Prell, Riv. Women Remaking American Judaism. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2007. Print.

For my second shelfie adventure, I searched for “Judaism Feminism” in the Lafayette College library catalogue because I am interested in seeing how Feminism is different in Judaism compared to popular western beliefs. After watching the documentary “Be Fruitful and Multiply”, I was surprised that most of these Jewish women believed that feminism meant taking care of the household. On the contrary, most ‘western’ feminists would exclaim that having to stay home and tend to children is a barrier for women.

After searching the words “Judaism” and “Feminism”, I came across the book “Women Remaking American Judaism” edited Riv-Ellen Prell and the first thing that I noticed was the cover. The cover depicts a Jewish woman holding a similar pose to ‘Rosie the Riveter’. ‘Rosie’ was a very famous cultural icon during WWII for the representation of American women who worked in factories in order to produce military weapons. This cultural icon is still very popular today because it is used as a symbol of feminism. The book is split into three different categories: Reenvisioning Judaism, Redefining Judaism, and Reframing Judaism. Each section contains essays by different authors who offer various interpretation of Jewish feminism.  In Reenvisioning Judaism, the stories conclude that Feminist thinking challenges traditional Jewish theology. Statements such as “The Jewish legal system is constructed entirely from a male perspective” is used to showcase the challenges women face as a Jewish worshipper. Redefining Judaism showcases the changes in the role of women in American Judaism and how the changes were dependent on American societal changes. Lastly, Reframing Judaism displays how different innovations such as adult bat mitzvah ceremonies or the Miriam’s Tambourine have allowed women to create a ‘new’ Judaism in which women are equally represented as men.

Although I initially was expecting to dive more into how some Jewish women beliefs on feminist differed from western feminist beliefs, I am glad that I found this book because I now want to focus of the Jewish feminist revolution in America. I will probably use this book as one of my sources for my next paper because it contains insights on the different approaches of Jewish feminism.

Davidson, Ronald M.. Tibetan renaissance Tantric Buddhism in the rebirth of Tibetan culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Print.

I started my journey of finding the right book for my shelfie by searching up “Tibetan Buddhism” in the Lafayette library catalogue. I searched for “Tibetan Buddhism” because whenever I hear the word “Tibet” or “Tibetan”, I associated it with Buddhism. As a Tibetan, the Tibetan holidays I remember celebrating as a child were special and auspicious days for Buddhism so I wanted to see how much Buddhism has impacted the Tibetan culture. After contemplating between several books regarding Tibetan Buddhism, I decided to choose Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the rebirth of Tibetan culture by Ronald M. Davidson. The cover for the book has really cool drawings of important deities (I believe) although the color scheme is pretty bland. What drew me to Tibetan Renaissance was the brief summary on the back of the book which stated, “Davidson explores how the translation and spread of esoteric Buddhist texts dramatically shaped Tibetan society” because that is exactly what I wanted to find out.

There are ten sections in the book, Tibetan Renaissance which sort of acts like a timeline for Tibet’s adaptation to Buddhism.  I personally found the second chapter, “The Demise of Dynasty and a Poorly Lit Path” to be the most interesting because I was able to imagine how Tibet was before the introduction of Buddhism. Learning that Tibet was once a strong militaristic empire is surprising because now people usually associate Tibet with Buddhism which is considered peaceful and compassionate. Learning how Tibet was prior to Buddhism helps me understand how Buddhism has made an impact on the Tibetan culture because it shows how this particular religion turned a country that was once perceived as “the most fearsome armed states in Asia”, into a country everyone now associates Buddhism with. The other chapters later on in the book showcase how the once powerful Tibetan empire crumbles into pieces followed by many political and social unrest. Tibetan Renaissance contains many illustrations of maps and deities which is helpful because it provides a visual understanding of Tibet’s transformation after the introduction of Buddhism. The book also contains a glossary in the back which provides one sentence explanations for difficult Tibetan terms. I plan on using this book for my research paper because it provides background history on Tibet both before and after Buddhism so it will be easier to see how Buddhism impacted Tibet’s culture and its society.