Women Write Buber

Women Writing Buber sheds new light on Martin Buber's thought through the voices of women scholars who engaged with, interpreted, and transformed his philosophy. The book uncovers a vibrant and often overlooked intellectual conversation that challenges the traditional, male-dominated reception of Buber's work. Bringing together thinkers and scholars from diverse intellectual interests, Women Writing Buber explores how female perspectives reframe central concepts such as dialogue, encounter, and relationality. By tracing these interpretations across literature, philosophy, theology, art, politics, and environmentalism, the book not only expands the understanding of Buber's legacy but also centers and repositions women's contributions within modern Jewish thought. This book goes beyond the classical division between the work of the thinker and its scholarly reception. In this collection, female scholars imagine and develop the missing parts of Buber's work.


“How do women view the great theologian Martin Buber? Can thinking with gender help us probe more deeply into Buber’s understanding of I-Thou relationships, Jewish spirituality, and the nature of community? This remarkable collection, based on a conference, gives us new insights into Buber’s writings and demonstrates the illumination that comes when thinking with gender.”
Susannah Heschel, Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College

“Approaching Buber with ‘a feminist bias’, the present volume offers a critical counterpoint to the growing literature on Buber, which often vacillates between adulation and exasperation. While Women Write Buber imposes no unified or conclusive viewpoint, the contributors turn Buber from his head onto his feet, retrieving the feminine/feminist potential from his patriarchal veneer. The essays are uniformly excellent, informative, and groundbreaking.”
Michael Zank, Professor of Religion, Boston University