Review - American Jewish Archives

216 American Jewish Archives
Central to both processes of assimilation, Hyman asserts the sig-
nificance of the gender factor. "Jewish women assimilated along with
their male kin, but they did so in different frameworks"(18). In the dis-
cussion of gender shaping women's roles and assimilation, Hyman
presents a perceptive analysis. She gives examples of the gendered
experiences, like Western Jewish women being confined to domestic
realms, similar to other middle-class women, and drawing on their
female qualities to participate in charitable public organizations. Yet,
according to male critics, such gender roles meant that Jewish women
were held responsible for perpetuating gaps in Jewish education in
their families. Although women played a more visible role in the
synagogue in social endeavors, this involvement actually repre-
sented a conservative position keeping women in the domestic
sphere. Hyman explains, "If the family was no longer succeeding in
transmitting Jewish knowledge and loyalty to the younger genera-
tion, then the guardians of the hearth had failed in their taskU(45),
and in the paradox of women's assimilation, Hyman remarks
astutely,"Blarning Jewish mothers for the decline in Jewish knowl-
edge and religious practices enabled Jewish men in western and
central Europe to continue the process, and the project of Jewish as-
similationr'(4g). Hyman's information about the gendered roles es-
pecially for middle-class Jewish women in assimilation is engaging,
clearly demonstrating women's participation in assimilation.
The analysis of gender yields new interpretations on Jewish
women's education. Hyman discusses the education of eastern Eu-
ropean Jewish women in the chapter, "Seductive Secularization:' The
interesting discussion provides an in-depth look at the problem of
training Jewish girls in the context of religious and socioeconomic is-
sues. The working-class woman was the dominant role; Hyman
states, "The socioeconomic and cultural contexts in eastern Europe fa-
cilitated women's assimilation through their work patterns and
access to secular education"(71). The use of women's memoirs and
personal writings augments this chapter. The debates about
women's roles in education, the family, and the public revealed that
eastern European women's assimilation experiences differed from
groups of women in the West.
For American Jewish historians and women's historians, Hyman's
examination of gender, Jewish American women, and assimilation