Bet Debora - Jewish Women's Perspectives

Martin Christopher Dean, a research scholar at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). In 2023 the Diary of Ita Diamant “Survival”, edited by Martin Dean, was published. Martin Dean is a renowned scholar of Nazi camps and ghettos. In this conversation with Andrea Petö he describes was fascinated him about this diary of a woman surviving the ghetto in Warsaw and other ghettos while also helping others.

The distinguished guest of this podcast is Noa Sattath, Executive Director of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), one of the leading human rights organizations in the country. Noa explains that although the Supreme Court cancelled the government’s legislation to weaken the judiciary and with it Israeli democracy, the war brings new attacks on democratic rights particularly of the Arab citizens of Israel with it.

Sandi Wisenberg, author, journalist and editor from Chicago, has enriched numerous Bet Debora conferences with her witty, creative workshops. Now she published a book of autobiographical essays as well as reflections on perceptions of and theories about women through the ages. The common denominator of her very diverse texts is the Jewish feminist perspective, the consistently female voice of the narrator/author and the subtle humor and irony.

In 2017, I, Rabbi Barbara Borts, read a note about some concerts being held in my city of Newcastle upon Tyne, with music by composers who were considered 'entarte', 'degenerate', music banned by the Nazis as too modern, too corrupting, too Jewish. I had heard some of the compositions here and there, as they began to be reclaimed and performed, and I went along to the first one. I wasentranced. The music was special, intriguing, lovely, different, and it was exciting to have this music as an aspect of the commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day. The inspired figure behind this programme was Sasha Raikhlina, a gifted violinist with the Northern Sinfornia Orchestra. She assembled a team, and thus was established the annual Brundibar Festival. I am here discussing this project with Sasha herself.

Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli is a medical sociologist and professor in the Department of Nursing at the Faculty of Welfare and Health Sciences at the University of Haifa. She is known, among many other things, for asking research questions that provide unique insights into the working of contemporary societies. In this podcast episode, Daphna talks with Barbara Prainsack about two of her research projects that illustrate the changing meaning of kinship in Israeli society, from two very different perspectives: One project looks at how family relationships are changing when same-sex parents break up. The other one explores how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the relationships of young Israelis with their partners and children, as well as their attitudes towards family and work.

Carmel Shalev is an Israeli bioethicist and writer. Her work spans the big themes of life: Having been the first academic researching and writing about surrogacy, she influenced the introduction of surrogacy in Israel. Her most recent book, "In Praise of Ageing", combines reflections on growing older in a society that has particular "scripts" for ageing women with ancient Buddhist wisdom. In this podcast episode, Carmel Shalev tells the story of what made her a feminist, how her years studying law in Yale shaped her, and what it is like growing older in a radically changing Israeli society.

Barbara Staudinger ist seit Sommer 2022 Direktorin des Jüdischen Museums Wien. Im November 2022 präsentierte sie die erste von ihr und anderen kuratierte Ausstellung „100 Missverständnisse über und unter Juden“. Wir sprechen mit ihr über ihren Werdegang als Historikerin, Judaistin und Kuratorin, ihre Arbeit in Museen in Deutschland und Österreich sowie ihre Ziele als Direktorin des Jüdischen Museums Wien.

Ronit Irshai and Orna Sasson-Levy both work in the department of Gender Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. They both see Israel in crisis and Gender Studies in Israel under attack. In an open discussion they point out the problems they are faced with and their strategies to overcome them. They also point to the special situation of Gender Studies at Bar-Ilan University, a conservative, religious institution.

Susanne Plietzsch ist Professorin für Judaistik und leitet seit 2010 das Zentrum für jüdische Kulturgeschichte der Universität Salzburg. Mit ihr sprechen wir über die Inhalte der Jüdischen Studien und das Salzburger Zentrum. Susanne Plietzsch begeistert sich für rabbinische Literatur und hier vor allem Midrasch. Ein wichtiges Anliegen ist es ihr, die Universität und insbesondere die Geisteswissenschaften zu befähigen, auf die Bedürfnisse der modernen Gesellschaft einzugehen.

Muss jiddische Volksmusik immer Klezmer sein? Unser neuer Podcast stellt jiddische Arbeiterlieder a capella gesungen von Isabel Frey vor. Isabel bemüht sich um eine zeitgemäße Belebung des Gedankenguts des Allgemeinen jüdischen Arbeiterbunds, der bedeutendsten jiddischen politischen Bewegung vor der Shoah und im Zusammenhang damit um eine Stärkung der jüdischen Diaspora, besonders auf kulturellem und politischen Gebiet.

