Kahn, Susan Martha 1963-

PERSONAL:

Born 1963, in Cambridge, MA. Education: Harvard University, M.A., Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, 38 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138; fax: 617-496-8584. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Social anthropologist. Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, senior research director of the Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women, adjunct assistant professor in the departments of anthropology and Near Eastern and Judaic studies.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Jewish Book Award, 2000, Musher Prize from National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and Eileen Basker Memorial Award from Society for Medical Anthropology (American Anthropological Association), 2001, all for Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel.

WRITINGS:

Rabbis and Reproduction: The Uses of New Reproductive Technologies among Ultraorthodox Jews in Israel ("Working Paper" series), Brandeis University (Waltham, MA), 1997.

(With Tobin Belzer, Sylvia Barack Fishman, and Shulamit Reinharz) The Status of Jewish Women's Studies in the United States and Canada: A Survey of University and College Courses in 1998, Brandeis University (Waltham, MA), 1998.

Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

Susan Martha Kahn is a social anthropologist whose research interests include medical anthropology, Israel studies, kinship studies, and the anthropology of the Middle East. Her award-winning Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel studies the high value placed on parenthood in Israel, a result of the legacy of the Holocaust and the risk of losing young people to war; parenthood is also seen as a countermeasure to the growing populations in Arab nations. As Kahn points out, per capita there are more fertility clinics in Israel than in any other country in the world, and Israel is the leader in the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF), surrogacy, egg donation, and other reproductive technologies. These services are nearly fully subsidized by the government and are free to all, regardless of marital status. Michal Rachel Nahman commented in the Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology that Kahn focuses "on the case of unmarried women to highlight instances where rabbinic notions of personhood and Jewishness are most poignantly revealed. The guiding question of Kahn's study is whether a single woman who chooses to get pregnant destabilizes Jewish kinship ideology."

Kahn notes the ethical and religious dilemmas posed by the liberal dissemination of services, as well as the opinions of those involved, including the clients, medical professionals, and social workers. She analyzes rabbinic debate regarding the various aspects of IVF and remarks that in certain cases donated ova and sperm from non-Jews are acceptable. Although single motherhood is encouraged, such a path is not without hurdles, and unmarried women must undergo psychiatric evaluation before treatment. Their children conceived outside of marriage, however, are legitimate, because by Judaic and Israeli law marriage is not necessary for reproduction. In concluding her review for Shofar, Larissa Remennick wrote: "The book is an important addition to the medical anthropological literature on reproduction, the body, and women's health; it would also be of value to the reader interested in modern Judaism and Israeli society in general."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, August, 2002, Michal Rachel Nahman, review of Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel, p. 359.

Shofar, spring, 2004, Larissa Remennick, review of Reproducing Jews, p. 178.

ONLINE

Brandeis University Web site,http://my.brandeis.edu/ (January 16, 2002), "Susan Kahn Wins Award for Research on Reproductive Technology Practices in Israel."

Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Web site,http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~nelc/ (October 24, 2006), biographical information on Susan Martha Kahn.*