Orthodox, Female, Poet: the Litvish Life of Hadasah Hirshovitz Levin, 1912-1946

Max Weinreich Fellowship Lecture in Baltic Jewish Studies The Abram and Fannie Gottlieb Immerman and Abraham Nathan and Bertha Daskal Weinstein Memorial Fellowship in Eastern European Jewish Studies, the Abraham and Rachela Melezin Memorial Fellowship and the Maria Salit-Gitelson Tell Memorial Fellowship Admission: Free Watch the video

Hadasah Hirshovitz Levin was a rare example of an Orthodox Jewish poet who came of age during the interwar period, a culturally turbulent time in Lithuanian Jewish history. The political and social turmoil wrought by the First World War resulted in the geographic relocation of the storied Lithuanian yeshivas, the central cultural and theological institutions of Lithuanian and Eastern European Orthodox Jewry. Some students exited the physical and ideological parameters of the Talmudical academies while others reinforced their commitment to the institution of the yeshiva. Traditionally observant women of Jewish Lithuania also underwent a transformation during this period. These women attempted to define themselves amidst the ruptures and sought avenues of creativity and religious expression that reflected the sociocultural milieu of the yeshiva world as well as the larger Eastern European cultural landscape.

Levin exemplified this struggle, bridging the gap between the yeshiva and the modern world of Orthodox education for women. Levin’s life reflected a breadth of experience immortalized in the poetry and prose she published in the interwar period. Levin’s wartime memoir offers a powerfully lyrical account of her experiences written in situ and point to a reality in which some Orthodox women achieved proficiency in both secular and religious texts.

In this lecture, Tzipora Weinberg will examine Levin’s written legacy in the context of lesser-known efforts and publications of her colleagues, to provide a lens into the experiences of an unknown group of traditionalist women in greater Jewish Lithuania.

About the Speaker

Tzipora Weinberg is a doctoral candidate in the Skirball Center for Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. Her research focuses on Eastern European Jewish history in the 20th century and centers around the intellectual and religious experiences of Orthodox Jewish women within the communities of Poland, Galicia, and Lithuania. She has presented her findings at Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Jewish Historical Institute, and the American Musicological Society, among other academic institutions. Her next article, “Shifting Paradigms, Pandemic Realities: the Reception of Ishay Ribo’s Music in the American Hasidic Community” is forthcoming in the Yale Journal of Music and Religion. As the 2021-2022 Max Weinreich Fellow in Baltic Jewish studies at YIVO and the 2022-2023 Dr. Sophie Bookhalter Fellow at the Center for Jewish History, she explores the educational and theological development of Orthodox women in Jewish Lithuania.