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Letter from Henrietta Szold to Alice Seligsberg, October 8, 1931

Alice Lillie Seligsberg

A passionate social worker and Zionist, Alice Lillie Seligsberg devoted herself to underprivileged youth and to the Zionist movement. Although Seligsberg is best known for her leadership in the national Hadassah organization, her work in social services in New York City also led to historic changes in the field.

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.

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.

She'erit ha-Peletah: Women in DP Camps in Germany

Family played an important role in the lives of Holocaust survivors in DP (displaced persons) camps – in 1947, the birth rate in DP camps was one of the highest in the world. Women served as teachers and eager students, and they were active in the effort to open immigration to Palestine.

Judy Sheindlin smiling to camera while sitting on grey prop stairs in purple suit and heels in front of grey backdrop

Judith Sheindlin

For two and half decades, former New York family court Judge Judith Sheindlin has riveted daytime viewers, racked up awards, and sold thousands of books to people hungry for the tough love of a tough Jewish mother. Millions of viewers who watch Judge Judy every day are treated to many Yiddish words and wisdom the jurist uses on a parade of deserving participants who enter her TV studio courtroom.

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.

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.

Sarah Shmukler

Sarah Shmukler was a nurse and midwife who emigrated to Palestine from the Russian Empire during the Second Aliyah period. Her short life was characterized by providing medical assistance to migrant workers in Palestine and by close friendships with her fellow pioneers.

Alix Kates Shulman

Alix Kates Shulman is a radical feminist writer and activist and a leader in the second-wave feminist movement of the 1960s through 1980s. She is best known as the author of “The Marriage Agreement” (1970) and the best-selling Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen (1972), which was heralded as the “first important novel of the Women’s Liberation movement.” She was honored with a Clara Lemlich Award for a lifetime of social activism in 2018.

Jenny Slate

Jenny Slate has refused to be pigeonholed in her comedy, from the controversial film Obvious Child to the quirky YouTube series Marcel the Shell.

Benjamin Aron Slonik

Benjamin Aron Slonik, a Polish rabbi and student of the Maharshal and Rema, was notable for his independent approach to halakha. His rulings often went against his colleagues, including on women’s halakhot.

Sociodemography

Over the last several decades, Jewish women attained significant achievement in the socio-economic sphere and played a leading role in maintaining Jewish continuity. In general, Jewish women are educated and participate in the labor force at higher rates than their non-Jewish counterparts.

Bertha Solomon

As one of the first women’s rights activists in South Africa, Bertha Solomon used her positions as one of the first practicing women advocates in South Africa and as a member of parliament to work to expand the rights of all South African women. Throughout her long career in government, Solomon acted as a parliamentary watchdog over women’s rights, committed to ensuring women’s suffrage and marital rights.

Solomon’s Judgment: Bible

In this story, King Solomon is asked to consider the case of two women who gave birth to sons but, due to the death of one of their children, are fighting over the remaining child. While the story is generally cited as an example of Solomon’s wisdom, this narrative also shows the possessiveness of maternal love.

Miriam Belsky Solotaroff

Miriam Belsky Solotaroff made headlines in 1937 when she “rocked the school board” of New York for insisting on maternity leave to care for an adopted baby, a privilege only granted to biological mothers at the time.

Sotah

Required of women who are suspected of committing adultery, sotah is a ritual involving a priest to confirm whether the act occurred or not; a woman who has been unfaithful is made infertile. There are few records of sotah actually taking place, although the ritual is described at length in some post-Biblical literature.

Sotah, Tractate

The Mishnaic Tractate Sotah deals mainly with the trial by ordeal undergone in the Temple by a sotah, a woman whose husband suspected her of adultery. Compared to that described in the Bible, the Mishnaic trial is much harsher and transforms the ritual into a judgement on immoral behavior, not just marital infidelity. Furthermore, the Mishnaic sotah was unusually stringent for its time and is rarely mentioned after the Mishnah.

Medieval Spain

Written histories of Jews in medieval Spain rarely include women, so one must seek alternate sources. Marital status was the frequent topic of rabbinic responsa. Some Jewish women made their own income as merchants and moneylenders. Inheritance laws were problematic for Jewish women – disputes were settled in both Jewish and non-Jewish courts.

Sabina Spielrein

Sabina Spielrein, a pioneer in the early years of psychoanalysis who made significant contributions to the field, was the first person to propose the thesis about instinctual life, which Freud later adapted. Until recently, Spielrein’s accomplishments and contributions were overlooked and forgotten.

Viola Spolin

Searching for play therapies that could reach at-risk children, Viola Spolin created the “Theater Games” that gave rise to improv theater.

Shirley Cohen Steinberg

Shirley Cohen Steinberg helped make the Jewish holidays fun and interactive for children with her Holiday Music Box albums, featuring “One Morning” (popularly known as the Passover “Frog Song”).

Jewish Gender Stereotypes in the United States

Stereotypes of Jews have existed from their arrival in the New World to the present. Jews were portrayed as greedy, unscrupulous, and unrefined. However, Jews also created stereotypes about one another based on class, gender, and religion. Specifically, the Ghetto Girl, Jewish Mother, JAP, and others reflected tensions between genders about the place of Jews in the economy and culture.

Elizabeth Stern

Elizabeth Stern was an American-Jewish writer, essayist, and journalist. She achieved success within a number of realms and balanced a number of competing roles: fiction writer, journalist, social worker, wife, mother, and an American woman leading a secular life who examined the importance of cultural heritage.

Eva Michaelis Stern

Eva Michaelis Stern was co-founder and director of the fundraising arm of the Youth Aliyah in Germany, and later the director of the Youth Aliyah office in London. Over the course of WWII, she helped more than 1000 children from countries all over Europe immigrate to Palestine.

Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change

The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

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