"Me Too, Dinah, Me Too": Jewish American Women's Midrash-Poems on the Rape of Dinah

Abstract: One of the central foci of the #MeToo movement, which became a social-media phenomenon in 2017, is exposing incidents of rape and sexual harassment. Secrecy, denial, and the explaining away of rape/abuse lying at the core of patriarchal society and culture, feminists began addressing these issues as a primary concern much earlier, however. In this article, I explore midrashic poems relating to the rape of Dinah (Genesis 34) written by Jewish American women as a reflection of cultural attitudes towards sexual harassment and assault. Mostly passive and entirely silent in the biblical text, Dinah is a neutral figure herein. She thus functions as a screen upon which commentators can project thoughts and behaviors. While some modern Jewish feminist poets adhere closely to Scripture even as they rework it, others use the text as a springboard for innovative and novel views. I examine the way in which the protagonist is allowed to tell her own story, assuming the voice she lacks in the biblical text and expressing her thoughts and feelings and addressed directly, her story being retold via identification and/or commemoration. Analyzing how they all deal with Dinah's rape, I suggest they serve as predecessors of—and in two cases, participants in—the #MeToo movement.