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Lillian Nassau

Lillian Nassau, the doyenne of New York City antiques dealers, was instrumental in the revival of international interest in turn-of-the-century lamps and metalwork.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nassau-lillian

As a young girl, Rachel Natelson corresponded with an uncle who had been studying with Henrietta Szold. From him, she learned about Palestine and the Zionist movement. These exchanges were to lay the foundation for her extraordinary life as a leader on behalf of the Zionist cause—including being one of the founding members of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/natelson-rachel

Adele Gutman Nathan

Adele Gutman Nathan was a prolific writer, theater director, and creator of historical pageants and commemorative events. She wrote fourteen children’s books, in addition to newspaper and magazines articles. Nathan directed theater in Baltimore and New York and staged events from the 1933 and 1939 World’s Fairs to the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nathan-adele-gutman

Maud Nathan

After her daughter’s death, Maud Nathan battled grief by throwing herself into social justice work, transforming herself from a society wife into an influential social reformer. She devoted her life to leading organizations that worked to expose poor working conditions for women and children and was a tireless advocate for women’s suffrage.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nathan-maud

Shuly Nathan

Shuly Nathan’s clear and melodious voice represents some of the best qualities of true folk singing. After a meteoric rise to fame following her performance of Naomi Shemer’s “Jerusalem of Gold,” Nathan has toured worldwide, performed on Israeli television and radio, recorded albums, and partnered with Nechama Hendel. Her beloved varied repertoire consists of carefully selected outstanding songs, both old and new.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nathan-shuly

National Council of Jewish Women

In its early years, the National Council of Jewish Women concentrated on combating assimilation by educating Jewish women about Judaism. In contemporary times, the Council continues to play an important role as a bridge between traditional motherhood and political activity, between the Jewish community and other women’s organizations, between Judaism and politics, and between diverse segments of the Jewish community itself.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/national-council-of-jewish-women

National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods

Founded in 1913 as the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods and officially renamed Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ) in 1993, the WRJ has for more than a century galvanized hundreds of thousands of Jewish women to support and advance Reform Judaism, the Jewish people, and Jewish values in their home communities, around the country, and around the world.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/national-federation-of-temple-sisterhoods

Nature of Women

Rabbinic literature is replete with implications concerning the differences in the respective natures of men and women. Often the portrayals are paradoxical, citing opinions that describe seemingly opposite traits. The broader reality, however, often balanced a narrow reading of the text.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nature-of-women

Gertrud and Otto Natzler at their Brandeis Camp Studio circa 1956-1960

Gertrud Amon Natzler

Gertrud Amon Natzler’s collaboration with her husband, Otto Natzler, over almost four decades produced some of the twentieth century’s finest ceramics. Their nearly 25,000 pieces now reside in 70 museums and countless private collections worldwide.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/natzler-gertrud-amon

Elsie Margaret Binger Naumburg

Elsie Margaret Binger Naumburg was a researcher of South American avifauna and a gazetteer with the American Geographical Society. She put her research on hold during World War II to aid refugee and unemployed musicians.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/naumburg-elsie-margaret-binger

Margaret Naumburg

By founding the Walden School and creating her own system of education based on principles of psychoanalysis, Margaret Naumburg laid the groundwork for the new discipline of art therapy. Naumburg also authored many works on psychology and art therapy.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/naumburg-margaret

Necromancer of Endor: Midrash and Aggadah

The necromancer of Endor appears in the narrative of Saul’s attempt to speak to the ghost of Samuel on the eve of war with the Philistines. The necromancer knows of Saul’s ban on the use of ghosts, but Saul swears that she will be protected. The Rabbis largely focus on their questions about the necromancer’s description of Samuel’s ghost.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/necromancer-of-endor-midrash-and-aggadah

Carrie Marcus Neiman

A born saleswoman, Carrie Marcus Neiman made her family’s department stores synonymous with high-end retail fashion. Dallas’s legendary Neiman Marcus specialty store owes its style, its personal brand of service, and its first cache of merchandise to Neiman, the fashion authority who helped launch a retailing concept.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/neiman-carrie-marcus

Irene Nemirovsky

Irène Némirovsky was a French novelist of Ukrainian-Jewish origin who wrote fourteen novels in thirteen years before her death in Auschwitz in 1942. Némirovsky’s sentiment towards Jews and conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1939 has drawn criticism in recent years.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nemirovsky-irene

Shoshana Netanyahu

Shoshana Netanyahu served as a judge on the Magistrates Court in Haifa from 1969 until 1974 and as a District Court judge in the city from 1974 to 1981. In 1981 she was promoted to the Supreme Court, from which she retired in 1993.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/netanyahu-shoshana

Modern Netherlands

Like Jewish women everywhere, Dutch Jewish women struggled with issues of assimilation, emancipation, and equality as both Jews and women. This article summarizes the conditions and challenges facing Jewish women in the Netherlands and the paths to progress and change they sought—education, work, activism, and literature, among others—from the nineteenth century to the present, including after the particular decimation of Dutch Jewry during the Holocaust.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/netherlands-modern

Cover of "Stunden der Andacht" ("Hours of Devotion")

Fanny Neuda

Fanny Neuda was born into a Moravian family of rabbis and acted in line with her family tradition when she published a book of prayers. The book, which was specifically aimed at women, was hugely popular. Neuda continued to write until the end of her life, emphasizing the importance of a moral upbringing for Jewish girls.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/neuda-fanny

Bernice L. Neugarten

Beginning the 1950s, Bernice Neugarten began groundbreaking research on aging that exploded many myths about the elderly and emphasized the importance of tailoring services to the needs of individual elderly people. She became the University of Chicago’s first tenured professor of human development in 1960 and wrote eight books and more than 150 articles on her research.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/neugarten-bernice-l

Elsa Neumann

Elsa Neumann was the first woman to receive a doctoral degree from the University of Berlin. She became prominent in Berlin’s scientific community, carrying out research for the newly established airship industry. In 1900 Neumann established a highly successful association that gave grants to female students.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/neumann-elsa

Nelly Neumann

Nelly Neumann completed her doctorate in synthetic geometry in 1909 at Breslau University, making her one of the first women in Germany to obtain such a degree. In her lifetime she provided career guidance to female university students and worked as a secondary school teacher, tackling the intersection of philosophy and mathematics.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/neumann-nelly

Louise Nevelson

Louise Nevelson belongs to a generation of Manhattan-based painters and sculptors whose careers coincided with the development of modernism in America. Nevelson created sculptures that audiences could both experience and see. Several of her pieces are now owned by the Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum, and MOMA.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nevelson-louise

Jewish Women in New Zealand

Although New Zealand’s Jewish community is small, “Kiwi” Jewish women have punched well above their weight and account for a significant number of the country’s “historic firsts” and remarkable achievements.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/new-zealand

Estelle Newman

Estelle Reiss Newman innovated new programs for aiding the blind, from providing retirement homes for the aged blind to helping younger disabled people navigate independent lives in their communities.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/newman-estelle

Isadora Newman

Isadora Newman was a celebrated writer, storyteller, poet, and artist. Born in New Orleans, her stories often focused on Creole and Black life and legend and folktales from foreign countries. Her books were translated into many languages and she later became an accomplished painter and sculptor.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/newman-isadora

Pauline Newman

Pauline Newman played an essential role in galvanizing the early twentieth-century tenant, labor, socialist, and working-class suffrage movements. The first woman ever appointed general organizer by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), Newman continued to work for the ILGWU for more than seventy years—first as an organizer, then as a labor journalist, a health educator, and a liaison between the union and government officials.

http://qa.jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/newman-pauline

Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change

The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women