Assignment 1

PART 1: SUMMARIES

1. Reading 2 – Jan 16 – Gender roles

This assigned reading provided a detailed culture of small-town Eastern

European Jews which is called “shtetl” relating to the divergent behaviors of men

and women. There is a shaping the individual’s socialization, education and

value hierarchy among genders that was figured out through three chapter “The

Eastern Wall”, “People of the week” and “The woman’s share” respectively.

There is no doubt that the Jewish life was to be centered around learning

because of its role in running away from dark reality or persecution. Thus, not

only men must pursue a mindfulness of learning, but women who are not

engaged in study also need to know how to read Yiddish and Hebrew letters.

This such evidence is to show that the Jewish system strive to create

environment which stimulate learning through all genders. Gaining much

deference and climbing the social ladder by scholar merit makes sense in Jewish

life. With a paramount importance of Jewish education, “The Eastern Wall”

section demonstrated the best matching in marriage between learned men and

women whose father is also a learned one. In addition, in shtetl community the

more education the person has, the more respect people have for them despite

of ages or wealth.