The early modern period witnessed a rise i n Jewish legal (halakhic) discussions that incorporated new medical underst andings into their rulings\, especially when it came to women's bodies. Foc using on eighteenth-century rabbinic responsa\, this talk highlights the wa y in which halakhic questions that required medical knowledge of female bod ies provided an opening for female medical experts as interlocutors. It als o demonstrates the practical legal ramifications as rabbis reacted to and i nflected contemporary medical knowledge\, pressing new scientific understan dings of women's bodies into extant Jewish legal frameworks.
Jordan Katz is a historian of early modern Jewry\, with a focus on Jewish cultura l history\, history of medicine\, and women and gender in the seventeenth a nd eighteenth centuries. Her current book project examines the role of Jewi sh midwives within communal\, intellectual\, and medical frameworks in the early modern Ashkenazic world. Through an exploration of Jewish midwives’ m edical influences\, their engagement with administrative knowledge systems\ , and their intellectual status in the eyes of prominent male leaders\, Kat z’s study offers a new understanding of the structures of knowledge and aut hority that undergirded early modern European society. More broadly\, she i s interested in the ways in which expertise and special skills created path ways for interaction between Christians and Jews\, and between Jews of diff erent socioeconomic classes\, that have not yet been studied.
Profess or Katz has received fellowships from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Cu lture\; the Consortium for History of Science\, Technology and Medicine\; t he Center for Jewish History\; and the Leo Baeck Fellowship Programme. Her work has been published in Jewish Quarterly Review and Jewish Social Studie s.
LOCATION:Hauser Hall\; 101 Borenstein Meeting Room GEO:0;0 ORGANIZER;CN="API User":MAILTO:api@law.harvard.edu URL;VALUE=URI:https://hls.harvard.edu/events/medical-expertise-womens-bodie s-and-jewish-law-in-early-modern-europe-jordan-katz-moderated-by-jessica-ma rglin/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:20260308T070000 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR