Jewish Bodylore

Jewish Bodylore: Feminist and Queer Ethnographies of Folk Practices explores the Jewish body and its symbology as a space for identity communication, applying the tools of bodylore (the folkloric study of the body) to the Jewish body in ways that are in line both with feminist and queer theory. The text centers a feminist folkloric approach to embodiment while simultaneously recognizing its overlaps with the study of Jewish bodies and symbols. It investigates Jewish embodiment with a keen eye to that which breaks from tradition. Consideration is given to the ways in which bodies intersect with time and space in the synagogue, within religious movements, in secular culture, and in childhood ritual. Representing a unique approach to contemporary Jewish Studies, this book argues that Jewish bodies and the intersections they represent are at the core of understanding the contemporary Jewish experience. Rather than abandoning or dismissing Judaism, many contemporary Jews use their bodies as a canvas, claiming space for themselves, demonstrating a deliberate and calculated navigation of Jewish law, and engaging a traditionally patriarchal symbol set which, in its feminist use, amplifies their voices in a context which might otherwise silence them. Through these actions and choices, contemporary Jews demonstrate a nuanced understanding of their public identities as gendered and sexed bodies and a commitment to working towards increased inclusivity within the larger Jewish and secular communities. In the end, this book is a foray into the world of Jewish bodies, how they can be conceptualized using folkloristics, and how feminist methodologies of the body can be applied fairly to Jewish bodies, celebrating the multitude of ways in which the body can be conceptualized and experienced.

Amy Milligan's wonderful and clearly written book affirms how illuminating the discipline of folklore can be, with its attentiveness to embodied practice, gender, silenced voices, marginality, and the spiritual creativity of everyday people. Standing respectfully on the shoulders of a range of interdisciplinary scholars, Milligan forges her own contemporary methodologies that allow us to see new and emerging practices in a fresh light. I will surely assign this book in my classes in ethnography, ritual, feminism and religion, and contemporary Judaism., Milligan traces the intersections of queer theory, feminist theory, and bodylore. The effect is not to assemble these discourses into an overarching theoretical approach but to make them bump up against each other, disturbing their essentialisms, assumptions, angles of entry, dominant concerns, and material underpinnings. In her unusually accessible writing, Milligan does not so much argue these juxtapositions and their displacements rhetorically as demonstrate them corporeally in, on, and through the bodies of Jews, queers, and women.

Amy K. Milligan is Batten endowed assistant professor of Jewish studies and women's studies at Old Dominion University, where she is also director of the Institute of Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding.