Browse by Category | Jewish Women's Archive

Anne Jackson

Motivated by a desire to experience life and have her voice heard, Anne Jackson participated in community activism ranging from the March on Washington to Holocaust education.

"Lotte Jacobi," by Marion Beckers and Elisabeth Moortgat

After leaving Nazi Germany in 1935, Lotte Jacobi became a renowned photographer in New York as she captured intimate portraits of prominent Americans such as Robert Frost, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Paul Robeson. Jacobi was highly interested in politics and an active delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She was known for engaging her subjects in rich conversation as she photographed them.

Close up portrait of Aletta Jacobs, wearing a coat embroidered with flowers

Aletta Henriette Jacobs

A pioneer in many realms—birth control, women’s suffrage, peace activism, and envisioning a wider future for women—Aletta Henriette Jacobs began her career as the Netherland’s first women physician in 1879. She went on to participate in many women’s rights conferences and was a staunch anti-war activist, traveling to the Hague and the United States to advocate her position.

Dore Jacobs

Dore Jacobs developed her own pedagogy, which viewed physical education as a holistic project, out of which came her own unique method of gymnastics. In 1923 she founded her School for Physical Education and Rhythmic Development; she was also a founding member of the German socialist organization called the Bund-Gemeinschaft für Sozialistisches Leben.

Frances Wisebart Jacobs

Francis Wisebart Jacobs helped transform the fledgling state of Colorado through her organization of charities and hospitals.

Jill Jacobs

Jill Jacobs, the executive director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, has pushed for Jews to take an active role in social justice, from supporting health care and environmental reform to condemning torture and human rights violations.

Rose Gell Jacobs

One of the most prominent leaders of Hadassah, Rose Jacobs promoted traditional types of American Zionist philanthropy in the 1930s and1940s, such as organizing German Jewish youth immigration to Palestine and improving the country’s medical facilities. At the same time, she broke new ground by increasing the role of women in the leadership of the Zionist movement and promoting discussion of Arab-Jewish relations.

Zipporah Nunes Machado Jacobs

Zipporah Nunes was born a Conversa in Portugal circa 1710. After escaping to London to avoid being re-examined by the Inquisition, her family began practicing Judaism openly; later she became one of the first Jews to settle in the newly formed colony of Georgia in 1733.

Abbi Jacobson

Frustrated by the lack of opportunities for young female comedians, Abbi Jacobson teamed up with fellow comedian Ilana Glazer to create the immensely popular Broad City.

Anna Jacobson

As a member of Hunter College's German department and scholar of German literature, Anna Jacobson fought to preserve the study of German language and literature during the 1930s and 1940s, when many felt that it was inappropriate for American students to study the language of the Nazis. She was also a noted expert on the writer Thomas Mann.

Dana Jacobson

Dana Jacobson has showed resilience in her career as a sportscaster, transitioning from television to radio while remaining a trusted female anchor in a male-dominated field.

Emily Jacobson

Emily Jacobson, raised by a family of fencers, reached the pinnacle of her career when she competed in the 2004 Olympics, which was the first time women were allowed to compete as sabre fencers.

Irina Jacobson

Irina Jacobson, the wife of the prolific and innovative Soviet-Russian choreographer, Leonid Jacobson, was a living archive of his scores of radical and innovative ballets. A former soloist with the Kirov Ballet and the protégé of Agrippina Vaganova, she emigrated to the West in 1982 and was in demand internationally as a teacher and stager of Jacobson’s works, as well as of Romantic and Classical ballets.

Janie Jacobson

Combining her Jewish background with her skill and penchant for writing, Janie Jacobson succeeded as a biblical playwright in the early twentieth century. The children’s plays she authored were performed nationally. In addition to being an accomplished writer, she was a talented musician and involved in Jewish social activism.

Sada Jacobson

Sada Jacobson won the bronze medal for sabre fencing at the 2004 Olympics (the first Olympics where women were allowed to compete in sabre), then did one better in 2008, bringing home both a silver and another bronze medal.

Paula Jacques

Paula Jacques (b. 1949) is a French radio hostess and a novelist. Her works, which feature memorable female protagonists, most often portray the French-speaking Jewish community of Egypt prior to their expulsion at the time of the Suez crisis.

Jean Jaffe

Jean Jaffe was one of the leading Yiddish journalists of her time and covered a variety of subjects, from theater to international politics. She was a field reporter at a time when women were usually relegated to women’s pages and a Yiddish-language journalist at a time when most American reporters wrote in English, making her career doubly remarkable.

Rona Jaffe

In her wildly popular 1958 debut novel, The Best of Everything, Rona Jaffe captured the struggle of women working in New York before the women’s liberation movement.

Janet Jagan

As president of Guyana for two years, Janet Rosenberg Jagan was the first American-born woman to serve as president of any country. Jagan was a student at the Cook County Nursing School in Chicago when she met Cheddi Jagan, a dentistry student.

Marie Jahoda

Marie Jahoda was a major figure in social psychology, known for her work on the effects of unemployment on emotional well-being, as well as the social impact of McCarthy-era blacklisting. Jahoda received an award for distinguished contributions to the public interest from the American Psychological Association in 1979.

Ira Jan

Ira Jan, a painter and writer, was the first Hebrew artist in pre-State Palestine. Born in Kishinev, Jan graduated from the Moscow Art Academy and traveled Europe before immigrating to Palestine in 1908. Known for her love affair with Chaim Nachman Bialik, she immigrated to Jerusalem in 1908, engaging in painting and teaching and publishing her stories in a number of periodicals in Palestine.

Geneviève Janssen-Pevtschin

Geneviève Janssen-Pevtschin was an accomplished lawyer, magistrate, and human rights activist in Belgium. She was active in resistance movements during World War II and is remembered for her passion, respect for human liberty, and dignity.

Laura Margolis Jarblum

Laura Margolis Jarblum’s deft management of wartime social services on three continents for the Joint Distribution Committee saved the lives of thousands. After World War II, in 1946, she became the JDC’s first female country director in France.

Book cover of Marie Jastrow's Memoir "Looking Back: The American Dream Through Immigrant Eyes 1907-1918"

Marie Grunfeld Jastrow

Author of two critically acclaimed books on immigrant life, Marie Grunfeld Jastrow was educated in a German school, and lived in Serbia before moving to New York with her family at age ten. Her two memoirs, A Time to Remember: Growing Up in New York Before the Great War and Looking Back: The American Dream through Immigrant Eyes, touched audiences deeply.

Jazz Jennings

Through her YouTube channel and reality TV show, Jazz Jennings is working to increase public understanding and acceptance of transgender teens like herself.

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The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women