Book Launch and Performance: Jessica Roda on For Women and Girls Only: Reshaping Jewish Orthodoxy Through the Arts in the Digital Age

Have you had a glimpse of the mesmerizing music videos of ultra-Orthodox women celebrities Bracha Jaffe and Devorah Schwartz captivating more than half a million viewers on YouTube, or the myriad films and Yiddish plays crafted by Hasidic girls in Montreal and New York? Probably not. This enduring lack of awareness persists because these spaces intentionally remain veiled in secrecy and privacy, and the prevailing image, as portrayed in productions like Netflix’s Unorthodox, perpetuates the notion of the Hasidic woman as uncreative and subservient to male authority.

In this talk, you will learn about these hidden artistic worlds, the experience of Hasidic women who now perform for public audiences, and their challenges to transform the image of Hasidicness. As an active observer and participant, Roda will bring unique insights into these private feminine worlds. Stars like Bracha Jaffe and Shaindy Platzer are household names in these circles, and the impact of their artistic productions is broad for Jewish music.

There will be a live musical performance following the oral presentation.

About the Speakers
Jessica Roda is an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist whose research interests include music, religion, cultural heritage, gender, health, and media. After a first monograph about the social and political implications of Sephardic music in France titled Se réinventer au present: Les Judéo-Espagnols de France (PUR 2018), she wrote a second book telling the captivating stories of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women and those who broke away from religion, including their use of art, digital tools, and technology to challenge and reinforce Orthodoxy, titled For Women and Girls Only: Reshaping Jewish Orthodoxy through the Arts in the Digital Age (NYU Press, 2024). For this research, she was awarded the Cashmere Award from the AJS Women’s Caucus (2021) and the Hadassah Brandeis Institute Research Award (2021).

Malky Goldman is an actor, artist, and writer from a Yiddish-speaking home in Jerusalem, with a fine arts degree from Hunter College. Her films and TV shows include The Vigil, The Performance, Unorthodox, The Binding of Itzik, and Castles. She has performed on stage in Hedda Gabler, Rhinoceros, and God of Vengeance.

Riki Rose is a Yiddish singer-songwriter, entertainer, and chazzan who grew up in an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community in Brooklyn. Inspired by her upbringing, Rose’s original music focuses on mental health awareness and healing, blending blues and jazz. For the performance, she will present a selection of cantorial pieces, Yiddish covers, and her own original compositions.