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Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn »

Book cover image of Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn by Ayala Fader

Authors: Ayala Fader
ISBN-13: 9780691139173, ISBN-10: 0691139172
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Date Published: July 2009
Edition: (Non-applicable)

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Author Biography: Ayala Fader


Ayala Fader is assistant professor of anthropology at Fordham University, Lincoln Center.

Book Synopsis

"This is a superb book. All manner of readers will find themselves moved by this beautifully rendered portrait of the process by which Hasidic girls become Hasidic women. Scholars of language, gender, and religion will find something more--a theoretically innovative synthesis of work on language socialization and the anthropology of morality that points toward whole new areas of study. Put simply, it is one of the most exciting works on religion I have read in some years."--Joel Robbins, University of California, San Diego

"Mitzvah Girls is fresh and fascinating. It is exemplary not only because of the exceptionally fine ethnographic research, but also because of the highly original approach to language, body, and culture. Fader illuminates aspects of contemporary Hasidic life that have never been explored before in ways that speak to larger questions: the place of women in male-centered religions, the gendering of language, and the forms that modernity takes in a world that values tradition."--Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, author of Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage

"Mitzvah Girls is impressive in its sweep, tackling the considerable topic of how religious communities are sustained and changed. Ayala Fader transcends simple language and culture alignments to bring readers into the usually inaccessible private worlds of Hasidic families. I know of no other book that monitors socialization into gender from childhood to adulthood, while examining how language frames the formation of secular antipathies, adherence to divine legitimacy, self-control, and nostalgia for a lost Hasidic past."--Elinor Ochs, University of California, Los Angeles

"With insightful and carefully drawn analysis, Mitzvah Girls challenges how Hasidim and other fundamentalist communities are often regarded from the outside. Fader presents a nuanced look at how both Yiddish and English are gendered in the daily lives of American Hasidic girls and women. This book makes a valuable contribution to the scholarship on American Hasidism, American Judaism more generally, contemporary Jewish language use, women's religious life, and religious fundamentalism."--Jeffrey Shandler, author of Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language and Culture

Sandee Brawarsky - Jewish Woman

For a window into the rarely seen and little understood (at least by secular Jews) world of Hasidim, read Mitzvah Girls. . . . Fader, an anthropologist, focuses on girls and how they view their lives. . . . She captures their voices, their dreams, their moral vision.

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments ix Notes on Yiddish and Transcription Conventions xiii CHAPTER ONE: Introduction 1
CHAPTER TWO: Fitting In 34
CHAPTER THREE: Defiance 62
CHAPTER FOUR: Making English Jewish 87
CHAPTER FIVE: With It, Not Modern 118
CHAPTER SIX: Ticket to Eden 145
CHAPTER SEVEN: Becoming Hasidic Wives 179
Coda 211
Notes 221
Glossary 235
References 237
Index 251

Subjects