Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism

The comparison between modern orthodox and lubavitch chabad resocialization of women is a must read for those on this journey.

people who haven't been exposed to Orthodoxy very much. Just to sum up briefly: the modern Orthodox Manhattanites profiled tend to have busy but slightly empty lives, and are trying to fit their new religious commitment into those lives. Their rabbis tend to focus less on beliefs about Divine existence and desires than on the utilitarian virtues of plugging into the wisdom of a 2000-year-old tradition. The women in the Lubavitch "sleepaway" camp tend to be younger, suffering from very troubled lives, more focused on Divine will, and looking to make a major change in those lives (not surprisingly- since people with satisfactory jobs are usually going to be unable to take a month off). Their rebbes view Chasidism as these women's personal destiny, rather than as a freely chosen alternative. For those of you who are more familiar with Orthodoxy, the charm of this book lies in offhand points that the book makes in passing: for example, its implication that Orthodox triumphalism (that is, the idea that Orthodoxy is the future of Judaism) was far more rare in the 1980s, and that the Lubavitchers were struggling with the Messianic issue (that is, the issue of whether the Rebbe, may his memory be a blessing, was the Messiah) even then.

I want to clarify some aspects of my book, TRADITION IN A ROOTLESS WORLD, that were left unclear by the first reviewer who wrote here. One is that the book does not focus on two synagogues in Manhattan but rather on one modern Orthodox synagogue community in Manhattan and the other a live-in school-cum-dormitory that is run by the Lubavitcher Hasidim in St. Paul Minnesota. The book has as its primary questions why contemporary women are attracted to Orthodox Judaism and how that transformation is accomplished through the interactions between the newcomers and the Orthodox (or Hasidic) institutions that they attend. I argue that each form of Orthodoxy has a particular approach to modernity that shapes all aspects of the re-socialization process, which affects the type of woman attracted to each group, the way the group presents its teachings on Orthodoxy, and the final outcome of the socialization process in each setting. The book is comparative throughout and seeks to make clear to a lay audience what the attraction of traditional religious forms is for contemporary women who have come of age since feminism.