersection of religion and gender. Presentations were made by cutting-edge researchers looking at the behavior and attitudes of Jewish singles as well as inmarried, intermarried, and conversionary households and families in the United States, Israel, and other Jewish communities. Researchers and policy planners engaged in conversations, employing the interdisciplinary lenses of the social sciences: psychology, anthropology, statistical reserach, and qualitative interviews. This event was co-sponsored by The Steinhardt Social Research Institute and The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.

Lecture by Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Federica Francesconi: "Did Italian Jewish Women Have a Renaissance?" (2007)
Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Scholar-in-Residence Federica Francesconi's talk considered Italian Jewish society from the Renaissance to the modern era and presented an evaluation of Jewish culture in the Italian Renaissance. She also addressed the question of whether Jewish women held a more prominent position than Christian women.

Workshop led by artist and WSRC scholar Fran Forman: Create Art Inspired by Hannah Frank (2007)
Co-sponsored by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and the Women's Studies Research Center, Hannah Frank: A Jewish Artist of Glasgow is the first U.S. showing of Scottish artist Hannah Frank. Surrounded by the drawings and sculptures of the 98 year old's work, WSRC scholar Fran Forman led a workshop where participants created works of art in pen and ink and collage.

Lecture by Scholar-in-Residence Moshe Rosman (Bar Ilan University)
Jewish Women in Poland in the Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries & Early Hasidic Attitudes Towards Women (2007)
This talk considered the approaches, methodologies and sources that
enabled us to learn about women's lives in the early modern period in
Poland and summarized the results that such research yields. These
included the economic roles women played, women's progress as cultural
actors, and changing ideas about women.
Early Hasidic Attitudes Towards Women, surveyed the ideas about women expressed by early Hasidic leaders in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In their
view is was forbidden for women to serve as sex objects, but proper that they be "mitzvah objects".

A slice of Scottish art nouveau, the drawings, sculptures, and writings of Hannah Frank (1908- ) reveal the inner spirit of a Jewish woman artist from Glasgow. Undeterred by the challenges faced by women and Jews in the 1920's, Frank pursued her passion for creating art ultimately becoming one of Glasgow's most recognized artists. Throughout the 1930's and 1940's Hannah focused her energy on her trademark black and white drawings. She illustrated posters for local Jewish organizations and was an early and vocal supporter of Israel. In the 1950's, under the tutelage of Benno Schotz, Hannah began sculpting the human form. Hannah Frank's artwork has been widely exhibited at prominent institutions including the Royal Glasgow Institute, and most recently at the London Jewish Cultural Centre. Co-sponsored by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and the Women's Studies Research Center, Hannah Frank: A Jewish Artist of Glasgow was the first U.S. showing of the 98 year old's work..

This exhibit was held in part of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute's 10-Year Anniversary Celebration at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University

A Day of Study on Women, Equality, and Rabbinic Law in Israel: Lecture and Film Screenings (2007) Feminist and legal scholar Ruth Halperin-Kaddari gave a talk entitled "“Women’s Rights and the Politics of Divorce in Israel.” Dr. Halperin-Kaddari is an expert on family law, feminist critique of law and women's rights in Israel, and is the Director of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women at Bar-Ilan University. Following the talk, two films were screened, Mekudeshet and Cohen’s Wife .

Film Screening and Lecture "Filmmaking on the Jewish Experience: Two films from the Maale School of Television, Film & The Arts, Jerusalem" (2006)
Filmmaker, Award-Winner, and HBI Scholar-in-Residence, Liliane Targownik presented two films from the religious film school, "Maale": Cohen's Wife (Director: Nava Heifetz, 24 min., 2000) and Tainted (Director: Elkie Hershberg, 18 min., 2005). Ms. Targownik asked the question: "Do these religious filmmakers need to develop a different film language to tell their stories?" These films showed a new development in contemporary Israeli filmmaking: the writers and directors tell stories from the religious community for the religious community. In most cases, it is the female students who dare to confront taboos such as rape and unwanted pregnancies.

