Hadassah-Brandeis Institute

Brandeis Series on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law

This book series is under the editorship of Lisa Fishbayn Joffe and Sylvia Neil.

The mandate for the series is to provide an avenue for publication of work that furthers our mission to foster dialogue about conflicts between women's claims to gender equality and practices justified in terms of religious and cultural tradition. This includes research on the rights of women in Jewish law, both in Israel and the Diaspora, and comparative work that considers women's rights under religious law from an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective.

Criteria for Selection

Work that breaks new theoretical ground by:

  • Developing new approaches to the place of gender in the political theory of multiculturalism.

  • Developing new theoretical tools for conceptualizing feminist projects for transforming the interpretation and justification of religious law.

  • Engaging in analysis of conflicts over gender and culture/religion in a particular religious tradition, cultural community or nation with a depth and complexity not seen in previous work.

Work that engages with debates over gender and culture/religion from a cross-cultural perspective by:

  • Working with case studies that compare challenges and innovations in different legal, cultural or religious regimes.

  • Working on a single regime or set of legal regimes, but constituting a contribution to a dialogue with other works previously published or contemplated for inclusion in the series. This would entail, for example, works that address similar questions or take similar approaches to gender and religious law challenges in Jewish law and Muslim law published sequentially so that they “speak” to each other.

We welcome letters of inquiry regarding manuscripts that might be suitable for the Brandeis Series on Gender, Culture, Religion and Law. Please contact the editors at fishbaynjoffe@brandeis.edu.

Guidelines for proposals

Newest Publications

Book cover: with words The Marital Knot and a large image of a dress made of pieces of paper

On the cover, Israeli artist Andi Arnovitz's "Coat of the Agunot" (2010), a composition of hundreds of shredded marriage certificates.

The Marital Knot: Agunot in the Ashkenazi Realm, 1648-1850

Noa Shashar (December 23, 2024)

Book cover with words: Holy Rebellion, Religious Feminism and the Transformation of Judaism and Women's Rights in Israel. Image of red Torah scrolls
Holy Rebellion: Religious Feminism and the Transformation of Judaism and Women's Rights in Israel

Ronit Irshai and Tanya Zion-Waldoks (May 17, 2024)

Book Cover. Text reads: Mark Goldfeder. Legalizing Plural Marriage: The Next Frontier in Family Law. There is a photo of 3 interlocking wedding rings.
Legalizing Plural Marriage

Mark Goldfeder (2017)

Book Cover: GENDER and JUSTICE in FAMILY LAW DISPUTES: Women, Mediation and Religious Arbitration. Edited by Samio Bano. There are vertical stripes on either side of the text, remotely resembling the spines of books.
Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes: Women, Mediation and Religious Arbitration

Edited by Samio Bano (2017)

Book Cover: Text reads: Girls of Liberty: Struggle for Suffrage in Mandatory Palestine. Margaret Shilo. Background is an overall herringbone pattern. Dark green stripe behind the subtitle.
Girls of Liberty: The Struggle for Suffrage in Mandatory Palestine

Margalit Shilo (2016)

Book Cover: Text reads Religious Crisis and Civic Transformation How Conflicts over Gender and Sexuality Changed the West German Catholic Church, images or two women (Eve) one clothed and one not
Religious Crisis and Civic Transformation: How Conflicts over Gender and Sexuality Changed the West German Catholic Church

Kimba Allie Tichenor (2016)

Book Cover. Text reads: Edited by Lisa fishbayn Joffe and Sylvia Neil. Gender, Religion, and Family Law: Theorizing Conflicts Between Women’s Rights and Cultural Traditions. Large photo of a bride and groom holding hands. The picture is zoomed in on their clasped hands and the elaborate, embroidered and brightly colored fabrics of the of the bridal dress and the henna patterns on her fingers.
Gender, Religion, and Family Law: Theorizing Conflicts between Women’s Rights and Cultural Traditions

Lisa Fishbayn Joffe and Sylvia Neil eds. (December 2012)

Book Cover. Text reads: MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE IN THE JEWISH STATE: ISRAEL'S CIVIL WAR. Susan M. Weiss and Netty C. Gross-Horowitz. Background photo is a view of a man and a women from the elbows, chained to each other with a large linked metal chain. The man holds in one end in his hand. She holds a bouquet of white flowers.
Marriage and Divorce in the Jewish State: Israel's Civil War

Susan Weiss and Netty Gross. (December 2012)

Book Cover. Text reads: SELF-DETERMINATION and WOMEN'S RIGHTS in MUSLIM SOCIETIES. At the bottom: Chitra Raghavan and James P. Levine, editors. The photograph is of two Muslim women walking, viewed from behind. They are wearing burkas. One has a shoulder bag. The title has ornate borders with patterns found in Islamic art.
Self-Determination and Women's Rights in Muslim Societies

Chitra Raghavan, ed.; James P. Levine, ed.; Jeremy Travis, fwd., (July 2012)

Book cover. Text reads: FERTILITY AND JEWISH LAW. (The word "fertility" is in red letters). Ronit Irshai. Feminist Perspectives on Orthodox Responsa Literature. The artwork depicts an image of a woman in a red dress standing next to a man wearing a black hat and black coat, seen from behind. There is the silhouette of a child between them. The people are transparently placed on the background of book pages.
Fertility and Jewish Law: Feminist Perspectives on Orthodox Responsa Literature

Ronit Irshai, Bar-Ilan University, (June 2012)

Book cover. Text reads: Polygamy in Primetime. Author's name is elaborate script: janet Bennion. Subtitle on a stripe at the bottom: "Media, Gender, and Politics in Mormon Fundamentalism. Full page image of the top of a wedding cake with a groom and 4 brides. The 4 brides in a row to the groom's left, each one a little more blurred than the one next to her.
Polygamy in Primetime: Media, Gender, and Politics in Mormon Fundamentalism

Janet Bennion, (May 2012)

Book Cover. Text is on a background of richly embroidered brocade fabric with deep folds. Text reads: Citizenship, Faith & Feminism. Jewish and Muslim Women . Reclaim Their Rights. Jan Feldman. There is a leaf ornament separating the title from the author.
Citizenship, Faith & Feminism: Jewish and Muslim Women Reclaim Their Rights

Jan Feldman, (Spring 2011)