Jewish History
Roza Robota
A member of the Jewish underground in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, Roza Robota was one of the organizers of an operation to smuggle explosives for use by members of the Sonderkommando (Jewish forced-labor unit of concentration camp prisoners) in the October 7, 1944 revolt at the camp.
Romania, Women and Jewish Education
Since the adoption of a public school system in the mid-1800s in Romania, Jewish women in Romania women have had to fight anti-Semitism and sexism to pursue their education.
Romanian Yiddish Theater
Romania was a wellspring of the Yiddish theater, as there were Jewish theater troupes in the major Romanian cities and acting troupes traveled throughout the country performing dramas, comedies, musicals, and operettas. Women played a significant role in performing and shaping Romanian Yiddish theater and became known internationally for their work on the Yiddish stage.
Ernestine Rose
Norma Rosen
Born in Brooklyn in 1925 to secular and assimilated parents, Norma Rosen was an American-Jewish novelist, essayist, educator, editor, and professor. Rosen’s exploration of Jewish history and religion in her writings contributed to questions surrounding Jewish theology and Jewish feminism in the second half of the twentieth century.
Anna Rosenberg
Anna Lederer Rosenberg was an administrator, diplomat, and public relations and manpower expert who advised multiple presidents. In 1950 she became the first female Assistant Secretary of Defense. Deeply admired by military and government leaders, Rosenberg’s success demonstrates how deftly she maneuvered within these male-dominated arenas.
Ethel Rosenberg
Gertrude Rosenblatt
Gertrude Rosenblatt earned praise for the many ways she helped build the State of Israel. From her role as one of the first directors of Hadassah to her direct service for the needy, she was a dedicated and active Zionist.
Chava Rosenfarb
Chava Rosenfarb, a major Yiddish novelist of the second half of the twentieth century, is one of the few Holocaust survivors who transmuted their experiences into fiction rather than memoirs or reminiscences.
Käte Rosenheim
A social worker by training, Käte Rosenheim held numerous public service positions in Germany before the Nazis took power. In 1933 she joined the Reich Representation of German Jews; before she herself fled to the United States in 1940, she facilitated the escape of over 7,250 Jewish children from Nazi Germany.
Hadassah Rosensaft
Dr. Hadassah Bimko Rosensaft played an instrumental role in saving the lives of fellow concentration camp inmates at Auschwitz-Birkenau and then at Bergen-Belsen. Rosensaft was later involved in the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Frances Rosenthal Kallison
Frances Elaine Rosenthal Kallison was a horsewoman and historian, a cofounder of the Texas Jewish Historical Society, and the only Jewish woman in the National Museum and Cowgirl Hall of Fame. A regional leader of the National Council of Jewish Women, she lobbied to end the poll tax and open pre-natal clinics for the poor. The exhibit she curated on Texas Jewry for the 1968 World’s Fair in San Antonio has been continually updated.
Sylvia Rosner Rothchild
Sylvia Rosner Rothchild was a prolific writer and historian whose works of fiction and nonfiction explored American Jewish identities and captured audiences. Many of her writings depict the descendants of Eastern European Jews who arrived in the United States in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century.
Baroness Germaine de Rothschild
A member of one of France’s most privileged Jewish families, Germaine de Rothschild (née Halphen) was a noted philanthropist, accomplished musician, author of two books, and mother of four. Most significantly, she orchestrated France’s Kindertransport efforts, helping provide refuge to between 350 and 450 Jewish children.
Bethsabée Rothschild
Bethsabée (Hebrew: Batsheva) de Rothschild, the scion of a well-known philanthropic family, helped support numerous activities in the United States and Israel, especially dance, music, and science.She created the Batsheva and Bat-Dor dance companies and was awarded the Israel Prize in 1989 for her special contribution to Israeli society.
Dame Miriam Rothschild
Dame Miriam Rothschild was a renowned British natural scientist who published over 300 scientific papers throughout her lifetime, making groundbreaking contributions to the fields of entomology, zoology, marine biology, and wildlife conservationism. In 1985 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society and credited for her work in the histology, morphology, and taxonomy of fleas.
Mathilde Dorothy De Rothschild
Mathilde Dorothy De Rothschild was deeply involved in all facets of Zionist politics. She was an extremely hard worker and proved to be invaluable to Zionist efforts and the Rothschild Foundation.
Hanna Rovina
Called the "High Priestess of the Hebrew theater," Hanna Rovina was awarded the Israel Prize for Theater Arts for her contributions to the Habimah stage and her commitment to reviving the Hebrew language. Acting with the Habimah theater, she played many different parts over the course of six decades. A year before her death, Habimah named its large auditorium after her.
Anna Rozental
Anna Rozental belonged to the generation of Jewish labor activists who had already been active in the founding phase of the General Jewish Labor Bund under the Russian Empire and who were highly respected as “veterans” in the Polish Bund of the interwar period. From her youth on, Rozental’s life was closely tied to the Jewish labor movement in Vilna, where she died in Soviet custody during World War II.
Bernice Rubens
One of Britain’s most successful post-World War II authors, Bernice Rubens was born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1928. In 1970, she became the first woman recipient of the Booker Prize for her novel The Elected Member.
Gail Rubin
Ruth Rubin
Ruth Rubin devoted a lifetime to the collection and preservation of Yiddish folklore in poetics and songs. As a popular performer-folklorist, she would describe the background of her selections and then sing them in a simple, unaccompanied style. Rubin helped preserve the past and launch the modern Yiddish revival.
Ida Rubinstein
Mina Fridman Ruetter
Mina Fridman Ruetter (1922-2003), an Argentinean-born Jew, was the most prominent leader of the Yiddisher Kultur Farband (YKUF) beginning in the 1970s. She studied and worked as a writer, teacher, and translator in organizations linked to the Communist Party and the Soviet Union. She was a highly visible leader and the disciple of YKUF intellectuals such as Pinie Katz and Samuel Gordon.
Russian Immigrants in Israel
Approximately 350,000 Jewish women moved to Israel from the Former Soviet Union after 1989. Among the key issues they faced were occupational downgrading, sexuality and family life, sexual harassment, marital distress, and single-parent families.