@TateOsten A film by Lilly Rivlin
Producer/director/writer
29 minutes, 1986
"A classic! A stimulating presentation of the way in which feminists are adapting traditional Jewish ritual and transforming it to reflect their own spiritual needs."
- Prof. Alice Shalvi, Founding Chair,
Israel Women's Network -
Miriam's Daughters Now shows a group of Jewish feminists [includes Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Bella Abzug, Esther Broner, Phyllis Chesler, etc.] creating new rituals: Feminist Seder, Tashlich, Bat (Girl) Naming Ceremony.
These women pioneered the creating of new rituals and demonstrate how traditions can be updated to make women full participants.
One is the Presence in our Midst. . .
"…So it’s time to go back again, and find something out about the original exodus, which didn’t mention women. And by replacing us, reincorporating us, in our myth, in our mythic, in our religious context, we make another shape for ourselves." Singing….
"In New York City leading feminists come together for their ninth women’s seder. They bring a woman’s perspective to an ancient story of oppression, freedom, and liberation. They remember the exodus from Egypt in the light of their own experiences." Singing…
"There’s something very special about asking the four questions from a woman’s point of view. And, the question that particularly got to me, is that question about why are our mothers so bitter? Because they are in the kitchen, and they are doing the preparation, and they don’t participate in the liturgy?"
“Why is this telling different from traditional tellings?”
“Because this telling, this Haggadah, deals with the exodus of women.”
Singing…
"In the past, women never conducted a seder. In the past, the story recounted never mentioned women. This seder is different from other seders. It is their own seder."
Transcript from Miriam’s Daughters Now, by Lilly Rivlin Productions, 1986.
Statements & Articles related to the Feminist Seder:
JEWISH WOMEN AND THE FEMINIST REVOLUTION
Evolution Of The Feminist Seder, by Debra Nussbaum Cohen, April 14, 2000
Telling the Seder's Story In the Voice of a Woman
www.miriamscup.com | History First
