Lilith Readers Write Back

Dear Lilith,
I grew up reading each new Lilith issue cover to cover. Prioritized over homework and email, Lilith was a source of strength, affirmation and intrigue: Young Jewish feminists growing up in Virginia can use all the support they can get.

A few years ago, I left home, left access to my mother’s subscription to Lilith and relocated to an academic, and then city community of inspired like-minded Jews, educators, artists and organizers. I am in my mid-twenties now, sifting together work at Jewish-environmental and Jewish justice organizations, hoping that my work helps heal this world, and still paying my own health insurance.

I am writing because of the tears that welled up in me when I read about the women in Lilith’s Eco-Ushpizin article, “Seven Eco-Revolutionaries” (Fall 2007). Though I am blessed to be sprouted from and surrounded by such inspiration, sometimes we 20-somethings, we children-of-Jewish-feminists, we seekers and do-ers still desperately need the reminder of hope, passion & journeying that is spoken with such clarity by the women in your article. Thank you for compiling and bringing forth such voices. I guess it’s high time I get my own subscription!
    Laura Bellows, Washington, D.C.

In the “Voices” section of the Fall 2007 issue, I began reading about the female former Israeli soldiers who were posing in bikinis for a men’s magazine. I went into the piece with the expectation to read the models’ take on it. Instead, a lawyer was quoted and the media advisor at the Israeli consulate.

My expectation grew out of the purpose of Voices, explained at the top of the page: “Traditionally, the voice of the Jewish woman was not to be heard in public, lest it arouse men. No more. These pages are for news about Jewish women, in our own strong voices.”

In regard to the models mentioned, Nivit Bash and Gal Gadot, it seems the voice of the Jewish woman was not heard in public (and, yet, she still had the ability to arouse men). Sincerely,
   Marian Nash, New York, NY