Abstract
Sylvia Barack Fishman describes how the engagement of women in all aspects of public Jewish religion has transformed the practice of Judaism in America over the past half-century. Not only has gender equality become the norm for religious leadership and congregational life outside the Orthodox world, but in Orthodoxy as well women have made substantial inroads as religious authorities and spiritual innovators, and in some segments of the Orthodox world also as leaders in synagogue services. Nowadays, Jewish ceremonies for newborn girls, prayers to sacralize the childbearing process, and bat mitzvah services are ubiquitous across denominational lines, while American Jewish women bereaved of loved ones engage in public recitation of mourning prayers, including in many Orthodox institutions. Altogether, according to Fishman, women’s religious involvement is setting Judaism in America apart from what is practiced in other countries.