Jane Prince
As president of the Women’s League for Palestine, Jane Prince helped provide housing and education for refugee women. Prince oversaw efforts to create housing, vocational training, and education for young women in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Netanya, and Jerusalem. She also served as director of the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations, director of the Women’s Division for State of Israel Bonds, and vice president of the American Medical Center.
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Jane Prince dedicated her life to furthering the economic, social, and educational opportunities of young people in Palestine and Israel through her involvement in the Women’s League for Palestine and its successor, the Women’s League for Israel, and with the American Friends of Hebrew University.
Born in New York City on January 19, 1896, Jane Gottfried married William Prince, the president of the Gottfried Baking Company. They had three children, Richard, Cynthia, and Doris, all of whom continued in their mother’s footsteps by being active members in a number of Zionist groups and charities.
As the Women’s League president (1932 to 1957) and chair of finance (1957 to 1969), Jane Prince worked earnestly to provide vocational training and social adjustment to young women, many of whom were refugees, in Palestine and Israel. The Women’s League built and supported four different homes in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, and Netanya, which housed and educated these women, while also training them to contribute to the war effort in Palestine. Prince was also the Israel Bond chair of the Women’s League, the director of the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations, the director of the Women’s Division for State of Israel Bonds, and vice president of the American Medical Center.
Prince’s philanthropy was not limited to women, for she was an active member in the American Friends of Hebrew University, which provided higher education to women and men in Palestine and Israel. In 1941, the Jane G. Prince Scholarship Fund was established at Hebrew University, where there is a dormitory in her name. Prince was awarded Woman of the Year by the Women’s Institute of Jewish Studies of the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1954. She was a committee member for the Scopus Award Dinner in 1962 and was made a fellow of Hebrew University in 1964.
Jane Prince died on January 7, 1969, in New York City, leaving behind her son and two daughters and a legacy of dedication to the lives of women and Zionism.
AJYB 71:607.
American Friends of Hebrew University. Newsletters. American Jewish Historical Society, Waltham, Mass.
Obituary. NYTimes, January 8, 1969, 47:1.