Encyclopedia Categories | Jewish Women's Archive

Faye Libby Schenk

Fay Libby Schenk turned down a promising career as a zoologist to devote herself to Hadassah and other Zionist organizations. She worked her way up at Hadassah and eventually became president, during which time Hadassah began rebuilding its hospital on Mount Scopus and created its Institute of Oncology in Jerusalem.

Therese Loeb Schiff

Therese Loeb Schiff used her wealth to address a wide range of needs in the American Jewish community. She was a paradigm of the intellectual, religious, and cultural activities and also the social service of upper-middle-class German Jewish women during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Julie Schonfeld

In 2009, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld became the first female leader of an American rabbinical organization, serving as executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly.

Bertha Singer Schoolman

Bertha Singer Schoolman gave a lifetime of service to the betterment of Jewish education and the cause of Youth Aliyah, the movement to bring Jewish youth out of Germany to live in children’s villages in Israel. Schoolman risked her life under fire to help bring convoys to and from kibbutzim.

Hela Rufeisen Schüpper

Born to a hasidic family in Krakow, Hela Rufeisen Schüpper joined the Zionist youth movement Akiva against her family’s wishes. When the Germans invaded Poland, Schüpper joined the Jewish resistance against the Nazis, becoming a key courier. She survived Bergen-Belsen and moved to Israel after the war.

Julie Schwartz

Julie Schwartz broke new ground as the first woman rabbi to serve as an active duty chaplain in the US Military.

Painting of Miriam looking to the right of the frame with timbrel in hand

Second Temple Reception of Women in Tanakh

Second Temple discourse on women and gender is grounded in biblical interpretation and everyday life and, as such, has the potential to shed light on tumultuous debates about what different communities deemed problematic, acceptable, ideal, and anomalous with respect to a woman’s role in society. A selection of Second Temple texts envisioning Dinah, Miriam, and Sarah indicates these varied perspectives, as well as how these figures were used to promote the ideologies of the particular communities the texts represented.

Seder Mitzvot Nashim

Seder Mitzvot Nashim refers to the genre of literature in Ashkenazic and Italian communities that explained the specifics of how women should observe the commandments that were particularly associated with them. This handbook was reprinted many times, most famously by Rabbi Benjamin Aron Slonik, whose 1585 version of Seder Mitzvot Nashim was a veritable best seller of the pre-modern age.

Tanya Segal

As the first full-time female rabbi in Poland, Tanya Segal has creatively transformed Jewish life in the historic city of Krakow through her blending of Jewish learning and performance art.

A painting of the Portuguese Synagogue, a large, open building with interior columns, chandeliers, and many windows. There is a large group of men, women and children inside, facing the ark, and a couple of dogs near the entrance.

Sephardi Women in the Dutch Republic

In the early modern period, Dutch Sephardim formed a community famous for its wealth, grandeur, and benevolence.

The article highlights the social, economic and religious position of Sephardi women in the Dutch Republic, arriving as immigrants from persecutions by the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions and their offspring, settled in generations afterwards. Their adjustment to normative Judaism is being discussed as well as their professional education and their contributions to Sephardi and Dutch society.

Serah, daughter of Asher: Midrash and Aggadah

While Serah, daughter of Asher, is mentioned only very briefly in the Bible, a plethora of midrashic traditions exist about her, and thus the faceless Biblical character becomes a fascinating personality. Her history is intertwined with the story of the migration to Egypt and enslavement, and with redemption and the return to Erez Israel.

Sex

The rabbinic discourse of sex has been simultaneously both empowering and sharply disabling for women. In obliging all women to be wives and mothers, it has severely constrained the possibilities for women’s lives, and to a great extent, women’s roles have been denigrated as well.

Naama Shafir

Committed to both her athletic career and her Orthodox faith, Naama Shafir faced challenges alien to most basketball players, from walking to games on Shabbat to altering uniforms for modesty.

Alice Hildegard Shalvi

Israel Prize Laureate Professor Alice Shalvi was a leading Israeli feminist activist and scholar. Founder of the Israel Women’s Network and the Ben Gurion University English Department and longtime principal of the iconic religious feminist high school Pelech, Professor Shalvi was instrumental in advancing gender issues in Israeli education, society and politics.

Havvah Shapiro

“Our literature lacks the participation of the second half of humanity.” Thus proclaimed the Hebrew writer Hava (Eva) Shapiro (1878-1943) in her 1909 feminist manifesto, the first ever in the Hebrew language. She was the most prolific female Hebraist of her era to remain in the Diaspora and the first woman ever to have kept a diary in Hebrew.

Frances Hart Sheftall

Frances Hart Sheftall became something of a public figure during and after the Revolutionary War, in spite of her own intentions. When her husband and son were captured by the British, she managed to earn money and raise her family alone. Her letters offer a vivid glimpse of the turmoil of this defining moment of American history.

Shelomith 1: Bible

The story of Shelomith relates to the Egyptian practices concerning parentage and how a child is named. Shelomith herself is not explicitly described in the narrative, but the story of her son shows the punishment issued to blasphemers of God.

Shelomith 1: Midrash and Aggadah

The narrative of Shelomith is used by the Rabbis as the exception that proves the rule of Israelite marital fidelity. One tradition relates that her son was born out of wedlock with an Egyptian man who deceived her, while another says that her son was born to an Egyptian man after the former murdered her Israelite husband.

Shelomith 2: Bible

Shelomith was the daughter of Zerubbabel, a governor (c. 520–510 B.C.E.) of the province of Yehud. The recent discovery of her name on a Judean seal suggests an honorable status in society.

Shiphrah: Bible

Shiphrah (more commonly spelled "Shifra") is one of the two named midwives who serve the Hebrew women in Egypt and who contravene Pharaoh’s order to kill at birth all Hebrew males.

Shiphrah: Midrash and Aggadah

Shiphrah was one of the two Hebrew midwives who delivered the children of the Israelites during the Egyptian servitude. She is mentioned only once in the Bible, but the Rabbis identify the midwives with various Biblical heroines, thereby transforming them from secondary characters to central, fully developed figures whose annals spread over additional chapters of the Torah.

Kinneret Shiryon

The first female congregational rabbi to serve in Israel, Kinneret Shiryon went on to establish Kehillat Yozma, the first non-Orthodox congregation to receive funding from the state.

Chana Shpitzer

Chana Shpitzer was an important figure in the field of Jewish education for girls in Jerusalem in the early 20th century. Shpitzer was a firm believer in single-sex education and her goal was for her students to develop academically, religiously, and practically. Her school was known for its emphasis on academic achievement, and almost all her students found gainful employment upon graduation.

Shua's daughter: Midrash and Aggadah

The Rabbis do not give significant attention to Shua’s daughter, who is the wife of Judah; the midrash generally views their marriage as a step down for Judah. However, the narratives of their children are analyzed in the midrashim, and the Rabbis give special meaning to the names and birthplaces of the children.

Shulammite: Bible

The Shulammite is described as very close to her mother, assertive, and extremely beautiful. Her narrative is sensual and filled with longing as she waits for her lover. The Shulammite does not shy away from declaring her feelings and desires, and the Bible portrays her as a complex woman whose eroticism is celebrated.

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The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

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