Elisheva Carlebach & Debra Kaplan: The Unknown History of Women in Jewish Life [American Yeshiva World 1/3]

Elisheva Carlebach & Debra Kaplan: The Unknown History of Women in Jewish Life [American Yeshiva World 1/3]

February 10, 2026 · 1h 36m

About this episode

The episode discusses the historical roles of women in early modern Jewish life with Professors Elisheva Carlebach and Debra Kaplan.

This month of learning is sponsored by our dear friends Matt and Mollie Landes of Riverdale for the neshama of Dovid Yehonatan ben Yitzchak Yehuda. In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast , we speak with Professors Elisheva Carlebach and Debra Kaplan, scholars of early modern Jewish history, about women’s religious, social, and communal roles in early modern Jewish life. In this episode we discuss: How have women’s prayer and shul-going habits changed over time? When did the women’s chevra kadisha become a Jewish institution? How did Jewish emancipation alter the structure of Jewish life and its implications for women? Tune in for a conversation about how women shaped—and were shaped by—the structures of the early modern kehillah . Interview begins at 9:13. Elisheva Carlebach is the Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture, and Society at Columbia University and Director of its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. A specialist in Early Modern European Jewish history, her work explores Jewish–Christian relations, religious dissent, conversion, messianism, and communal life. She is the award-winning author of The Pursuit of Heresy, Divided Souls, and Palaces of…

Sponsors

Matt and Mollie Landes

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