Our Places, Ourselves

May 3, 2017 • The New York Jewish Week • By Chelsea Garbell

A revolutionary text in a revolutionary time when the idea of a woman naming and claiming her body and her sexuality for herself was just beginning to flourish, Our Bodies, Ourselves openly diagrammed reproductive organs and discussed abortion (which was illegal), virginity, orgasms, sexuality, birth control, childbirth, consent, and more.

A lesser known part of this story is that nine of those twelve women were Jewish. In the forty-eight years since the book was conceptualized and embedded in a movement, the world and women’s place in it has changed dramatically; deep, lasting, institutional change takes the work of generations. Those nine women have modern emanations in the many women slowly, but powerfully, coming to own their bodies and sexuality within the Modern Orthodox community. In the past five years or so, a myriad of Jewish initiatives have emerged that are dedicated to claiming space for women’s bodies, ranging from JOFA’s The Joy of Text Podcast, to women and sexuality book clubs, to mikvah salons, to the innovative work of ImmerseNYC, and beyond.

Read the full story: Our Places, Ourselves