Asenath Barazani was the daughter and only child of an eminent rabbinic scholar in Kurdistan. Because she was educated by her father, she was able to continue his lifestyle and teachings both when married to R. Jacob Mizrahi, and after widowed. She wrote beautiful and erudite letters, poems, commentaries and more in Hebrew. Because of her status, she became, as did her father, a popular and beloved figure in Jewish lore. Stories and legends about her abound. Asenath is still inspiring contemporary artists, playwrights and websites.

‍

Renée Levine Melammed is a professor of Jewish History at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem whose fields of research include the lives of conversos and Sephardi and Oriental Jewish women. Among her published books are: Heretics or Daughters of Israel: The Crypto-Jewish Women of Castile (Oxford, 1999); A Question of Identity: Iberian Conversos in Historical Perspective (Oxford, 2004); and An Ode to Salonika: The Ladino Verses of Bouena Sarfatty (Indiana University Press, 2013). Her current project deals with women’s lives as reflected in the Cairo Geniza. She is also the academic editor of the journal Nashim.

Asenath Barazani was the daughter and only child of an eminent rabbinic scholar in Kurdistan. Because she was educated by her father, she was able to continue his lifestyle and teachings both when married to R. Jacob Mizrahi, and after widowed. She wrote beautiful and erudite letters, poems, commentaries and more in Hebrew. Because of her status, she became, as did her father, a popular and beloved figure in Jewish lore. Stories and legends about her abound. Asenath is still inspiring contemporary artists, playwrights and websites.

‍

Renée Levine Melammed is a professor of Jewish History at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem whose fields of research include the lives of conversos and Sephardi and Oriental Jewish women. Among her published books are: Heretics or Daughters of Israel: The Crypto-Jewish Women of Castile (Oxford, 1999); A Question of Identity: Iberian Conversos in Historical Perspective (Oxford, 2004); and An Ode to Salonika: The Ladino Verses of Bouena Sarfatty (Indiana University Press, 2013). Her current project deals with women’s lives as reflected in the Cairo Geniza. She is also the academic editor of the journal Nashim.