What are some other connections between conversion and gender issues in Judaism?
The relationship between gender and Jewsh identity is fundamental. Do men and women experience and express their Jewishness differently, in a different way? Do they understand what it means to be Jewish in completely different terms? That’s why I ask whether men and women think they are doing the same thing when they convert or if they think they are doing something different. Do they refuse to convert for different reasons? And there are practical implications for a woman’s life when she converts that are different from the practical implications for men. Like, what would happen to her children, what would happen to her dowry. What makes for a good man, in the Jewish tradition, and what makes for a good woman is very important in classical texts of Judaism, and it is equally important to contemporary students, to figure these issues out. The fallacy is that people think we are the first generations to bend gender norms. But what a local society considers appropriate behavior for a man
