Jewish and a Woman
A Guided Tour for International Women’s Day
Video still from Victoria Hanna, The Aleph-bet Song (Hosha'ana), 2015, video; Jewish Museum Berlin, accession NDA/427/0
For International Women’s Day, we turn our attention to Jewish women in the permanent exhibition. The tour explores the religious and social roles of Jewish women and how they have evolved over time. What significance is attributed to women in traditional Judaism? Which mitzvot – the Hebrew term for commandments – are specifically addressed to them?
Sat 7 Mar 2026, 3 pm
Where
Old Building, ground level, “Meeting Point” in the foyer
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
A central focus is also the work Zeena u-Reena, written in the 16th century and widely read over generations. Another emphasis is placed on the period of the Enlightenment: while in the 18th and early 19th centuries ideas of equality and emancipation largely benefited men, Jewish women played a key role in the emergence of a bourgeois public sphere – not least through salon culture, in which they created intellectual spaces as hosts.
The tour traces how Jewish women understood, negotiated, and lived their roles in different historical periods – between religious commitment and participation in society.
