“You Can Be Whatever You Want to Be” Except for on Shabbat: Challenging the Traditional Shabbat Party

ABSTRACT

Within Orthodox Jewish early childhood programs, gender roles of the Shabbat Party promote heteronormative gender expectations that contend with values about children, teaching, and Judaism. Interviews with 15 educators suggested tensions between gender flexible attitudes and beliefs that gender unfolds naturally. Pretend play was considered a safe space for challenging gender, regulated by perceived sociocultural and religious boundaries. Conversely, the Shabbat Party roles were rigidly instituted without much examination of their implications for gender and Jewish identity development. While a few dissenting voices revealed an emerging gender consciousness, the ongoing need for dialogue, reflection, and gender flexible practices are recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood education
• gender
• Jewish identity
• Orthodox Jewish education
• Shabbat

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ilana Dvorin Friedman

Ilana Dvorin Friedman, PhD, is the Senior Policy Analyst for Early Childhood at the Jewish United Fund (JUF) in Chicago and an adjunct instructor at a variety of academic institutions, with interests in Jewish early childhood education, child care policy and advocacy, and social justice and critical pedagogies. E-mail: [email protected]

Kate Phillippo

Kate Phillippo, PhD LCSW, is a Professor of Education and Social Work at Loyola University Chicago whose work centers on stakeholder enactment of education policy, contextual influences on the enactment process, and consequences for educational and racial equity, primarily with urban education policy and student wellness policy spaces. E-mail: [email protected]