Climbing the Kehilla Walls: Contested Spaces and Conflicted Bodies in Allegra Goodman’s Kaaterskill Falls

Allegra Goodman, often referred to as the Jewish Jane Austen for her sympathetic depictions of the daily lives of Orthodox Jewish characters, has also been praised as “the poster child for a still-growing group of post-assimilationist writers who tackle the topics of spirituality and religious observance head on” (Harrison-Kahan 2012). This essay will consider Goodman’s reputation as a post-assimilationist Jewish writer as well as her depiction of a spectrum of Jewish beliefs and practices. It will also attempt to move beyond Orthodox practices and labels and consider what Goodman’s novel Kaaterskill Falls can contribute to a conception of shared, shifting, and contested spaces and the various positions women negotiate within them. To be more specific, this essay will argue that Kaaterskill Falls successfully explores the tenuous position of minority groups within a broader society, whilst providing some meaningful meditations on the position of the self toward the (nondenominational) sacred.