The Second Glance: Women | Gesa Ederberg

Film

“Women” is the second integrated exhibition in the series The Second Glance. The show analyses the traditional gender roles and challenges the functions ascribed to women in society – for example, as goddesses, heroines, prostitutes, saints, queens, academics – and on the role of women in society. In six themed paths featuring 62 objects dating from the 4th to the 18th century, these women are situated within their own historical contexts and also discussed through the critical lens of the 21st century.

Gesa S. Ederberg was born in Tübingen in 1968. She studied physics and Jewish studies in Tübingen, Bochum, Berlin, New York, and Jerusalem. After rabbinical studies at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem she received her ordination (smicha) in 2002. She works as a congregational rabbi of the Jewish Community of Berlin and is responsible for the Oranienburger Straße synagogue. In addition, she is the spiritual advisor at the Zacharias Frankel College, the Masorti rabbinical seminary in Potsdam. In 2002 she founded the "Masorti e. V. – Verein zur Förderung der jüdischen Bildung und des jüdischen Lebens" (Masorti Registered Society for the Promotion of Jewish Education and Jewish Life) in Berlin. She is a member of the board of directors of the society, which is, among other things, a supporter of two bilingual day care centres and a bilingual elementary school in Berlin. As a coinitiator, Gesa S. Ederberg is involved in the planned Three Religions Day Care Centre building in Berlin (construction start: 2022). In Winter 2020 she was recognised with the Louise Schroeder Medal for her commitment to democracy, peaceful cooperation, and the equality of women and men in all spheres, especially in religion and interreligious dialogue. She is married and has three children.