Jewish Women in Therapy

Book excerpt: Here is the first volume ever to focus on the issues of Jewish women in the context of counseling and psychotherapy. Through poignant reflection and observation, the authors convey the richness and variety of Jewish women’s experiences and the Jewishness and femaleness of the concerns, issues, values, and attitudes that Jewish women--both clients and therapists--bring into the therapy room. Jewish Women in Therapy is a landmark book in many ways. It calls attention to the historical and political realities of the Jewish heritage and acknowledges the oppression of both Jews and women that therapists have typically ignored. And although Jewish women have participated in the therapeutic process, as clients, scholars, and therapists, seldom have they chosen to write about it. Never before have the writings of so many distinguished leaders in the field, including Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, Evelyn Torton Beck, and Susannah Heschel, been compiled. They examine the damaging stereotypes of Jewish women--the Jewish American Princess and the Jewish Mother--that flourish today. Chapters also address the conflicts that many women feel about being Jewish and being female, celebrate the contributions of Jewish women to feminism and to therapy, examine the deliberate omission of women from the political process and the religious ritual, and convey the complexities of the oppression that are still blatantly directed at both Jews and females.