By Claire E. Sufrin. The Jewish holiday of Purim fell this year on Thursday, March 21. The holiday celebrates the survival of the Jews of Shushan long, long ago as told in the biblical book of Esther. The story centers on Esther, a young Jewish woman, whose uncle Mordecai encourages her to compete to become […]
“To be alive at such an epoch is a privilege, to be a woman then is sublime.”[1] These are the words of scholar and activist, Anna Julia Cooper. Her historical assessment is piercing as she wrestles with the “unproclaimed influence of black women” in her book, A Voice from the South by A Black Woman from […]
By Mika Ahuvia. A few years ago, I was asked to contribute to a conference panel discussion of sexual violence in foundational religious texts, with particular emphasis on giving survivors resources. I decided to return to a text I’d studied years earlier in a progressive yeshiva, a text which had always troubled me. What stayed […]
By Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi. During the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings about the sexual assault allegations against him, now- Justice Brett Kavanaugh found, among his obfuscations and fulminations about the damage done to his honor and that of the house of his fathers, several opportunities to aver his particular fondness for beer: Yes, we drank beer. […]
There is a statute of limitations on prosecuting sexual crimes. But there is no time limitation on revealing past truths. When I was a child, bad things happened to me. I have told only 2 people in this world what happened to me. However, because I never ‘reported’ it, it doesn’t make my experience less […]
By Sarah Emanuel. Over the last few months, the #MeToo movement has taken the world by storm. Survivors of sexual violence and sexual assault have been encouraged, through the use of the #MeToo hashtag, to voice their stories, experiences, and concerns. The movement is now often considered to be both a pathway to healing and […]
I was born one year and nineteen days after a fatal bullet nearly decapitated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I never knew Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I did not have the privilege of seeing him at a rally or hearing him preach. My acquaintance with his stentorian voice only rings through mp3 […]
In the last few days and weeks, dozens of women have come forward accusing Hollywood director Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault, and in some cases, rape. Many of these women are actors whose experiences of sexual violence originate when they were getting their start in Hollywood. Although we might be tempted to limit the […]
The Women’s March on Washington on January 21, 2017 was one of the most transcendent twenty-four hours of my life. Despite involving a long bus trip that began and ended in the middle of the night, waiting in long lines for the Metro, and being packed shoulder-to-shoulder with half a million other human beings for […]
Do you need a platform to critically reflect upon and/or respond to the violence that has taken place in Charlottesville, Virginia this past weekend? We at FSR invite you to submit an open submission blog for publication at the FSR Blog. We are looking for feminist-driven responses from the place of religion, be it faith-based, activist, […]