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Macierzyństwo po żydowsku w narracjach matek żyjących w Polsce

Translated Title: Jewish motherhood in the narratives of mothers living in Poland

Author(s): Krawczyk, Agnieszka; Matusiak-Rojek, Magdalena

Date: 2023

Topics: Interviews, Main Topic: Other, Motherhood, Narrative, Family and Household, Jewish Continuity

Abstract: W niniejszym artykule prezentujemy macierzyńskie doświadczenia trzech kobiet żydowskiego pochodzenia. Dane zebrane zostały za po-mocą wywiadu swobodnego z elementami narracji, a analizowane za pomocą językowo-narracyjnej metody analizy tekstu. Głównym pyta-niem, na które staramy się znaleźć odpowiedź, jest: Jakie typy macie-rzyństwa prezentują matki Żydówki? I czym charakteryzuje się każdy z nich? Cele artykułu to: (1) Zestawienie trzech stylów macierzyństwa i charakterystyka każdego z nich, (2) Ukazanie znaczenia transfe-ru kultury pochodzenia i wychowania dla pełnienia roli rodzicielskiej przez kobiety pochodzenia żydowskiego. W artykule przedstawiamy kulturowy wzór macierzyństwa, zestawiamy figurę matki-Polki z Jidy-sze Mame. Następnie prezentujemy szczegółowe założenia metodolo-giczne. W kolejnej części charakteryzujemy trzy typy macierzyństwa: jednokulturowe, dwukulturowe i wielokulturowe. Nasze analizy prowa-dzą do wniosków końcowych, wskazujących na to, że pomimo współ-czesnych przemian społecznych nadal za religijne wychowanie dzieci odpowiadają matki. Jednocześnie wskazujemy na podobieństwa po-między matką-Polką a Jidysze Mame.WprowadzenieMacierzyństwo to z jednej strony bardzo zindywidualizowane doświadczenie wielu kobiet, z drugiej – zjawisko niezwykle złożone, wieloaspektowe, dające asumpt do naukowych dociekań w obrębie wielu dyscyplin naukowych, w tym także pedagogiki. W literaturze znaleźć można rozważania na temat biologicznych aspektów stawa-nia się matką (np. Lichtenberg-Kokoszka 2008; Nowakowska 2014), analizy dotyczące społeczno-kulturowych uwarunkowań macierzyń-stwa (np. Budrowska 2000; Grzelińska 2012; Maciarz 2004; Sikor-ska 2012) czy też zmagania z rolą matki w kontekście innych ról życiowych (np. Pryszmont-Ciesielska 2011; Sokołowska 2013). Co ważne, wiele badań z tego obszaru prowadzonych jest w oparciu o narracje samych matek, zapisy doświadczeń konkretnych kobiet, funkcjonujących w różnych warunkach społecznych, ekonomicznych

Jidisze Mame. Two Biographies of Polish Jewish Women

Author(s): Cukras-Stelągowska, Joanna

Date: 2023

Topics: Motherhood, Age and Generational Issues, Jewish Education, Jewish Continuity, Main Topic: Other, Oral History and Biography, Religious Observance and Practice, Family and Household, Interviews

Abstract: The article presents the biographies of representatives of the third postwar generation of Polish Jews. It attempts at reconstructing the experiences of becoming a religious Jew, choosing a Jewish path in adolescence where there is no or incomplete transmission of intergenerational cultural heritage in the family of origin. The two women's biographies were analysed in terms of independent acquisition of cultural (religious) knowledge and the possibilities and limitations of Jewish education in our country. The research was carried out based on the biographical method and unstructured/ in-depth interviews (2018-2022). Exemplifications in the form of the two biographies serve to distinguish the stages of "becoming a religious Jew and mother" in the "found generation", to show individual biographical events and common biographical sequences (mostly educational and parental).

Navigating Ultra-Orthodox Jewish motherhood in the United Kingdom

Author(s): Phillips, Natalia; Hakak, Yohai

Date: 2023

Topics: Main Topic: Other, Social Work, Care and Welfare, Motherhood, Interviews, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews

