Browse by Category | Jewish Women's Archive

Jackie Tabick

Jackie Tabick, Great Britain’s first female rabbi, also serves as Britain’s first female head of the Reform Beit Din, or religious court.

Sionah Tagger was one of the earliest modern Israeli women artists to have been born in Erez Israel. She played an important part in the development of modern painting there in the 1920s and 1930s and was among the first members of Israel’s Association of Painters and Sculptors and a regular participant in its exhibitions.

Rebecca Taichman

Rebecca Bayla Taichman’s success as the Tony award-winning director of Indecent is a reflection of her lifelong celebration of plays by and about women.

Marillyn Tallman

Marillyn Tallman helped Jews make new lives for themselves during some of the most monumental conflicts of the twentieth century.

Tamar 2

The story of the rape of Tamar, the daughter of King David, by Amnon, her half-brother (2 Samuel 13) is told in the wake of the king’s sins of adultery and murder. Tamar’s is the only woman’s voice in the Bible to be heard in resistance to rape, though she is ultimately silenced by her full brother, Absalom. He murders Amnon in vengeance and stages an insurrection against the king, his father, while she lives the rest of her life forlorn in Absalom’s house.

Tamar: Bible

Tamar, whose story is embedded in the ancestor narratives of Genesis, is the ancestress of much of the tribe of Judah and particularly the house of David. After Judah blames Tamar for the death of two of his sons and subjugates her so she is unable to remarry, she tricks him into freeing her from her limbo, illustrating both her loyalty and assertiveness.

Tamar: Midrash and Aggadah

The Tamar narrative in the Bible casts the characters in a human, and not very complimentary, light. The later Rabbis sharply criticize Judah and his sons, but they describe Tamar positively, despite the fact that she is a convert. Her actions during her relationship with Judah demonstrate her purity, and her behavior shows the proper way in which all future women should perform.

Helen Tamiris

Helen Tamiris was a leader in forming American modern dance. An acclaimed choreographer and director, she used dance to comment on the social issues of her day, including racism, poverty, and war.

Tannaitic Literature, Inclusion of Women

Midrashic reading of verses often involves the question of whether or not women were included in the verses. The language used (structure of verbs, prepositions, other parts of speech) often indicates the particular interpreter’s opinions concerning women.

Nicki Newman Tanner

As part of her lifelong devotion to Wellesley College, Nicki Newman Tanner chaired a record-breaking capital campaign for the college in 1993, raising $168 million from alumnae and disproving the assumption that women give less than men.

Tanyaderas

Tanyaderas were noteworthy ritual experts for life cycle celebrations in Sephardic Jewish communities. Music and dance played a significant role in Jewish Mediterranean cultures, and women’s leadership outside of the synagogue held great importance for these communities.

Helen Tanzer

Helen Tanzer was an educator and translator in the early twentieth century. Contributing to the dissemination of classical and archaeological works, Tanzer well fulfilled the rigorous requirements of scholar and teacher.

Harriet Tanzman

Harriet Tanzman was a chronicler of the civil rights movement, creating new entry points into civil rights history.

Helen Brooke Taussig

Helen Brooke Taussig was one of the most celebrated physicians of the twentieth century. Through her research and teaching. she was a leader in the development of the medical specialty of pediatric cardiology, pioneering treatment for infants with congenital cardiac defects.

Olga Taussky-Todd

A self-proclaimed “torchbearer for matrix theory,” Olga Taussky-Todd made the previously little-known field essential for scientists and mathematicians.

Meredith Tax

Meredith Tax used her writing both to highlight the tremendous upheaval of her own times and to reimagine the struggles of suffragists and union organizers.

Sydney Taylor

Sydney Taylor as the author of the beloved All-of-a-Kind Family chapter book series, about five memorable and distinctive sisters growing up in a warm and loving Jewish household in early twentieth-century New York.

Julie Taymor

Julie Taymor is an award-winning theater, opera, and film director best known for being the first woman to win a Tony Award for directing a Broadway Musical: The Lion King.

Yemima Tchernovitz-Avidar

Yemima Tchernovitz-Avidar was a passionate educator and author of Hebrew literature. Her creative works became classics of modern Hebrew children’s literature, and she has been awarded numerous accolades for her contributions to Jewish literature.

Black and white digital graphic of a tree silhouette with word cloud of English and Hebrew beneath

Teaching Profession in the United States

Jewish women in the United States became professional teachers to an extent unprecedently in Jewish history. Through Jewish educational organizations, Jewish schools, and public schools, female Jewish teachers have played an important role in shaping the North American teaching profession.

Nechama Tec

Nechama Tec's sociological work, informed by her experience as a Holocaust survivor, addresses the silences and inaccuracies surrounding the Holocaust and reveals untold stories of righteousness and rescue. Her experiences inspired the movie Defiance.

Faige Teitelbaum

When Faige Teitelbaum married Satmar rebbe Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum in 1936, she became the Satmar rebbetzin, in which capacity she was very active in charitable activities. After her husband’s death, she became the only woman in the Hasidic world to function as a de facto rebbe and leader.

Film poster for Transparent, an American Comedy-Drama Series

Television in the United States

Jewish women have had a long-standing, complex, often fraught relation to American television. They have had to battle a male-dominated production system and sexist stereotypes, but also have seen significant advances, in front of and behind the screen, resulting from the cable and streaming revolutions and third-wave feminist activism.

Estera Tenenbaum

Dismissed from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in 1934 for being a Jew, a woman, and a foreigner, Estera Tenenbaum went on to become a distinguished cell and virus scientist. Over the course of her career she held research and teaching positions at Hebrew University and participated in groundbreaking research at the California Institute of Technology.

Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change

The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women