Students and scholars of diverse political and religious affiliations will gather on campus Thursday-Sunday, March 27-30, for a national conference on "Women and Judaism."
The event is sponsored by Jewish Women at Yale, an undergraduate organization affiliated with Yale Hillel. It will be held at the Joseph P. Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, 80 Wall St.
In their brochure for the event, the conference organizers write: "This conference represents only the beginning of what we hope will be a rich tradition of using our diversity to gain a greater understanding of who we are as a generation of Jewish women. The issues are many, and they are pertinent to us all."
Seminar topics include "Jewish, American and female: defining our values," "Rape law in Israel and the United States," "Gender and sexuality in Talmudic times," "Facing the mirror: confronting our bodies," "Baking challah: a twisted legacy," "Women of the Wall: the legal and political struggle," "The chosen people? A dilemma for Jewish feminists," "Our mothers, our daughters: issues between generations," "Rabbinic texts on women arguing with God" and more.
Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, Bible scholar and author of "Genesis: the Beginning of Desire," will present the keynote address on "Women of the Exodus: the ethics of reflection" at 8 p.m. on Thursday. Her talk will be free and open to the public.
Other featured speakers will include award-winning playwright Merle Feld; actor and author Amy Aaland; Paula Hyman, the Lucy Moses Professor of Jewish History; Sharon Kleinbaum, rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, New York's synagogue serving the gay, lesbian and bisexual community; and Sharon Cohen Anisfield, associate rabbi at Yale Hillel.
The weekend will also include prayer sessions, meals and a bazaar of books, tapes and artwork by and about Jewish women.
The fee for the conference is $18 for Yale students; $36 for all others, which includes meals. Preregistration is encouraged. To register, contact Sara Meirowitz by telephone at 436-1732 or by e- mail at saram@pantheon.yale.edu.