Bettany Hughes’ BBC2 documentary, Divine Women examined the pivotal role of goddesses and women in many religions and asked why these stories have been nearly invisible in the official histories of so many cultures. Here, Hughes, along with Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, focussed on the divine feminine within the Jewish religion and other ancient belief systems.
Submerged with layers of ancient Jewish history are feminine aspects of god and rites for women which no longer exist. Discover these and the crucial shift in the role of women when sacrifice was replaced with prayer after the destruction of the second Temple.
Bettany Hughes is widely acknowledged as the best of the new generation of TV historians. She is a research fellow at Kings College, London and her most recent book ,The Hemlock Cup: Socrates Athens and the Search for the Good Life, was selected as Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4
Laura Janner-Klausner is the Movement Rabbi for the Movement for Reform Judaism. She has broadcast on BBC 1’s The Big Questions and is a regular contributor of BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day.