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Most of the research on modesty and covering one's body considers the stringent modesty norms as reflecting the patriarchal oppression of women. One of the multiple manifestations of \"““modesty\"”” that have become prevalent in ultra-Orthodox society in recent years is that of women wearing dark-colored capes when they are out in public. This paper discusses how this \"““fashion\"”” came about, and its religious, social and gender-related implications. The findings show that women play a central role in the institutionalization of stringent modesty rules-——in this case, wearing capes-——and that they attribute to themselves spiritual powers and abilities in this regard, believing that their behavior can bring about redemption not only for the individual but also for the Jewish people as a whole. Moreover, wearing a cape is a way for women to display their \"““higher spiritual level,\"”” thus upgrading their social status. At the same time, voices in the ultra-Orthodox community have come out against this new \"““fashion,\"”” because it seems to imply that women who do not wear capes are on a lower religious and spiritual level. Either way, wearing capes, like other stringent modesty norms, reflects the collective identity of ultra-Orthodox women and their separation from the general society.

Between 1870 and 1938, a small but visible minority of Jewish women were very active in secular philanthropy in Italy. Excluded from the institutional Jewish community, which refused to recognize their changing roles, a few well-educated Jewish women became leaders, promoters and major donors in non-Jewish philanthropic projects specifically devoted to education and women's welfare. The present paper explores this phenomenon from 1870, when the walls of the ghetto of Rome were finally brought down, to 1938, when Fascist antisemitic legislation forced the expulsion of Jewish activists and philanthropists from the institutions they had contributed to and, indeed, had often created.

Rachel \"““Ray\"”” Frank, a renowned American Jewish woman preacher in the 1890s, was inaccurately celebrated by the American press as \"““the first woman rabbi.\"”” While existing scholarship has used her anecdotally and focused on her origins and career within the American Jewish community, this essay considers her celebrity and image in the public sphere. It traces the social and cultural origins of Frank's career before exploring the various femininities through which she was constructed. Frank is read against other public Jewish women-——Jewish actresses Sarah Bernhardt and Adah Menken, as well as Emma Goldman and Emma Lazarus-——in order to uncover and interpret the common cultural spectrum on which public Jewish women have been understood. Interpreted as a true woman, a beautiful Jewess and a universalistic preacher, Frank was inserted into existing cultural tropes that made hers a comforting and legible example amidst the era's destabilizing mass of Jewish immigrants.