A Woman Is Responsible for Everything
Jewish Women in Early Modern Europe
Elisheva Carlebach author Debra Kaplan author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Princeton University Press
Published:9th Dec '25
Should be back in stock very soon
A groundbreaking look at the integral role of women in early modern Jewish communal life
In small villages, bustling cities, and crowded ghettos across early modern Europe, Jewish women were increasingly active participants in the daily life of their communities, managing homes and professions, leading institutions and sororities, and crafting objects and texts of exquisite beauty. A Woman Is Responsible for Everything marshals a dazzling array of previously untapped archival sources to tell the stories of these woman for the first time.
Debra Kaplan and Elisheva Carlebach focus their lens on the kehillah, a lively and thriving form of communal life that sustained European Jews for three centuries. They paint vibrant portraits of Jewish women of all walks of life, from those who wielded their wealth and influence in and out of their communities to the poorest maidservants and vagrants, from single and married women to the widowed and divorced. We follow them into their homes and learn about the possessions they valued and used, the books they read, and the writings they composed. Speaking to us in their own voices, these women reveal tremendous economic initiative in the rural marketplace and the princely court, and they express their profound spirituality in the home as well as the synagogue.
Beautifully illustrated, A Woman Is Responsible for Everything lifts the veil of silence that has obscured the lives of these women for too long, contributing a new chapter to the history of Jewish women and a new understanding of the Jewish past.
"Winner of the Women’s Studies Barbara Dobkin Award, Jewish Book Council"
"Winner of the Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award, Jewish Book Council"
"A prodigiously researched and beautifully illustrated contribution to Jewish and women’s studies." * Kirkus Reviews, starred review *
"A Woman is Responsible for Everything: Jewish Women in Early Modern Europe by professors Elisheva Carlebach and Debra Kaplan is one of those rare works that reshapes not only what we know, but how we know. The book uncovers the oversized, often unacknowledged role of Jewish women who fashioned communal and religious life in early modern Europe—not only within the home, but in the broader networks of economy, ritual, and prayer."---David Bashevkin, 18Forty
"A monumental treatise that uncovers fascinating truths about the structure of Jewish life roughly half a millennium ago. . . . A Woman is Responsible for Everything [is] not just a work of academic history, but also a beautiful book worth owning in hard copy. In addition to the many color images, the book is generously illustrated throughout with reproductions of manuscripts and printed books as well as photographs of material artifacts, such that reading this book is like gaining access both to a library archive and to a museum."---Ilana Kurshan, Tradition
"A treasure trove of quirky detail and unexpected stories. . . . [A Woman Is Responsible for Everything is] an extraordinary work of academic scholarship, uncovering the enormous contribution to building Jewish life over the centuries made by women whose stories would otherwise remain forgotten."---Jennifer Lipman, The Jewish Chronicle
ISBN: 9780691268613
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
488 pages