July 8: E.M. Broner

Feminist writer and ritual-maker Esther Broner (E.M. Broner) was born on this date in 1927 in Detroit. Her ten books included The Women’s Haggadah, Weave of Women and Mornings and Mourning: A Kaddish Journal. Broner, who died on June 21, 2011, was “among the first writers to consider feminism and Judaism as parts of a seamless if difficult-to-integrate whole,” wrote Margalit Fox in the New York Times obituary. Her feminist haggadah, published in Ms. magazine in 1977, was a pioneering work that set in motion feminist seders around the world (including in her New York apartment for many years). She held a Ph.D. with a specialization in religion and was creative leader in the opening of synagogue life to women’s leadership and women’s creativity.

“She made room for us at the table by creating a whole new one — a seder table at which women’s voices were heard.” —Letty Cottin Pogrebin