Bet Debora
The Jewish Family – Myth and Reality
The Second Conference of European Female Rabbis, Cantors, Jewish Activists and Scholars
Berlin 1 – 4 June 2001 10 – 13 Sivan 5761
Invitation
After the great success of the first conference two years ago and repeated requests that Bet Debora continue, for the second time we would like to invite Jewish women and men and anyone else interested from all of Europe to Berlin. This time we want to engage with the myth and reality of the “Jewish family” from a women’s perspective. The traditional nuclear family continues to be seen as one of the foundations of Jewish tradition in which the role of women is clearly defined. And yet Jewish women and men also live in single households, as single parents, in “mixed” partnerships or in lesbian and gay partnerships and they attribute very different importance to their Jewish identity.
How does the diversity of lifestyles that exists enrich Jewish life? What new perspectives for Jewish tradition open up against this background? What issues does it bring up? What challenges and opportunities lie in this development?
Once again, women from various European countries will come and hold services, offer shiurim and workshops and read papers.
The conference will open on Friday 1 June 2001 at 11:00 a.m. in Krausnickstrasse 6 in Berlin’s Mitte district with the inauguration of a plaque dedicated to Regina Jonas (1902-1944), the world’s first female rabbi. The conference officially begins on the same afternoon at 4:00 p.m. at the Jewish Community Centre (Centrum Judaicum), Oranienburger Strasse 28/29. It ends on Monday 4 June 2001 with a steamboat trip along Berlin’s rivers and canals – past places where Jewish women were active in Berlin (2:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.).