The first reform liturgy: Penina Moise's Hymns and the discourses of American identity

Shira Wolosky*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Penina Moise, when discussed at all, has been placed in the context of a nineteenth-century women's domestic sphere. Her main body of work, however, is in fact specifically public and was vital and central to the development of the first Reform Jewish movement in America, in Charleston during the 1840s. Moise wrote close to two hundred hymns for this movement, the first Reform liturgy in America, shaping community worship for the next hundred years. Her hymns combine many different contemporary discourses-Jewish, republican, evangelical, and liberal theological-in ways that reflect, enact, and generate the complex identities of Jewish Americans.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)130-146
Number of pages17
JournalStudies in American Jewish Literature
Volume33
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014

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