The Internal Popular Discourse of Israeli Haredi Women

Over the last twenty years, a popular, internal discourse has developed among Haredi women in Israel. Both male and female speakers and preachers, addressing exclusively female audiences, discuss “traditional” as well as “controversial” issues. This article focuses on three central “controversial” issues raised in their discourse – understanding the opposite sex, women’s work outside the home, and family purity laws – within several social, historical and methodological contexts. In addition, we examine certain patterns of continuity and change within Haredi internal discourse, as well as draw particular attention to the emergence of feminist ideas within it. The popular sources and materials related to in this article enable us to highlight a number of comparisons and mutual influences between contemporary Israeli and American Haredim, an aspect yet to be researched systematically.