Film: "Marti: The Passionate Eye" (2006)
Held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and in partnership with the 18th annual Boston Jewish Film Festival, (www.bjff.org) the HBI sponsored the film screening of, "Marti: The Passionate Eye" and held a question and answer period with director, Shirley Horrocks. After a childhood in a London Jewish orphanage, Marti Friedlander moved to New Zealand and became one of its most illustrious photographers. She has captured stunningly fresh and iconic images of protest activities, artists, and sheep for over forty years. The documentary follows Friedlander, now in her 70s, as she reflects back on her legacy and the people who have inspired her.
For more information on Ms. Horrocks, please click here.
To learn more about the life and career of Marti Friedlander, please visit www.martifriedlander.com

Visual Display: "The Clothesline Project" (2006)
"The Clothesline Project" is a visual display of shirts with messages and illustrations that have been designed by survivors of violence or by someone who cares about a survivor or victim of violence. Displayed in the Shapiro Campus Center at Brandeis University, the event was sponsored by the HBI, Hillel, Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, REACH Beyond Domestic Violence and Kol Isha, the Domestic Violence Program of Jewish Family & Children's Service. The purpose of the Project is to increase awareness of the impact of domestic and dating violence, to celebrate survivors' strengths, and to provide an avenue for survivors to break the silence that often surrounds domestic and dating violence experiences. Click here to visit "The Clothesline Project's" website.

Panel Discussion: All in the Family: Shared Values and the American Jewish Future (2006):
An extraordinary afternoon with: Richard Joel (Yeshiva University), Arnold Eisen (Jewish Theological Seminary and Stanford University), Eric Yoffie (Union for Reform Judaism), Larry Moses (Wexner Foundation), and moderated by Judith Shulewitz (Essayist and Critic).

The Family as "Cell": Medical Examinations and Standards for Women (2006):
HBI Scholar-In-Residence, Eyal Katvan, L.L.M., Ph.D. discussed how coerced diagnostic practices were and still are based on patriarchal foundations which perceive women as responsible for maintaining or disrupting the family order. He considered how the family "cell" functions like a biological cell, employing specific mechanisms to expel unwanted elements and introduce desirable ones.

The JGirl’s Guide Book Signing: An Evening with the Authors (2006):
Regional Massachusetts chapters of Hadassah, in partnership with the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, hosted a book signing and discussion with the esteemed authors of The JGirl’s Guide, Penina Adelman and Shulamit Reinharz. The authors discussed the book and shared tips on dealing with teenage angst, all through a Jewish lens.

Jewish Women Talk about Circumcision: Gender and Jewish Identity (2003): The age-old custom of brit milah continues to be practiced almost universally among Jews. In many countries, however, new questions about circumcision are being raised. At this conference, six dynamic women with diverse views address these issues. Join us for an evening of conversation held on in the spirit of “yes” or “no,” but rather to encourage thoughtful reflection.

Girl with Two Landscapes: The Wartime Diary of Lena Jedwab 1941-1945 (2003):
Dorothée Rozenberg gave a reading of this important book of a personalized account by an adolescent girl caught up in the turmoil and terror of World War II. This event was co-sponsored by HBI and the NEJS department. Light refreshments were served.

The Annual Women’s Celebration of Sukkot (2001-2005):
Co-Sponsored by the Sh’ma Journal each year, and Mayyim Hayyim in other years, this celebration consists of various speakers and performers of religious, musical, and artistic themes. Families from the community join together to participate in these activities, and celebrate under the decorated sukkah.

Future of the American Jewish Family (1998):
Today’s American Jewish families inhabit a landscape differing significantly from prior eras in Jewish history. They are well-educated; extraordinarily high rates of Jewish youth leave home to attend college. They are very mobile; members of extended family units seldom live in the same geographical area. Patterns of family formation have changed dramatically. One-third of American Jews have never married or are divorced or widowed. Fertility rates are below replacement level, except among the most traditional families. Ideas of Jewish identity have undergone radical shifts. Most strikingly, American Jewish families are associated with a liberal political and social “package” of beliefs which sometimes seem to diverge from traditional Jewish lifestyles and values. This conference takes a fresh look at the impact of these dramatic changes. It explores the ramifications of transformations in the American Jewish family and discusses strategies which strengthen – or weaken – Jewish family life.