October 29, 2004/Cheshvan 14 5765, Vol. 57, No. 9
On the cutting edgeSymposium addresses issues of today's Jewish woman
STEPHANIE N. HENSCHEL
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Today's women have options.
With these options, women are educating themselves and getting involved. They are informed and up-to-date.
They are career women, they are mothers, and they are housewives.
They are whatever they want to be.
On Nov. 14, these women will come from all over the state to gather at Arizona State University for a symposium focused on the issues important to them, "On the Cutting Edge: Today's Jewish Woman."
The symposium, cosponsored by Arizona State University Jewish Studies Program and the Bureau of Jewish Education, and in collaboration with Brandeis University National Women's Committee, Phoenix Chapter, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, will focus on the issues affecting today's Jewish woman.
It all began when Gloria Weiss, a former Westchester County, N.Y., resident, moved to the Valley three years ago.
Weiss had the opportunity while living in New York to attend a women's symposium sponsored by the local Hadassah chapter and Sarah Lawrence College.
"They were the most scintillating, thought- provoking (events)," Weiss says. "You would walk around going, 'What a day!'"
In fact, the Hadassah-University women's symposium concept was initiated in the Westchester region and has served as a national model that has been successfully replicated across the country.
After moving to the area, she thought it would be a good idea to bring a similar event to Phoenix. The community welcomed the idea.
The symposium, which is open to both men and women, isn't intended to fill a void, Weiss says, but to provide today's women with the most up-to-date information on topics they are interested in.
"We're not talking any longer about what your mother's idea of what these organizations are," Weiss says. "Women here are talking about things on the cutting edge. They're active, they're involved, they're with it."
Dawn Breeson, administrative assistant in the Jewish Studies program at ASU, said Hadassah approached the department to see if they were interested in getting involved.
Of course, the answer was yes.
"It's important for us to be involved in the community," Breeson says. The symposium will function as an outreach to the community, part of the mission of the program.
"It can help to contribute to the education of the community and improve the quality of life," Breeson adds.
"We hope to give Jewish women, or any women, information that is right on the edge of things that affect all of our lives," says local Hadassah president Fredi Brown. "These are things that really affect us on a personal basis."
Brown says she hopes to provoke some thoughts in participants and hopefully encourage them to take action.
Many speakers from around the country, as well as from the Valley, have that same aspiration.
Linda R. Hirshman, a retired professor from Brandeis University, as well as an attorney, author and activist, will open up the event with "The Politics of Sex: Have Married Women Abandoned the Feminist Movement?"
According to Hirshman, the topic was born out of a book proposal on contemporary American marriage. After inter-viewing many engaged and newly married couples, Hirshman was amazed at her dis-coveries.
"I found that an amazingly high pe-rcentage of (women) were highly educated women who had left the workplace," Hirshman says. "It was riveting to find that the daughters of feminism are leaving the workplace for the home."
Women today have to face that harsh reality of work or home, Hirshman says. Jobs demand more, taking time away from the aspects of the home.
"A lot of women decide that they don't even want to play the game," she says.
Hirshman hopes to revive the earlier energy of the feminist movement. Based on her findings, many Jewish women are highly educated, thus making the issue that much more relevant to them.
Judith C. Engelman, a local psychiatrist, says she is looking to dispel some of the myths regarding mental illness in her presentation, "It's Not a Shonda - How We Address Secrets in the Jewish Community."
"Having been a Jewish woman psychiatrist in the Valley for 25 years, I have been struck with how our people are incredibly ashamed of and na‹ve about many mental health problems which affect someone in almost every family in this community," Engelman writes in an e-mail to Jewish News. "I hope to expose the problems. Shame dissipates when exposed to the light of day."
Engelman says she plans to do an overview of some of the major issues, such as domestic violence, eating disorders and depression.
Engelman was invited to speak by the BJE, where she did her research on her presentation, "The Secrets in the Jewish Community." She is a member of the executive board of the Women's Department at the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, and has spoken about mental health issues to several groups and organizations throughout the Valley.
Engelman also hopes that perhaps she can spur the community to take action. At a previous conference where she had spoken on a similar topic, she stated that she would personally head up a task force designed to tackle these problems, should there be someone willing to subsidize the time. She will reiterate her proposal at the symposium.
"Other communities have fantastic programs in place already," she says. "We don't have to reinvent the wheel. We just have to roll it to Phoenix."
Brown said she is looking forward to the symposium. As of Oct. 19, more than 100 people had registered for the program.
"I am looking forward to how the community responds to it," she says.
"Just because we're however old we are doesn't mean we aren't aware," Weiss says. "We are the women of today."
Contact the writer here
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Details
- What: On the Cutting Edge: Today's Jewish Woman, a women's symposium
- When: 8:45 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 14
- Cost: $36, $15 for students with ID
- Call 480-998-1880 by Nov. 8