Why aren't Jewish women circumcised? : gender and covenant in Judaism

Why aren't Jewish women circumcised? This improbable question, first advanced by anti-Jewish Christian polemicists, is the point of departure for this wide-ranging exploration of gender and Jewishness in Jewish thought.

With a lively command of a wide range of Jewish sources - from the Bible and the Talmud to the legal and philosophical writings of the Middle Ages to Enlightenment thinkers and modern scholars - Shaye J.

D. Cohen considers the varied responses to this provocative question and in the process provides the fullest cultural history of Jewish circumcision available.