Yeshivat Maharat in the Bronx ordained no less than 50 women as rabbis and Orthodox leaders despite innate hardships posed by the Halacha and criticism from both the Rabbinical Council and the Orthodox
Jews have historically been both pro-natalist and pro-choice. How does this dichotomy manifest in attitudes, social policy, and legislation around issues of abortion?
Michal Raucher is an assistant professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. In her research she is interested in how Jewish women in the US and Israel push boundaries, reinforce norms, and construct moral worlds. Michal has a background in bioethics, religion, and gender studies. As a Fulbright Fellow, Dr. Raucher conducted research on the reproductive ethics of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish women in Israel. Her first book, which is based on this research, was published by Indiana University Press in 2020. It is titled, Conceiving Agency: Reproductive Authority among Haredi Women. Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty she was an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati and taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Michal has degrees from Columbia University, JTS, the University of Pennsylvania, and a doctorate from Northwestern University. She is currently researching the ordination of Orthodox Jewish women in Israel and America.
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An illustrative photo of an ultra-Orthodox wedding. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)
NEW YORK JEWISH WEEK Outsiders who see the parade of strollers in Jerusalem’s haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, neighborhoods or get their views of haredim from TV shows like “Shtisel” or “Unorthodox” may be quick to judge the women there as constrained by their roles as wives and mothers.
Researcher Michal Raucher paints a much more complicated picture of strictly religious Jewish women in her new book, “Conceiving Agency: Reproductive Authority Among Haredi Women.”
Based on her interviews with more than 20 women and as many medical professionals, the book shows the many ways haredi women express their autonomy when it comes to contraception, prenatal care and abortion. Trusting their own bodies and experience, women often “find space to make reproductive decisions without the incursion of their husbands or their rabbis,” writes Raucher. “Furthermore, although their bodies are heavily re