Betsy - Rose

Thesis:

Images of Jewish women incorporated Viennese bourgeois gender stereotypes, reflecting and fusing together with the non-Jewish cultural surroundings. In other words, Viennese Jewish identity was an amalgam of Jewish and bourgeois Viennese identity, and views on women reflect this combination. Rose adds to Marsha Rozenblit’s “tripartite identity” thesis that Jewish women had a “quadripartite identity.”

Sources:

Personal papers, diaries, memoirs, pamphlets, oral histories

My comments:

Rose misconstrues Marsha Rozenblit’s “tripartite identity” thesis of nationality. Rozenblit’s work analyzes nationalism and nationalist feelings of Jews in the Habsburg Empire, finding that a Habsburg Jew could feel politically Austrian, culturally German (or Czech, or Polish, etc.), and ethnically Jewish. Gender is of utmost importance in personal experience and identity, obviously, but doesn’t fit as an element of nationalism. She’s stretching here. Of course women had/have different challenges to face than men and so in singling out Jewish women, they naturally have a fourth identity to manage, but Rozenblit is talking about national identity. This topic is very important and adds a lot to historical understanding, so why does she have to find a way to modify an existing thesis? Why not just have her own?

Not enough about things BY women. Most of it was ABOUT women, and men’s views on women. Maybe this reflects what is or is not available, but it was disappointing and didn’t seem to live up to her promise.

 

Book notes:

Chapter 1 – Childhood and Youth of Jewish Girls

Jewish girls experienced alienation and difference in Vienna. At the fin-de-siècle, wealthier Jewish girls were being educated to equip them for high society and as ornaments of their father’s/family’s wealth. Gymnasien for girls began, as did a form of “Jewish confirmation” (for both boys and girls) to provide proper Jewish education and to ensure that girls could raise a good Jewish family.

Jewish girls doubly isolated in comparison to Jewish boys, because they were Jews and female. Highly educated daughters of wealthy Jewish families seen as ornaments of upward mobility; what education they got was focused on language, literature, etc. to enable their function in high levels of society. Overall, education not considered necessary for women – none for proletarian girls. In any case, in 1868 (post-emancipation) schools/Gymnasien for girls began and women were allowed as non-matriculated students at university. There was no good Jewish education for dealing with the antisemitism that existed, and so a Jewish confirmation was developed for girls and boys. Girls’ education in things Jewish was to specifically strengthen the family. Argument against Jewish confirmation, though, because it was borrowed from the church. Catholic nannies and servants had influence on children’s identities; also assimilated or converted parents, traditional grandparents à all confusing to Jewish children.

Chapter 2 – Community, Spirituality, and Philanthropy

Vienna a crossroads between tradition and modernity for women’s roles. Charity and philanthropic work in the Jewish community provided Jewish women with a role in the community that met their needs for social life, work outside the home, and religious sensibilities. Jewish women were also responsible for the home and the family, ensuring its faith and morals. Jewish leaders portrayed Jewish attitudes towards women to have been historically forward thinking and reflective of fin-de-siècle bourgeois Viennese values much earlier than the turn of the century.

Some women Jewish women assimilated, while others involved themselves in the Jewish community through charity work and prayer-related organizations (burial societies, etc.). Modern ideas, assimilation, and antisemitism prompted a definition of Jewish women’s roles. A women’s prayer book was developed, for example, that had little Hebrew and reinforced gender stereotypes. Philanthropic organizations gave women an outlet outside of the home, a social life, and met their religious sensibilities; it enabled them to participate in Jewish culture even if they were not religious. The tensions of modernism and the situation of Viennese Jews between East and West shaped Jewish leaders’ views of Jewish women, and the strict separation of gender spheres in the Jewish community reflected the bourgeois values of fin-de-siècle Vienna. Women’s roles included charity work, taking care of the family and its morality, devotion, and faith. Many leaders looked to the past and showed women’s roles in tradition – home, family, morality; defended the Jewish treatment of women, defended against antisemitic claims that included Jewish women. Used Jewish tradition to show that Jewish attitudes towards women predated and were the same as those of the fin-de-siècle Viennese bourgeois values.

Chapter 3 – University and Political Involvement

Jewish university women led the way for all women into politics and university education. University education meant emancipation as Jews and as women. Jewish university women lacked a strong Jewish identity, as they came largely from secular, assimilated homes and had had a secular education before. Most Jewish university women distanced selves from feminist movement.

