An in-depth exploration of the flight of young Jewish women from their
Orthodox homes during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries
The Rebellion of the Daughters investigates the flight of young Jewish
women from their Orthodox, mostly Hasidic, homes in Western Galicia (now
Poland) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In extreme
cases, hundreds of these women sought refuge in a Kraków convent, where
many converted to Catholicism. Those who stayed home often remained
Jewish in name only.
Relying on a wealth of archival documents, including court testimonies,
letters, diaries, and press reports, Rachel Manekin reconstructs the
stories of three Jewish women runaways and reveals their struggles and
innermost convictions. Unlike Orthodox Jewish boys, who attended
"cheders," traditional schools where only Jewish subjects were taught,
Orthodox Jewish girls were sent to Polish primary schools. When the time
came for them to marry, many young women rebelled against the marriages
arranged by their parents, with some wishing to pursue secondary and
university education. After World War I, the crisis of the rebellious
daughters in Kraków spurred the introduction of formal religious
education for young Orthodox Jewish women in Poland, which later
developed into a worldwide educational movement. Manekin chronicles the
belated Orthodox response and argues that these educational innovations
not only kept Orthodox Jewish women within the fold but also foreclosed
their opportunities for higher education.
Exploring the estrangement of young Jewish women from traditional
Judaism in Habsburg Galicia at the turn of the twentieth century, The
Rebellion of the Daughters brings to light a forgotten yet significant
episode in Eastern European history.
