Books and Babies: Reproductive Literacy among Haredi Women in Israel

Online Event, Register Here

Join the Schusterman Scholars Seminar with Michal Raucher, hosted by Brandeis University’s Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

Michal Raucher is an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. Her research lies at the intersection of Israel studies, religious ethics, Jewish studies, and the anthropology of women and gender. She is interested in how Jewish women in the US and Israel push boundaries, reinforce norms, and construct moral worlds. Dr. Raucher conducted ethnographic research on the reproductive ethics of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish women in Israel. For two years she interviewed ultra-Orthodox women in their homes in Jerusalem and spoke to them about their reproductive lives.

Her book, which is based on this research, was published by Indiana University Press in November 2020. It is titled Conceiving Agency: Reproductive Authority among Haredi WomenMichal is currently conducting ethnographic research on the ordination of women in Orthodox Judaism in Israel and America. She has also published on embodiment in Judaism, the study of Orthodoxy and gender, sexuality and gender in Judaism, religion, and bioethics, abortion legislation in Israel, and female religious advisors on the Internet.

Join the Event

Registration is required beforehand, please register here: https://brandeis.wufoo.com/forms/ms4cn9d06isa3n/