Sylvia Barach Fishman directs the program in Contemporary Jewish Life in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department at Brandeis University, where she is a Professor. She is co-director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. Her most recent book, Jewish Life and American Culture (2000) explored the way American Jews negotiate the Jewish and secular pieces of their lives. Her earlier books include A Breath of Life: Feminism in the American Jewish Community (1993), named a 1994 Honor Book by the National Jewish Book Council; and Changing Minds: Feminism in Contemporary Orthodox Jewish Life (2000).
The concepts of gender, love, and family—as well as the personal choices regarding gender-role construction, sexual and romantic liaisons, and family...