Harry Hartog ANU: In Conversation with Lee Kofman
Lee Kofman will be in conversation with Professor Kim Rubenstein on her new book Ruptured : Jewish Women in Australia Reflect on Life Post-October 7
About the Book
This powerful collection of thirty-six personal essays was written by Jewish women from across Australia in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. Prominent voices such as Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Dani Valent, Professor Kim Rubenstein, Jemima Montag, Dr Mindy Sotiri, Ramona Koval, Rabbi Jacki Ninio and Kerri Sackville, share how their lives have dramatically changed against the backdrop of the ensuing war and rising antisemitism locally and globally.
The contributors tell compelling and original tales of heartbreak and resilience, each focusing on a different aspect of recent Jewish experience. Some essays reflect on the trauma of having had family members caught in the massacre of October 7 and others on the rupturing of Jewish women’s sense of belonging in feminist spaces. Essayists describe experiencing antisemitism in the arts, the Olympic sporting arena, and across the hospitality industry and in therapy spaces; what it is like to parent Jewish children in a post-October 7 Australia; fractured friendships; turning to art for solace; and making healing connections across communities.
Woven together, the essays conjure up the age-old story of the burdens that women carry in times of upheaval, while they also mobilise their families and communities through creativity, activism, spirituality, cooking and comedy, holding on to hope despite the profound rift created on that day.
The intention of ‘Ruptured’ is to preserve a historically significant time in Australia. It is also to encourage readers to consider the universal dangers of misrepresentation and marginalisation of minority groups in multicultural societies, and the corroding effects these can have on individuals.
About the Author
Dr Lee Kofman is a Russian-born Israeli-Australian author of six books and editor of two anthologies, writing teacher and mentor based in Melbourne. Her writing and reading life began a long time ago in a remote Siberian village where she recited her first poem to an admiring crowd of illiterate babushkas. What followed was decades of wrestling with the art and craft of writing and passionate reading.
About Prof. Kim Rubenstein
Kim Rubenstein is an Australian legal scholar, legal practitioner, professor, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. Rubenstein won the 2013 Edna Ryan award for Leadership for "leading feminist changes in the public sphere" and is a gender equity advocate. From 2020-2022 she was the Co-Director, Academic of the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation at the University of Canberra and from 2023-2025 a Research Professor in the University's Faculty of Business, Government and Law.
About the Event
• Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
• Registration is required for this event.
• Accessible parking spaces directly below the Harry Hartog ANU Bookshop are available should you require them. Parking at ANU/Harry Hartog
• If you do not feel well, please refrain from attending this event.
• Disability Access available - please ask in-store.