Gender, Religion, and Feminism: The Case of Jewish Israeli Traditionalists YAACOV YADGAR This article explores the issue of gender, feminism, and religion through a study of Jewish Israeli traditionalist (masorti) women. Based on the premise that feminist discourse and rhetoric have become widely accepted and disseminated (while sociocultural and political practices are far from fully implementing this discourse), the article asks how women who choose an identity that refuses to fall into the one-dimensional dichotomy that distinguishes between the category of the “secular-modern-feminist” and that of the “religious-traditional-subordinate” con- struct and negotiate their feminine identity, while exploring the varying ways in which this identity-construct interplays with these women’s identity as members of an ethno-national collective. This exploration deals with issues of: feminist and Jewish traditionalist discourses; body, dress, and ritual; family, spousal relations, and personal security; and women in synagogue. INTRODUCTION The last one-and-a-half decade has witnessed a dramatic increase in scholarly interest in issues of gender and religion, focusing in particular on feminism and religion. These rubrics, “gender and religion” and “feminism and religion” encompass a wide range of issues that touch in one way or another upon the feminine experience in the world of religion. Without pretending to present an exhaustive review of the research field (for such a review, see Neitz 1993, 2003; Castelli and Rodman 2001), it can be summarized as revolving mainly around the attempt to analyze, map, and understand (and sometimes also to dictate) the contact and intersection between “the feminine” (or feminist discourse) and “the religious” (as discourse and identity). Most important in this regard are the developments in feminist discourse (see Dietz 2003). In this framework, the relative success of feminist discourse in penetrating the public sphere demands a unique sensitivity to the presence and influence of this discourse. As formulated in the oft-quoted remark by Baumgardner and Richards (2000:17): “For anyone born after the early 1960s, the presence of feminism in our lives is taken for granted. For our generation, feminism is like fluoride. We scarcely notice that we have it—it’s simply in the water.” Even if somewhat overstated, this statement still captures a core element, or property, that every discussion on religious and feminine identities has to take into account: important elements of feminist discourse and rhetoric have become widespread and acknowledged—although we are still far from witnessing the satisfactory implementation of feminism’s basic premises into the social, political, cultural, and even private spheres. Indeed, as the present study shows, the collision between the cultural prevalence of feminist-egalitarian rhetoric and actual political practices of discrimination is immanent. This collision highlights the interest in studying the varying ways in which women construct female identity in a context that is usually considered to be discriminatory against women by its very nature, traditional religion. One of the important implications of this omni-presence of feminist discourse is its percolation into, and influence on, groups and individuals who do not consider themselves to be feminist (i.e., who do not identify with what is often seen as the radical political aims of the feminist movement). In fact, this is one of feminism’s biggest achievements as a social and political movement: its Correspondence should be addressed to Yaacov Yadgar, Department of Political Studies, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel. E-mail: yadgary@mail.biu.ac.il Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2006) 45(3):353–370