Norma Baumel Joseph (born 1944 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

) is an American-born Canadian professor and Jewish feminist activist. In 1990, Joseph was successful in working with the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

to pass a law that would protect Jewish women in need of a ''

get Get or GET may refer to: * Get (animal), the offspring of an animal * Get (divorce document), in Jewish religious law * GET (HTTP), a type of HTTP request * "Get" (song), by the Groggers * Georgia Time, used in the Republic of Georgia * Get AS, a ...

''. She currently serves as Professor of Religion at

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

and Associate Director of the University's Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies.

Biography

Joseph was born in

to Moishe (Murray) Baumel and Madeline (née Kohn). Moishe was a salesman who had emigrated to the United States as a child, and Madeline was a typist-secretary who arrived in the United States as an infant. Both sides of Joseph's family were heavily engaged in Jewish occupations. In 1965, she married Rabbi Howard Joseph who, five years later, became the leader of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

's Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. She received a B.A. from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

in 1966, an M.A. from the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

in 1968, and a Ph.D in religion from

in 1995. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the legal decisions of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein concerning the separate spheres for women in the Jewish community. The dissertation was nominated for a Governor General's Gold Medal award for excellence. Joseph has published widely in scholarly books and journals as an expert in Jewish feminist thought. She serves on the editorial board of ''Women in Judaism'', on the advisory board of the Journal of Religion and Culture, on the advisory council of JOFA, and on the international board of the

Jewish Women's Archive The Jewish Women's Archive (JWA) is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to document "Jewish women's stories, elevate their voices, and inspire them to be agents of change." JWA was founded by Gail Twersky Reimer in 1995 in Brookli ...

. In 1995, she received the Leo Wasserman Prize for the best article published in American Jewish History that year for "Jewish Education for Women: Rabbi Moshe Feinstein’s Map of America" (vol. 83, no. 2, 205–222). Her teaching and research areas include women and Judaism, Jewish law and ethics, and women and religion.

Jewish feminist activism

From the early 1970s she promoted women's greater participation in Jewish religious and communal life. In 1988 Joseph acted as one of the founding members of Women of the Wall, where, alongside

Anat Hoffman }; born 1954) is an Israeli activist and serves as Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center, also known as IRAC. She is the director and founding member of Nashot HaKotel, also known as Women of the Wall. Hoffman is a former member ...

and other notable Israeli and Jewish feminists, she carried a Torah to the women's section of the

Western Wall The Western Wall ( he, הַכּוֹתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי, HaKotel HaMa'aravi, the western wall, often shortened to the Kotel or Kosel), known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall (Arabic: حَائِط � ...

. She is a member of the advisory board of Kol ha-Isha: A Feminist House of Study in Jerusalem, sponsored by the

Conservative movement Conservative movement may refer to: *Conservatism in the United States, in politics *Conservatism, a political philosophy *Conservative Judaism Conservative Judaism, known as Masorti Judaism outside North America, is a Jewish religious moveme ...

. Joseph has been particularly active in the issue of ''

agunot An ''agunah'' ( he, עגונה, plural: agunot (); literally "anchored" or "chained") is a Jewish woman who is stuck in her religious marriage as determined by ''halakha'' (Jewish law). The classic case of this is a man who has left on a journey ...

,'' women denied divorce. As a founding member of the Canadian Coalition of Jewish Women for the ''Get'', she successfully worked with the Jewish community and the Canadian Federal Government to pass a law in 1990 (Divorce Act, ch.18, 21.1) that would protect Jewish women in difficult divorce situations and aid them in their pursuit of a

Jewish divorce A or ''gett'' (; , plural ) is a document in Jewish religious law which effectuates a divorce between a Jewish couple. The requirements for a ''get'' include that the document be presented by a husband to his wife. The essential part of the ...

. Following the Canadian success, Joseph helped form the International Coalition for Agunah Rights, an international coalition of women's groups advocating for ''agunot''.

Honours and awards

Joseph won the Leo Wasserman Prize from the American Jewish Historical Society for the best article of 1995 in the journal American Jewish History. She was recognized by the National Council of Jewish Women (Montreal chapter), which chose her as its Woman of Distinction in 1998; by the Montreal Jewish community, which presented her with the Jacob Zipper Education Award in 2000; and by Jewish Women International, from which she received the Leading Light, Woman of the Year Award in 2002. Joseph was a recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council research grant on gender and identity in the Iraqi Jewish Community of Montreal. She was the 2019 recipient of the Louis Rosenberg Canadian Jewish Studies Distinguished Service Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joseph, Norma 1944 births Living people Jewish Canadian activists Academics from Brooklyn Activists from Brooklyn Academic staff of Concordia University Concordia University alumni Brooklyn College alumni City University of New York alumni Canadian people of American-Jewish descent American emigrants to Canada Orthodox Jewish feminists