Abstract: This article has been composed from a larger mixed methods study that explores how Haredi mothers in the United Kingdom experience their motherhood and what they understand by “social work support.” The mixed method study used questionnaires and interviews as its tools in data collection. Thirty Haredi mothers from across the UK’s Haredi communities responded to an online questionnaire and thirteen subsequently took part in an online interview. Mary Douglas’s Group-Grid Cultural theoretical perspectives as well as gender theories’ principles were utilized in data collection and analysis. Findings include an overview of quantified data and a thematic discussion of how Haredi mothers experience their motherhood and what they understand by “social support” and “social work.” Their individual perceptions of social work engagement within the Haredi community are presented with the quotes from the interviews. Motherhood is seen by Haredi mothers as a life’s goal, “a raison d’etre,” and mothers’ experiences are focused around their community and strict religious observance that is transmitted to their children through religious education and traditional rituals. Although social support is seen as welcome but only when absolutely necessary, the social work involvement is seen as problematic. Haredi mothers reported that the lack of cultural sensitivity from social workers is a major barrier. That barrier has tremendous implications for the mothers and whole families, be it further isolation, shame, stigma and helplessness. Haredi mothers voice their views on the need of the cultural sensitivity training and professional curiosity that will help building trust between the insular Haredi and the outside social support services

The Jewish Woman in Contemporary Society: Transitions and Traditions

Author(s): Baker, Adrienne

Date: 1993

Topics: Jewish Women, Feminism, Main Topic: Other, Marriage, Motherhood, Orthodox Judaism

Abstract: Across the religious/non-religious spectrum, Jewish women have been affected by the women's movement, the impact on some leading to a reassessment of the woman's role in Judaism, with its emphasis on family and home. Conversely, a small but significant minority have withdrawn into the safety of extreme Orthodoxy. In the centre, the majority are seeking a balance between the powerful internalized message of Judaism, extolling marriage and motherhood as woman's primary concern, and a changing perception of themselves.

De-coupling or remaining closely coupled to ‘home’: educational strategies around identity-making and advantage of Israeli global middle-class families in London

Author(s): Yemini, Miri; Maxwell, Claire

Date: 2018

Topics: Class, Globalisation, Jewish Identity, Jewish Women, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Motherhood, Interviews, Israeli Expatriates

Abstract: This article makes an empirical contribution to the study of the global middle class (GMC), and sheds light on the complex relationships that are constructed and sustained by these families with their ‘home nation’ through their educational strategies. Drawing on an inductive analysis of 20 in-depth interviews with Israeli migrant mothers in the United Kingdom who constitute a specific fraction of the GMC, this article examines families’ identity constructions and how these shape their educational practices. The participants constitute a growing phenomenon – highly educated, mobile middle-class families who live and move around the world, and position themselves using global frames of references. We emphasise how country of origin acts as a symbolic object in the cultivation of their children’s identity and how different types of attachment to ‘home nation’ are perceived as offering valuable capital for the GMC. The article therefore contributes much-needed empirical analyses on education strategies within the GMC, and challenges the suggestion that critical to the definition of the GMC is that they are ‘rootless’.

אני רוצה שהם ילמדו על ישראל והחגים" - אימהות יהודיות־ישראליות בבריטניה של תחילת המאה העשרים ואחת"

Translated Title: ‘I Want Them to Learn about Israel and the Holidays’: Jewish Israeli Mothers in Early-Twenty- First-Century Britain

Author(s): Davis, Angela

Date: 2018

Topics: Jewish Identity, Israeli Expatriates, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Motherhood, Parenthood, Jewish Women

Abstract: "אם הייתי שולחת את הבן שלי לבית־ספר רגיל, הוא לא היה יודע שהוא יהודי", מספרת תמר (שם בדוי), יהודייה־ישראלית שמתגוררת בלונדון. ואכן, מחקרים מראים כי נוכחותם של ילדים במשפחה של מהגרים יהודים־ישראלים מעצימה את האמביוולנטיות של ההורים לגבי חיים מחוץ לישראל, אבל מעודדת מעורבות רבה יותר עם ישראלים אחרים, במטרה להנחיל לילדים במשפחה זהות יהודית־ישראלית ולשמור על הקשר שלהם עם המדינה היהודית. מאמר זה מבוסס על 12 ראיונות שקיימה אנג'לה דייוויס עם נשים יהודיות־ישראליות, אימהות לילדים קטנים, שמתגוררות או התגוררו בבריטניה. דייוויס בחנה את האופן שבו אותן אימהות יצרו קשרים חברתיים, מילאו תפקיד של אימהות וגידלו ילדים, וכיצד הן ניסו לוודא שילדיהן ישמרו על זהות יהודית־ישראלית, גם באמצעות אימוץ של מסורות תרבותיות ודתיות בדרכים חדשות.

Some Correlates of Well-being and Distress in Anglo-Jewish Women

Author(s): Loewenthal, Kate; Amos, Valerie; Goldblatt, Vivienne; Mullarkey, Sean

Editor(s): Brown, Laurence B.

