Conflict, Complement, and Control: Family and Religion among Middle Eastern Jewish Women in Jerusalem

This article presents a cross-cultural exploration of the interaction between religion and family in the lives of women. It focuses on elderly Middle Eastern Jewish women who, during the course of their life spans, moved from a conflicting to a complementary experience of family and religion. The author argues that opposition between religion and family seldom arises for women who control their own time or resources, or who control a domestic sphere they themselves see as sacred. Women who wish to conduct their religious lives in the public sphere, especially in the context of an extrafamilial hierarchy or as religious professionals, are likely to come into conflict with their families over issues of competition for their time or allegiance. Official religious doctrines are not likely to determine how particular women experience family and religion; even women who maneuver within the same theological framework may experience the relationship between family and religion in very different ways.