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Head of program, senior lecturer

Dr. Ronit Irshai

Email
Ronit.Irshai@biu.ac.il
University
Bar Ilan University
CV

Education, Certificates and Degrees, Post-Doctorate

Visiting Professor

February

2019

Visiting Scholar

Fall 2016 

Visiting Scholar

July – August 2011

Research Fellow

2011 onward

Post Doctorate

2007-8

 

 

Jindal Global University (India)

Faculty of Law

Brandeis University. Hadassah Brandeis Institute.

Harvard Divinity School, Women’s Studies in Religion Program.

Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem.

 

 

 

Harvard Divinity School, Women’s Studies in Religion Program - Research Associate.

                                      

 

Ph.D., 2006

 

Bar-Ilan University, Jewish Studies and Gender Studies

Thesis topic: “Fertility, Gender, and Halakha: A Feminist Perspective on Modern Responsa (Orthodox) Literature: Contraception, Abortion, Artificial Insemination, In Vitro Fertilization, and Surrogate Motherhood”

Advisors: Prof. Tamar Ross and Prof. Noam Zohar.

 

Positions Held

2021-2024 – (Starting) Chair of the gender studies department, Bar-Ilan University.

2017 - Senior Lecturer (tenured), Bar Ilan University, Gender Studies Department.

2011-2016 – Assistant Professor, Bar Ilan University, Gender Studies Department.
 
Research

 
 

Gender and Modern Halakha (Jewish Law); Philosophy of Halakhah; Jewish sexual ethics; LGBTQ and halakhah; Religious Feminism; Theology and Gender; Fertility and halakhah.

Publications

List of Publications

Books

 

  1. Fertility and Jewish Law: Feminist Perspectives on Orthodox Responsa Literature, Brandeis Series on Gender, Culture and Law (Waltham, MA:  Brandeis University Press 2012).
  2. New Spirit in the Palace of Torah: A Jubilee book in Honor of Prof. Tamar Ross (editor, together with Prof. Dov Schwartz) (Bar Ilan University Press, 2018) [Hebrew].
  3. “Woman or Eve” – Abortion in 20th Century Orthodox Halakhah from a Gender Perspective, (Magness Press, Forthcoming) [Hebrew].

 

 Chapters in Books

 

  1. “Gender Considerations in Halakhic Decisions: Abortion as a Test Case”, in New Streams in the Philosophy of Halakhah, edited by Aviezer Ravitzky and Avinoam Rosenak, 417-451. (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2008) (Hebrew).
  2. “Fertility and Gender: Aspects in Reform and Orthodox Halakhic Literature,” in Reform Judaism: Thought, Culture and Sociology, edited by Avinoam Rosenak (Jerusalem: Van Leer Institute, 2014), 183-212 (Hebrew).
  3. “Judaism, Gender, and Human Rights: The Case of Orthodox Feminism," in: Religion and the Discourse of Human Rights, edited by Hanoch Dagan, Shachar Lifshitz and Yedidia Stern (Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute, 2014), pp. 412-438.
  4. "Judaism," The Oxford Handbook of Theology, Sexuality and Gender, edited by Adrian Thatcher (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 413-431.
  5. "Tamar Ross: An intellectual Portrait", in: Tamar Ross – Constructing Faith, Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers, edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes, (Leiden-Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2016), pp. 1-40.
  6. "The Gap between Public and Private Rulings in Jewish Law (Halakhah): A Critical Analysis", in: The Halakhah as Event, edited by Avinoam Rosenak (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2016): 431-465 (Hebrew). (Was published also in a slightly different version English)
  7. "Between Honor and Equality: On the Tendency to Oppose Women's Torah Reading" in:  New Spirit in the Palace of Torah-A Jubilee book in Honor of Prof. Tamar Ross, edited by Ronit Irshai and Dov Schwartz (Ramat-Gan: Bar Ilan University Press, 2018, Hebrew), 301-326. (Was published also in a shorten version in English)
  8. "Homosexual Identity and Masculinity in Contemporary Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Law (Halakhah)", in: Oltre l’individualismo. Relazioni e relazionalità per ripensare l’identità. Ed. by Lorella Congiunti, Giambattista Formica and Ardian Ndreca (Urbaniana University Press, 2017), 399-418.
  9.  “Theology and Halakhah in Jewish Feminisms”, in Cambridge Companion to Jewish Theology, ed. by Steven Kepnes (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2020, 297-315).

