Interactive Identities : Jewish Women in New Zealand

Jewish identity is one of the many differences which enrich the New Zealand cultural landscape. In spite of a number of publications on some of the Jewish communities, there is little general knowledge as to what Jewishness means and how Jewish people living in New Zealand conceive of themselves ethnoculturally.

In the years 1994 and 1995, forty-eight women were interviewed in two main centres and asked how they position themselves within 'bicultural' Aotearoa/New Zealand and also within the Jewish communities of their affiliation. The book deals with the changing historical meaning of Jewish collective identity, the 'bicultural' challenge and the tensions of gender identities internal and external to Judaism.