Date: 1994

Topics: Mental Health, Main Topic: Other, Jewish Women, Orthodox Judaism, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Surveys, Motherhood

Abstract: London Jewish women were sampled from “middle-” and “ultra”orthodox synagogue membership lists, and measures of well-being and distress, together with information on demographic and other factors, were obtained from 121 of them. For the whole sample, correlates of depression and well-being related to the wife-and-mother roles, and generally resembled the correlates that have been found in other groups of women, although the Jewish women with fewer dependent children were the more depressed. The two groups of women differed on a number of demographic characteristics, which might explain the slightly lower levels of distress and dissatisfaction in the ultraorthodox. For the middle-orthodox group, happiness relates to marriage, whereas for the ultraorthodox, happiness relates to integration into their community

‘I Want Them to Learn about Israel and the Holidays’: Jewish Israeli Mothers in Early-Twenty- First-Century Britain

Author(s): Davis, Angela

Date: 2016

Topics: Israeli Expatriates, Motherhood, Parenthood, Jewish Women, Main Topic: Identity and Community

Abstract: Research has shown that the presence of children in the Jewish Israeli emigrant family intensifies their ambivalence about living abroad, but encourages greater involvement with fellow Israelis as they seek to transmit a Jewish Israeli identity and maintain their children’s attachment to the Jewish state. This article explores this assumption by focusing on the experiences of mothering of a group of Israeli emigrants in Britain. Based on twelve oral history interviews, it considers the issues of child socialisation and the mothers’ own social life. It traces how the women created a social network within which to mother and how they tried to ensure their children preserved a Jewish Israeli identity. The article also seeks to question how parenting abroad led the interviewees to embrace cultural and religious traditions in new ways.

The dynamics of becoming Orthodox Dutch Jewish women returning to Judaism and how their mothers felt about it

Author(s): Mock-Degen, Minny E.

Date: 2013

Topics: Orthodox Judaism, Jewish Women, Baal Teshuvah, Motherhood, Main Topic: Identity and Community

Abstract: The return to Judaism or the teshuvah experience emerged in the mid 1960s when young American Jews became involved in a spiritual search that eventually led them to discover and embrace Orthodox Judaism. It signalled the start of what would become a widespread phenomenon. Within a relatively short period, thousands of Jews in the United States, Israel, Britain, France, the Soviet Union, South Africa, the Netherlands and other countries committed themselves to Orthodox Judaism and became observant. A Jew who returns to Orthodox Judaism is known as a ba’al teshuvah; for a women the term is ba’alat teshuvah (plural forms: ba’alei and ba’a lot teshuvah respectively).

This study of ba’alat teshuvah in the Netherlands is a qualitative and exploratory investigation on how Dutch returnee woman and their mothers experienced, perceived and interpreted the return to Orthodox Judaism. In short: How do these returnees and their mothers feel about the religious intensification? In this context the research also pays attention to the ways in which the Dutch returnees became involved with Orthodox Judaism, how they found their religious niche and whether their becoming Orthodox impacted on intergenerational and multigenerational relationships.

Towards "cultural competence' from a Jewish perspective : an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the lived experience of Jewish mothers living in North West London

Author(s): Law, Lisa

Date: 2003

Topics: Parenthood, Motherhood, Interviews, Jewish Culture, Psychology, Mental Health, Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis, Main Topic: Other

Abstract: Much research recognises the clinical value of considering clients' cultural context. 'Cultural competence' may be considered the balance between sensitive practice and an awareness about particular cultural groups. 'Jewishness' is a powerful influence on the majority of Jewish people, regardless of religiosity. Jewishness incorporates more than Judaism, for example, it includes Jewish history, ethnicity and culture. This research aims to help therapists work with Jewish families by familiarising them with aspects of Jewishness, in order to gain insight to the 'lived experience' of contemporary, British, Jewish families, so as to consider the potential clinical implications of Jewishness and develop cultural competence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight British-born, culturally, rather than religiously, Jewish mothers aged between 30 and 39. The interview transcripts were analysed using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology. Ten themes (^entity', Tradition and Culture', 'Characteristics', 'Family', 'Community', 'Continuity', 'Difference and Similarity', 'Fear', 'Feelings' and 'Services') were derived from the analysis and considered in terms of clinical implications. For example, the women spoke about a (sometimes) inexplicable 'bicultural' identity and the significant impact of Jewish history. These issues may inhibit Jewish clients from speaking about the relevance of their Jewishness with non-Jewish therapists. Suggestions were made for developing a Jewish cultural, historical and political perspective, so that beliefs, behaviours and characteristics are not misinterpreted and 'therapeutic safety' for Jewish clients is maximised. Other recommendations included using cultural consultants and adopting a systemic framework. Issues that may be particularly difficult for Jewish families were discussed and recommendations for future research made.

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