Between Body and Spirit: Corporeality in Sarah Schenirer’s Early Diary

Evening in-person keynote lecture from Joanna Degler followed by a reception, concluding the conference Gender and the Body in East European Jewish History launching the most recent volume of 'Polin. Studies in Polish Jewry'.

This lecture examines the role of the body in the early diary of Sarah Schenirer (1908–1913), written before she became the founder of the Beit Ya’akov movement. Drawing on the Polish-language diary, the talk explores how corporeality functioned as a site of tension between religion and modernity, obedience and rebellion, discipline and pleasure.

Joanna Degler will analyze Schenirer’s reflections on her own body in relation to motherhood and daughterhood, marriage and sexuality, ritual practices such as nidah and immersion in the mikveh, paid work as a seamstress, and participation in spa culture. These bodily experiences reveal deep ambivalences: the body is simultaneously rejected and ritualized, disciplined and enjoyed, perceived as a source of suffering yet also as a means of self-formation.

The lecture argues that Schenirer’s struggle with corporeality was central to the development of her identity and leadership. Her rejection of both traditional models of Orthodox femininity and modern acculturated womanhood led her to articulate an alternative path based on education, religiosity, and female solidarity. By foregrounding the embodied dimension of Schenirer’s diary, the talk offers new insight into the gendered foundations of religious authority and female agency in early twentieth-century East European Jewish culture.

Joanna Degler (Lisek) is Associate Professor at the Taube Department of Jewish Studies (University of Wroclaw). Her research interests focus mainly on Jewish poetry and the role of women in Yiddish culture.