David Biale

The Male Body in Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Theology

World Religions

“With the sympathy of a former practitioner and the insight of a historian, Yakir Englander brilliantly reveals attitudes toward the body in ultra-Orthodox Lithuanian Judaism. While these attitudes are often negative, there are also surprising voices of dissent from the prevailing dogma, voices that suggest a world more complex and fascinating than most outsiders realize. Englander’s concluding remarks on the effect of COVID-19 on this cloistered community demonstrate how these stringently religious Jews, like all of us, cannot escape their bodies.”