Refereed Articles

  1. “Family Planning: A Halakhic-Gender Perspective.” Nashim 12 (2006): 95-128.
  2. "Toward A Gender Critical Approach to the Philosophy of Jewish Law (Halakhah)," Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 26/2 (2010): 55-77.
  3. ""Dignity, Honor, and Equality in Contemporary Halachic Thinking: The Case of Torah Reading by Women in Israeli Modern Orthodoxy," Modern Judaism (2013) 33 (3): 332-356.
  4.  “Israeli Modern-Orthodox Feminism: Between Nomos and Narrative”, Mishpat U’mimshal (Law and Governance) 15 (1-2) (2013): 233-327, (Together with Tanya Tzion Waldox) (Hebrew).
  5. "Public and Private Rulings in Jewish Law (Halakhah): Flexibility, Concealment and Feminist Jurisprudence", Journal of Law Religion and the State 3 (2014): 25-50
  6. "Halakhic Discretion and Gender Bias: A Conceptual Analysis." Tarbut Demokratit (Democratic Culture) 16 (2015): 141-185 (Hebrew).
  7. "Fertility Treatments and the Prohibition on Wasted Seed – Three Approaches in Modern Halakhah", Zehuyot (Identities) 7 (2015): 41-63 (Hebrew).
  8. "Rape of Unmarried Women: Between Hazal and Maimonides", Shnaton Ha-Mishpat Ha-Ivri (Annual of the Institute for Research in Jewish Law) 28 (2015/16): 171-202 (Hebrew).
  9. "Rape of Married Women: A Look at the Halakhic Literature in the Wake of the Responsum Mima’amakim", AJS Review 42 (2) 2016, 1-22 (Hebrew).
  10. “And I Find a Wife More Bitter Than Death” (Eccl 7:26): Feminist Hermeneutics, Women's Midrashim, and the Boundaries of Acceptance in Modern Orthodox Judaism", Feminist Studies in Religion 33 (1) (2017), pp. 69-86.
  11. "Religion and Morality: Aqedah Theology and Cumulative Revelation as Contradictory Theologies in Jewish Modern-Orthodox Feminism", Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 16 (2) (2017), pp. 219-235
  12. "The Return of Aqedah Theology: The Relationships between Religion, Gender and Ethics", Mechkarei Yerushalaim B'machshevet Israel (Jerusalem Investigations in Jewish Thought), 25 (2017/18), pp. 273-304 (Hebrew).
  13. "Sex Reassignment Surgery: Orthodox and Conservative rulings in light of Rabbi Waldenbergs' responsa", Shnaton Ha-Mishpat Ha-Ivri (Annual of the Institute for Research in Jewish Law), (2016-2018), pp. 123-151 (Hebrew).
  14. "Homosexuality and "Aqedah Theology": A Comparison of Modern Orthodoxy and the Conservative Movement", Journal of Jewish Ethics 4 (1) (2018), pp. 19-46
  15. "Between Feminist and Gender Analysis in the fields of Rabbinic and Modern Halakhah: Homosexuality and the Construction of Masculinity as a case Study", Dinei Israel 32 (2018), pp. 195-230 (Hebrew).

Reprinted in English as: “Feminist Research in Jewish Studies: What’s in a    Name”, in: Re-Making the World: Christianity and Categories, Essays in Honor of Prof. Karen King, edited by Taylor G. Petrey (Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2019), pp. 257-276.

  1. “The Construction of Gender in Halakhic Responsa by the Reform Movement: Transgender People as a Case Study”, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 18(2) (2019), pp. 160-176
  2. "The Challenge of Male Homosexuality – Theology, Ethics and Halakhah", Reshit 3 (2019), pp. 47-72
  3. Tanya Zion-Waldoks, Ronit Irshai and Bana Shoughry, “The first female Qadi in Israel’s Shari’a (Muslim) Courts – Nomos and Narrative”, Shofar 38.2 (2020), pp. 229-262
  4. “Cross-Dressing in Jewish Law (Halakha), and the Construction of Gender Identity", Nashim 38 (2021), pp. 46-68
  5. Udi Forman and Ronit Irshai, "Narrative Blindness in the Rabbinic Court Verdict regarding Rabbi Aviners' Case (Hebrew), Maasei Mishpat 13 (Forthcoming).
  6. Ronit Irshai and Miri Rozmarin, "Religious Jewish Feminism in light of Foucault's Concept of Critique" (Hebrew), Daat (Forthcoming).
 

Last Updated Date : 08/11/2023