Haredi Women in the Arts in the Digital Age: Contradictions and Paradoxes of a 21st-Century Phenomenon - Jessica Roda

Have you had a glimpse of the mesmerizing music videos of ultra-Orthodox women celebrities, Bracha Jaffe and Devorah Schwartz, captivating over half a million viewers on YouTube, or the myriad of films and Yiddish plays crafted by Hasidic girls in Montreal and New York? Probably not. This enduring lack of awareness persists because these spaces intentionally remain veiled in secrecy and privacy, and the prevailing image, as portrayed in productions like Netflix’s Unorthodox, perpetuates the notion of the Hasidic woman as uncreative and subservient to male authority. In this talk, your audience will learn about these hidden artistic worlds, the experience of Hasidic women who now perform for public audiences, and their challenges to transform the image of Hasidicness. As an active observer and participant, I will bring unique insights into these private feminine worlds. Much like in mainstream society, the emergence of celebrity status is rare, but stars like Bracha Jaffe and Shaindy Platzer are household names in these circles, and the impact of their artistic productions is broad for Jewish music.

Jessica Roda is an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist trained between Europe and North America whose research interests include music, religion, cultural heritage, gender, health, and media. She has published over fifteen scholarly articles, three books, and a special issue of an academic journal on these topics in French and English. After a first monograph about the social and political implications of Sephardic music in France (Se réinventer au present. Les Judéo-Espagnols de France, PUR 2018), she wrote a second book telling the captivating stories of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women, as well as the ones who broke away from religion, and their use of the arts, the digital, and technology to challenge and reinforce Orthodoxy (For Women and Girls Only: Reshaping Jewish Orthodoxy through the Arts in the Digital Age, NYU Press, 2024). For this research, she was awarded the Cashmere Award from the AJS Women’s Caucus (2021) and the Hadassah Brandeis Institute Research Award (2021). Currently, she is working on a new project investigating the economy and cultural dynamics of healing practices, particularly focusing on the convergence of auditory elements and bodily rituals within Orthodox Jewish communities.

Roda has served as a fellow at Université de Paris (Lab Urmis), McGill University, Columbia University (Heyman Center), UCLA (Department of Ethnomusicology), Université de Tours, Hannover University, University of Pennsylvania, and the State University of Campinas in Brazil. She is a collaborator in various collective research programs in Canada, Europe, and Brazil. From 2022 to 2024, she served as the president-elect of the Canadian Association for Traditional Music and is currently the co-chair of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Special Interest Group for Jewish Music. Her public-facing work has appeared in BBC, LaPresse, TV Quebec, The Huffington Post, Akadem, Radio Canada, Canadian Jewish News, France Culture, The Moment, Glamour, The Conversation US, Times of Israel, and numerous networks in Europe and the Americas (Brazil, Canada, Colombia, USA).

Beyond her academic life, she is also a trained pianist, flutist, and modern-jazz dancer (City of Paris Conservatory), and she grew up in French Guiana, a childhood that shaped her as a person, educator, and scholar.

Thursday, May 1, 2025 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM
Haredi Women in the Arts in the Digital Age: Contradictions and Paradoxes of a 21st-Century Phenomenon

Jessica Roda (Georgetown University)

Made possible by:
The UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies
The UCLA Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience
The Joy & Jerry Monkarsh Family Fund