Dwora Stein war langjährige Bundesgeschäftsführerin der Gewerkschaft für Privatabgestellte, der größten Gewerkschaft Österreichs. In unserem Gespräch beschäftigen wir uns mit der Frage, was es für eine jüdische intellektuelle Frau bedeutete, in der männerdominierten Gewerkschaftsbewegung Karriere zu machen und welches ihre wichtigsten Errungenschaften waren. Außerdem sprechen wir über das vielfältige jüdische Engagement Dworas.

Jakob Ehrlich, Catherine’s grandfather was one of the most important Zionist politicians of Austria before the Shoah. After the Nazi takeover he was arrested immediately and deported to Dachau where he perished a few months later. His wife Catherine and his son Paul escaped to England where Irma became a successful speaker and fundraiser for WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization). She continued this career after her move to New York. After the war she assisted survivors with their restitution claims in Germany. Catherine Ehrlich explains why she focused her book on Irma and how she influenced her life.

Marta Sznajder, a philosopher at the University of Groningen, talks to Naomi Osorio-Kupferblum about her Janina Project in which she researches the life and work of Janina Hosiasson-Lindenbaum aka Janina Pańska. Born in Warsaw in 1899, Janina Hosiasson was one of the most avant-garde philosophers of her time. Despite the double disadvantage of being a woman and a Jew, she contributed to work in her area, inductive logic, with papers and talks at internationally renowned venues which inspired some of her most prominent contemporaries. Marta Sznajder speaks about the importance of Janina’s work, her personal life and her untimely death at the hands of the Gestapo in 1942. For more, including fascinating updates, on the Janina Project, see Marta Sznajder’s website: https://martasznajder.wordpress.com/janina-project/janina-project-blog/

Daphna Hacker, Professor at the Tel Aviv University Law Faculty and the Head of the Women and Gender Studies Program at the Faculty of Humanities, explains the growing importance of improved legislation concerning transnational families. Daphna Hacker also demands changes in inheritance laws that would enable the elderly to secure the necessary care they need. Another topic of our conversation is the recent regression in women's status in Israel, focusing on two main issues: the weakening of motherhood as a rewarding status, and women's exclusion from the public sphere.

Anna Goldenberg, born in 1989 in Vienna, studied psychology at the University of Cambridge and journalism at Columbia University, New York. She worked for the Jewish newspaper The Forward in New York before returning to Vienna where she now works for the weekly Der Falter and the daily Die Presse. Her book "I Belong to Vienna" was published in 2018 by New Vessel Press and in German under the title "Versteckte Jahre. Der Mann, der meinen Großvater rettete". (Hidden years. The man who saved my Grandfather) by Paul Zsolnay Verlag. In the podcast Anna Goldenberg discusses her family’s fate during the holocaust and after the war as well as her role as an author and granddaughter.

Jewish Women’s Aid was the first organisation in Britain - and arguably in Europe – to help Jewish victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Rabbi Lee Wax describes the kind of violence and abuse Jewish women and children are exposed to and the ways her organisation can help them.

Anikó Félix is a Sociologist, received her PhD in Sociology from Eötvös Lóránd Science University, Budapest, Hungary in 2019. From 2020, she serves as a Case Manager for Combating Antisemitism at the World Jewish Congress. Her main fields of expertise are the contemporary far right movements, subculture and parties with a huge focus on their gender aspect, right-wing populism and antisemitism.

Yael Hashiloni-Dolev, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, about the ways genetic technologies change our notions of family and the position of mothers in society. More about Prof. Hashiloni-Dolev: https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/Pages/Yael-Hashiloni-Dolev.aspx

Susanne Scholl beobachtete und kommentierte als Auslandskorrespondentin des Österreichischen Rundfunks den Fall des kommunistischen Regimes, den Aufstieg Vladimir Putins und den Krieg in Tschetschenien. Heute engagiert sie sich für Demokratie, Menschenrechte und einen humanen Umgang mit Flüchtlingen. Dieser Podcast entstand in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Institut für Politikwissenschaften der Universität Wien.

Norli Lappin-Eppel spricht mit Shoshanna Duizend-Jensen, Historikerin und Archivarin, Tempelvorständin und Flüchtlingshelferin in Wien, über ihre Aktivitäten und die Stellung der Frauen in der orthodoxen jüdischen Gemeinde.