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Strictly Observant: Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women Negotiating Media
The Amish and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities have typically been associated with strict religious observance, a renunciation of worldly things, and an obedience of women to men. Women’s relationship to media in these communities, however, betrays a more nuanced picture of the boundaries at play and women’s roles in negotiating them.
Strictly Observant presents a compelling ethnographic study of the complex dynamic between women in both the Pennsylvanian Old Order Amish and Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities and contemporary media technologies. These women regularly establish valuable social, cultural, and religious capital through the countless decisions for use and nonuse of media that they make in their daily lives, and in ways that challenge the gender hierarchies of each community. By exhibiting a deep awareness of how media can be managed to increase their social and religious reputations, these women prompt us to reconsider our outmoded understanding of the Amish and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, the role that women play in these communities as agents of change, and our own relationship to media today.
Strictly Observant presents a compelling ethnographic study of the complex dynamic between women in both the Pennsylvanian Old Order Amish and Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities and contemporary media technologies. These women regularly establish valuable social, cultural, and religious capital through the countless decisions for use and nonuse of media that they make in their daily lives, and in ways that challenge the gender hierarchies of each community. By exhibiting a deep awareness of how media can be managed to increase their social and religious reputations, these women prompt us to reconsider our outmoded understanding of the Amish and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, the role that women play in these communities as agents of change, and our own relationship to media today.
220 pages, Paperback
Published January 12, 2024
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February 26, 2025
When doctoral students contact those they want to interact with, it’s generally a more formal process, often using templates, form letters, email and the like.
Now imagine a researcher who wants to study the Amish who goes up to one of the women in Amish Country, Pennsylvania, and says, “Hi, my name is Rebecca, like Rebecca from the Bible. I come from Jerusalem, from the Holy Land. Can I talk with you?”
That might not be a conventional approach, but that’s the approach Dr. Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar used. In Strictly Observant: Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women Negotiating Media (Rutgers University Press), she has written a fascinating analysis of how Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women deal with modern technology and media.
The book focuses on how the female members of these communities deal with the complex tensions involved with media and technology use. It’s an interesting cross-cultural comparison of these two very different yet similar communities. While their religions are different, the struggles and challenges and how they deal with them are often similar.
Multiple and complex news consumption is an essential part of women’s cultural, religious and social capital. News has the power to bring the outside world into the community, family, and the home. At the same time, it can distribute personal, familial and communal information throughout the same circles.
This most interesting read details and contrasts the struggles and challenges these two communities of women face and how they deal with them.
Now imagine a researcher who wants to study the Amish who goes up to one of the women in Amish Country, Pennsylvania, and says, “Hi, my name is Rebecca, like Rebecca from the Bible. I come from Jerusalem, from the Holy Land. Can I talk with you?”
That might not be a conventional approach, but that’s the approach Dr. Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar used. In Strictly Observant: Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women Negotiating Media (Rutgers University Press), she has written a fascinating analysis of how Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women deal with modern technology and media.
The book focuses on how the female members of these communities deal with the complex tensions involved with media and technology use. It’s an interesting cross-cultural comparison of these two very different yet similar communities. While their religions are different, the struggles and challenges and how they deal with them are often similar.
Multiple and complex news consumption is an essential part of women’s cultural, religious and social capital. News has the power to bring the outside world into the community, family, and the home. At the same time, it can distribute personal, familial and communal information throughout the same circles.
This most interesting read details and contrasts the struggles and challenges these two communities of women face and how they deal with them.
Displaying 1 of 1 review