Jewish women led the way of women’s entry into the male domains of politics and university. Proportionately more Jewish women at university when the doors opened to women; more in Vienna than in Germany, too. Bildung = emancipation for them, both as Jews and as women. Most Jewish university women lacked a strong Jewish identity; most from upper-middle class and had had a secular education, were of assimilated families with few religious observances. Not much in feminist movement. Many women at university made sure they didn’t appear as feminists. Jewish women blamed for feminism by antisemites. Zionism, socialism, communism. Jewish writing about the women’s movement took 3 themes: (1) Jewish women didn’t need feminism because they already had a high status in the Jewish community; (2) fear that the women’s movement weakened their Jewish identity; (2) women’s movement dangerous because of blurred lines between men and women. Jewish university women seen as masculine – feminism blamed for female hysteria.

Chapter 4 – Women and the Zionist Movement

Zionism sought to masculinze Jewish men (working the land) and to reverse stereotypes of “masculine” Jewish women (in charge of home and family and, thereby, nation). No new ideas – borrowed from bourgeois Viennese society, as well as sexist stereotypes, too. Herzlian Zionism offered women equal rights in exchange for being responsible for home and family, culture and tradition.

Zionism was a way to negotiate female identity, Jewish identity, and turn-of-the-century antisemitism. Zionism a way to work for Judaism in a feminine way. Some Zionists saw feminism as a danger because it was of assimilation; feminist took Jewish women away from their people. “Natural” areas of the woman – home, family, and nation; education of Jewish youth. Some argued for political involvement of women, not just in women’s roles. Zionism sought to change gendered stereotypes regarding “feminine” Jewish men and masculinized Jewish women – through Zionism, men were to become more manly by farming the land and women were to be responsible for transmitting culture and faith to their families. This was not new – borrowed from bourgeois Viennese society (sounds Nazi, actually!!). Women to be devoted to family and thereby to nation building. Charity was also an appropriate form of women’s work. Herzlian Zionism was supposed to give equal rights to women in exchange for them being in charge of the home and family, culture and tradition. Sexist stereotypes borrowed from Viennese bourgeois culture.

Chapter 5 – Medicine and Psychoanalysis

Jews and women both supposed to have physical and mental weaknesses; the 2 linked by gender and racial stereotypes. Psychotherapy a way for Jewish women to navigate female AND Jewish identity. Jews supposed to be repressed and neurotic; at the same time, over-sexed; at the same time, Jewish men seen as feminine. Jewish health problems said to be linked to inbreeding; others said linked to emancipation and sudden exposure to diseases from which they’d been isolated. Medical theories fought racist stereotypes and embraced sexist ones. Jewish doctors had same views about women as non-Jewish contemporaries.

Jews and women were linked by gender and racial stereotypes; both supposed to have physical and mental weaknesses. Jewish women attracted to studying psychotherapy because it served as a way to navigate both female and Jewish identities. Freud’s theories reflect his view of Jewish women because all/most of the patients about whom he wrote were Jewish women; he hid this as part of an effort to de-Judaize psychotherapy. Freud masculinized Jewish women with his theories of bisexuality. Jews were supposed to be repressed and neurotic; also the contradictory over-sexed stereotype. “Typically Jewish” disorders supposedly existed. Jewish men seen as feminine. Self-hatred appears among Jewish doctors. Some linked Jewish problems to intermarriage and inbreeding; others said they had actually been isolated from certain diseases for so long that exposure upon emancipation struck them, they had no tolerance or ability to deal. Fought antisemitic stereotypes in medical theory while embracing sexist stereotypes. View of Jewish doctors the same as their non-Jewish contemporaries.

Chapter 6 – Literature and Culture

Viennese Jewish images of women took on many of the general characteristics of stereotypes of women.

General bourgeois gender stereotypes incorporated into images of Jewish women; represents a synthesis of Jewish culture with bourgeois European culture. Jewish women provided enlightenment without losing Jewish identity in literature, or provided a link to tradition in a changing world. Jewish women characters in art and literature provided a way of responding to dilemmas of modernity. Jewish authors normally didn’t deal with Jewish topics. Jewish women either anticipated change or provided reminders of or links to the past/tradition. Ghetto stories used to suggest religious reform and modernity through women à modernity without losing Jewish identity. First ½ of 19^th c., emphasis on the positive effects of modernity on Jewish women. Second ½ of 19^th c., support traditional Judaism and women’s roles therein. In Zionist stories, Jewish women influence Jewish men to modern ideas. Amongst Jung Wien, not so concerned with already assimilated Jewish women; reacted to antisemitism. Theater – stereotypes on stage, antisemitism – Eastern Jewish women alluring, beautiful, exotic; Western Jewish women focus on Bildung and assimilation, sexual, witchcraft. Jewish playwrights didn’t do much to correct such views.