Image of the Religious Jewish Woman in Savyon Liebrecht’s Story “Apples from the Desert”: Form and Content

This study examines the image of the Orthodox Jewish woman in Savyon Liebrecht's short story “Apples from the Desert”, considering both content and artistic form. Its stated aims are to study the situation of the religious woman in the story, the relationship between religious and secular women, the positive and negative features of the religious woman, the way the author put artistic form in the service of content, and Liebrecht's attitude towards women in general and religious women in particular; the author notes that no other study exists on the figure of the religious woman in Israeli short stories. The article first reviews the role of women in Judaism, from their subordinate position in ritual law and the Old Testament and their exemption from a number of religious duties in the Talmud to their attempts to play a greater religious role in modern times. It then analyses the story of an ultra-Orthodox mother from Jerusalem who travels to a kibbutz in the desert to bring her only daughter back into the fold, and examines elements of form such as place and the ending. The study concludes that Liebrecht presents both positive and negative aspects of the Orthodox woman, that the mother becomes resigned to her daughter's choice, and that the narrative form serves the story's content.Abstract prepared by the editorial office from the full text of the article; the authors did not supply one.