Translating the Ketubah
Translating the Ketubah
The Jewish Marriage Contract in America and England
A groundbreaking exploration of the Jewish marriage contract and its evolution in English translation
The ketubah has been the subject of scholarly interest for a hundred years, but its translation into the vernacular from Aramaic has been completely overlooked. In Translating the Ketubah: The Jewish Marriage Contract in America and England, Benjamin Steiner explores the ketubah’s translation into English as a window into Jewish history.
English translations of the ketubah illuminate the experiences of American and British Jews over a period of more than 200 years, including the relation of the law of the land to religious law and the evolving status of women within and outside Judaism. Written to elucidate regional nuances in ketubah use, Steiner’s book sheds light on Jews’ involvements in the economy of early New York, the institution of slavery in the antebellum South, and the world of Gold Rush California. Later chapters highlight national and international themes, including the desire of Jews in the United States and England to be both authentically Jewish and fully acculturated, and efforts by the twentieth century Conservative rabbinate to fight a perceived crisis in the Jewish family.
Ketubah translation links these disparate aims together, especially because the authorship of translations entails revealing choices from which historians can glean insights into the past. Translating the Ketubah is recommended to those interested in American Jewish and British Jewish history, women’s history, religious studies, and legal history.
An indispensable addition to the study of Jewish marriage customs and women’s legal rights, this meticulously researched book offers a fascinating journey through the history of English translations of ketubot in America and England from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries.' —Ellen M. Umansky, author of From Christian Science to Jewish Science: Spiritual Healing and American Jews
Translating the Ketubah is a most welcome contribution to scholars, students, and anyone eager to enjoy a pathbreaking approach to religious studies and American Jewish history.' —Zev Eleff, author of Who Rules the Synagogue? Religious Authority and the Formation of American Judaism
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Tales of the Jewish Marriage Contract
Chapter 1. Dower Rights and Ketubah Rites in Early New York
Chapter 2. Bridging Religious and Secular Law in Antebellum South Carolina and Georgia
Chapter 3. Marriage, Acculturation, and Upward Mobility among Nineteenth-Century California Jews
Chapter 4. Translation and Jewish Social Integration in Victorian London
Chapter 5. Saving the Jewish Family in Postwar America
Epilogue: Who Owns the Jewish Marriage Contract Today?
Appendix: Ketubah Translations from America and England, 1775–1960
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Soloveitchik's Children
Irving Greenberg, David Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the Future of Jewish Theology in America
Polacos in Argentina
Polish Jews, Interwar Migration, and the Emergence of Transatlantic Jewish Culture
We Shall Build Anew
Stephen S. Wise, the Jewish Institute of Religion, and the Reinvention of American Liberal Judaism
