Class as Problematic in Jewish Feminist Theology

While other liberation/minority theologies often find class analysis and subsequent political action to be integral to theological praxis, this paper shows that Jewish feminist theology to date exhibits an almost startling lack of internal class consciousness and/or agenda. Upon examination the author finds this lacunae to be linked to two primary class-related phenomena. One, shared by other minorities, is the general invisibility of working-class and poor Jews, which for the Jewish community is only intensified by the myth of overall Jewish wealth and power. A second phenomenon, perhaps more specific to the Jewish community, is the inadequacy of standard class distinctions in describing the actual access to community power and resources by Jewish women whose education may suggest a higher rate of middle-class enfranchisement than actual income or social status allow. In such, the paper links advancement in areas "theological" (ritual, educational, etc.) To actual community power knowledge which, without attention to questions of class, will remain unattended and unattainable.