Jerusalem: A Feminist History

FAIN: FT-279076-21

Sarit Kattan Gribetz
Fordham University (Bronx, NY 10458-9993)

Research in Jerusalem for a history of women in the city, from ancient times to the present day.

The history of Jerusalem is usually told as a story about King David, Emperor Constantine, and Sultan Salah ad-Din – that is, as a history of a city that was founded, built, and ruled by powerful men. Throughout its history, from antiquity through the medieval and modern periods, however, the city of Jerusalem has been ruled by women; built by women; mourned by women; visited and populated by women. Moreover, Jerusalem is often personified as a woman and depicted in feminine terms, a common trope throughout the literary corpus. Despite the fact that Jewish, Christian, and Muslim women have played such prominent roles in every aspect of Jerusalem’s history, in every chronological period, women’s contributions are rarely foregrounded in accounts of the city’s history. Jerusalem: A Feminist History seeks to tell this history by demonstrating the ways in which Jerusalem’s women – historical and metaphorical – played central roles in the city’s conceptualization and development.