Making of the Zionist Woman
Zionist Discourse on the Jewish Woman’s Body and Selfhood in Interwar Poland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12149199 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jolanta Mickutė (Imre Kertész Institute, Friedrich Schiller University, Germany, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 137-162 |
| Publication date | 2013-07-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | East European Politics and Societies and Cultures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0888-3254 • E-ISSN: 1533-8371 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0888325413493113 |
| OpenAlex | W2322180587 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 1 |
The majority of scholarly debates on varieties of Jewish nationalism focus on the Jewish man’s role in the rebuilding of the Jewish homeland and his body in the regeneration of the Jewish nation. This article discusses Zionism’s gender politics surrounding the Jewish woman’s body and selfhood in this rebirth process and the formation of a modern Jewish identity in interwar Poland. It explores Jewish patriarchal structures and the discursive power and reach of Zionist ideology. Jewish women engaged not only in the ideological rebirth of the Jewish nation, they also initiated the physical rebirth of the Jewish Woman who was deemed too urban and thus degenerate (the modern Jewish woman was viewed as possessing next to no ideological consciousness and physical strength). Therefore, Zionist female ideologues argued that the bodily rebirth of Jewish women would lead to the strengthening of their Jewish identities and inevitably the Jewish stock. While still in the Diaspora, women had to work on developing strong healthy bodies, inasmuch as Zionist men were expected to make themselves into strong muscular Jews to be able to immigrate to Palestine and work there productively. Besides being able to work in Palestine alongside Jewish men, nationalist Jewish women had to be strong and healthy for one more reason: they had to be able to give birth to healthy children, which in the Zionist context meant giving birth to a healthy Jewish nation
Anti-Zionism · Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Haskalah · Homeland · Ideology · Jewish history · Jewish identity · Jewish studies · Judaism · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Zionism · Gender Studies · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Jewish Identity and Society · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2021 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |