Katharina
von Kellenbach
As a Guest
in Debora’s House
[German]
Some of the participants at
Bet Debora are non-Jewish friends, journalists, speakers, partners, ministers,
or academics. For many, it was the first conference they had attended where
non-Jewish women were in the minority.
The organisers of Bet Debora
have accomplished a major achievement, creating a space where Jewish women are
at the centre and able to discuss and articulate their experiences outside of
the patriarchal structures of religious communities and a majority culture that
has been shaped by Christianity. The men and non-Jewish women who attended were
welcome in this Jewish feminist context, but abstained, for the most part, from
active discussion in the plenum sessions to avoid subliminal conflicts along the
lines of man vs. woman and Jew vs. Christian. It became clear how quickly such
conflicts could occur in a small group discussion on the topic “Judaism as a
Vocation – Religious and Secular Identities”. A badly thought out critical
statement by one of the non-Jewish women participants about the central position
of the Holocaust led to a complete derailment of the discussion. Her choice of
words was viewed as a minimisation, a lack of comprehension and indifference
with respect to the destruction and loss, which led to vehement reactions that
prevented any continuation of debate on the original subject.
Had there
been several more “misunderstandings” of this type, the quality of the space
created by the organisers would have been severely compromised. The presence and
participation of those who represent majority culture, qua gender, religion,
sexual orientation, or skin colour can easily provoke defensive strategies that
prevent an open exchange of ideas.
Our roles, as
non-Jewish women and men, were as a result restrained and observant, rather than
of intervention. If and when there will be a time when discourse between the
women organised in Bet Debora, men from the Jewish community who support their
cause and non-Jewish women will become more active is still undecided. My hope
would be that parallel to the development of the assertive, European, Jewish
feminist movement that is establishing itself at this time in Bet Debora,
structures with similar aims develop that would provide fertile ground for later
coalitions.
Katharina von Kellenbach is a
Protestant theologian and associate Professor of Religious Studies at St. Mary’s
College in the US State of Maryland.
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