Jewish Women: Keeping the Faith :: Essays Papers

Judaic Women Keeping the Faith Jewish women in Tucson and Nogales compete an enormous role in belongings the Jewish community inviolable in these areas. Women in these communities did this through their involvement in the religious institutions, including synagogues and early(a) places of worship. The pioneer Jewish women and the Jewish women of today in the southwest had and still have dominant roles in keeping their pietism alive in Arizona. To understand the breadth of womens involvement in the development and maintenance of the religious structure in southern Arizona, specifically Tucson and Nogales I talked to a few individuals who discussed their experiences. Esther Capin and Bette Cooper are Jewish women from Nogales who grew up in that respect during the clock time when Jews were first coming to that area. Theodore (Ted) Blooms family has played a material role in the history of the Jewish community in Tucson. His grandmother, mother, aunt, and at one time his wife have truly led the way in keeping the Jewish religious tradition alive in Tucson. Finally, Alma Bongarten lives in Tucson and divided up with me information about her own role and other womens roles in the Jewish synagogues. These people together helped me piece together a very clear vision of womens involvement in the religious tone of the Jewish community in southern Arizona. Their involvement includes keeping the organized religion alive without the presence of a temple, building the first synagogue in Arizona, generally cosmos active members of the temples, bringing the lost traditions back, and by being more present in the synagogues as religious leaders and figures. Jewish women in early Tucson and presently in Nogales have kept their religion alive without the presence of a synagogue. When Terese Marx Ferrin, Ted Blooms grandmother, first came to Tucson there was no temple or any place of worship for the Jews of the community. regardless of this s etback, the Jewish tradition was still present. Terese took it upon herself to keep the Torah, the religious book of Hebraic laws, in her own home. It was considered a great honor to house this spiritual book. Not only did she house the Torah, but Terese would also host serve at her house because of the absence of a synagogue in Tucson.