“White slavery traffic” was an expansion of the prostitution that spread throughout the world in the first years of the twentieth century, following the massive emigration to the New World and resulting from the growing poverty and misery of European women in the age of industrialization. Jewish women were particularly vulnerable in a hostile environment, and Jewish women's organizations played an active role in the international struggle against this plague.

By the mid-1870s, approximately a quarter of the Jewish population of Palestine, excluding Jerusalem, was North African, and the overwhelming majority of adult Jews were women. This discrepancy was due to a large number of widows, who experienced economic and physical hardship in their new home but also a new sense of freedom.

Pearl Willen was a twentieth-century social and human welfare activist and communal leader with a love for Jewish heritage. She had a lifelong record of service for such causes as civil rights, women’s rights, and the rights of workers.

Although most historians view Louise Waterman Wise as simply the wife of Stephen S. Wise, her influence as a tireless advocate for the care and protection of children, the development of communal health care, refugee resettlement, and the establishment of the State of Israel was unparalleled.

The Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) was founded in 1920 for and by women who wanted to participate in the Zionist project. It especially supported women immigrant’s settlement in Palestine through education, agricultural and professional training, childcare, healthcare, and welfare.

A well-known Social Democrat and Holocaust survivor committed to equal rights for women and sustained Jewish existence in Germany, Jeanette Wolff refused to compromise her socio-political beliefs. She was active in the SPD both before and after the war and served on the denazification committee in post-war Berlin .

Theresa Wolfson, economist and educator, taught at Brooklyn College from 1929 until her retirement in 1967. A prolific writer, she published in the fields of labor economics and industrial relations. As early as 1916, Wolfson studied barriers to the advancement of women in the workplace and the unequal treatment of women within trade unions.

A review of data and statistics about women in the Yishuv workforce from about 1920 to 1945 show that women’s participation in the workforce correlated with higher levels of economic development. Though women contributed to the growth of an economy in pre-state Palestine, they often faced discrimination in what positions they could take and in their wages.

Five years after the American chapter of the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training (ORT) was founded in 1922, a women’s auxiliary group (WAO) was created. WAO aided displaced Europeans and focused on creating vocational schools across the world. In the later twentieth century, WAO expanded to help create medical services for students and provide recreational facilities, among other programs.

Women’s League for Conservative Judaism (WLCJ), founded in 1918, is the national organization of Conservative sisterhoods. Throughout its history WLCJ has foregrounded women’s education and engagement in order to enrich the spiritual and religious lives of Conservative/Masorti women and to empower them as leaders in their homes, synagogues, and communities.