Rights and rites: Women's roles in liberal religious movements in Israel

A study of the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel indicates that the question of women's rights in these Jewish denominations is essentially dormant. This is in contrast with the lively discussion of the role of women in American Jewish life. The demand for greater roles in the synagogue may be affected by the general societal orientation toward women's rights. In the Israeli case, there is no stimulant from a general movement for women's rights to lead to such demands among religious adherents.The field work upon which this study is based was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Public Health Service (Grant Number IR03 MH124072-01A1). Gratitude is also expressed to the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and to Bar Ilan University for fellowships during the study period. The author is also grateful to Bernard Lazerwitz, Michael Harrison, David Glanz, J. Alan Winter, and an anonymous reviewer of this journal for their comments to a draft of this article.