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Article

Cultural Script of North African Jewish Women: The Making of an “Eshet Hayil”

Pages 231-233
Published online: 28 Dec 2017
 
Translator disclaimer

“May God make thee like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah …” That's the blessing that welcomes the Jewish little girl into the world and these are the models that will shape her life.

The cultural script of the Jewish woman goes back to the Bible. (The Bible) “in fact, created the Jewish woman. It has proven itself the most potent educative force in her life” (Benno Jacob).

Five thousand years, and many diasporas later, how does the Jewish woman accept, adapt to, live and eventually change a cultural script that does not make room for any geographical, cultural, historical differences?

This article describes the molding of the North African (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco) Eshet Hayil and her struggle for an identity beyond the label: “a woman of valor.”

Additional information

Author information

Ginette Ayache-Sebag

Ginette Ayache Sebag teaches French language and literature at John Abbott College, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She is presently doing her doctoral research on the use of Transactional Analysis principles in the teaching of second languages.