The Rebellion of the Daughters: Jewish Women Runaways in Habsburg Galicia

by Rachel Manekin

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 Krak�w 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 Krak�w 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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Judaism, Jewish, Religion

304 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2020

Reviews

[Ben Vos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well-informed account of Galician chasidish girls and women whose educations were neglected and scorned by their communities. With a full and fascinatingly multifaceted background to Sarah Schenirer and the Beis Yaakov school movement. (I would not have guessed any influence, even at one remove, of R. S.R. Hirsch!)

[ROBERT · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mother's father came from galicia not sure about her mother. They had died prior to my sixth birthday so they cannot be contacted. I was not aware of this problem before. It did surprise me that these women took steps to escape.

[Ilana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting and engaging, you can tell how the author cares deeply about the runaways and their stories—which is to say this history book read well as almost a novel. Not dry at all.