Tkhines were collections of prayers published in Yiddish, often specifically for women, across Europe from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The prayers addressed many themes of domestic and family life, although some also suggested women ought to be allowed into traditionally male spaces.

The Jewish population of Turkey navigated far-reaching changes in the political, social, and geopolitical spheres in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, as the Ottoman Empire pursued reform and collapsed and the Turkish Republic that took its place imposed a process of “Turkification” on its residents. During this period, Jewish women partook in traditional customs relating to religion, family, and the home, while also accessing new opportunities in the public sphere through education and political engagement.

In the biblical Book of Esther, Vashti is wife of the king of Persia who refuses his request to appear before the royal guests at a banquet. Her episode introduces several themes that occur throughout the book, and she sets in motion the rest of story’s events when her refusal leads to her being deposed and replaced as queen by Esther.

Pauline Wengeroff was the author of an extraordinary two-volume work in German, Memoirs of a Grandmother: Scenes from the Cultural History of the Jews of Russia in the Nineteenth Century. First published in 1910, the memoir richly depicts traditional Jewish society in Russia, its unraveling during the nineteenth century, and the devastating impact this dissolution had on families and especially on women.

While the Wife of Job has a limited role in the biblical narrative, the apocryphal Divrei Lyov transforms her into a central character of the plot. Unique to the apocryphal account, Job is cited as having two wives, Utzit and Dinah, whereas the midrashic account has Job marrying only one woman.

In characterizing her husband’s unconditional devotion to God as an act of cowardice, Job’s nameless wife is the one who opens the possibility of speaking against God. Much like Eve, Job’s wife prompts her husband to doubt God’s use of divine powers and, in doing so, she deepens his knowledge and opens his eyes.

Job’s wife is the subject of a moral critique by the midrash for advising her husband to commit blasphemy. Different midrashim account for the possible outcomes and motives of her actions.

Lot, his wife, and his daughters are urged to escape the violence in Sodom that ensues when the local people want to rape two visitors to Lot’s house. Lot and his family are told not to look back when they flee, but Lot’s wife does look back and is turned into a pillar of salt. This gripping narrative contains elements of folklore and provides an explanation for the salt formations along the Dead Sea.