Jewish women entered professions in the late 19th century that had excluded them on grounds of gender and ethnicity. Thus they became “new women” even if they remained in the female sphere as they played a leading role in the professional restructuring of Jewish society. Unlike female students they suffered less from anti-Semitism and misogyny and they could make a living in particular after their emigration because it was easier for them to find employment than was the case for academics.

Neo-orthodox fiction is an aesthetically self-confident expression of the inner-Jewish processes of transformation in the 19th century. Its criticism of mixed marriages is part of a wider debate about the family. A socio-cultural orientated analysis reveals the tensions between the adoption of middle-class conventions and gender norms on the one hand, and a distinct religious and familial identity on the other, brought about by a literary device segregating orthodox from non-observant Jews.

Germany’s first Jewish religious school for women opened its doors in Frankfurt am Main in 2001. The majority of the students at the residential college, which is funded by the <em>Ronald S. Lauder Foundation</em> are young women from the former Soviet Union. Those “returnees” to religion experience an enormous process of religious transformation during their studies, which does not end when they leave the school. Some of these women have since raised families and moved to Israel. The article discusses the personal progress of two of the former students in both countries and uses ethnographic analysis to examine how the adopted religious system of norms continues to shape their Jewish self-image and everyday life.