Folk dances in Israel are a staple of the national and cultural consciousness and were largely created and performed by women. The halutzim's festival pageants, combined with dance traditions brought to Israel from the Diaspora, led to the creation of many beautiful folk dances. Today there are over three thousand Israeli folk dances.

Vera Fonaroff was an extraordinary violinist and member of the all-female Olive Mead Quartet. Fonaroff immigrated to America from Kiev at age seven and debuted as a soloist with the Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra at age nine. She toured the world performing with the Olive Mead Quartet and as a soloist and eventually became the director of the violin at the New York Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard School).

Despite an unhappy childhood, Helen Forrest achieved great success as a singer in several big bands. She was one of the first singers in the big band era whose vocals were featured throughout a full band arrangement, and one of the only women vocalists who had the courage to ask for individualized arrangements.

Mary Frank was a sculptor and painter inspired by dance, photography, and the moving body. Born in London, Frank immigrated to the United States in the 1940s and danced with Martha Graham and studied art at the American Art School in New York. Frank imparts a sense of the timelessness and her work, and her sculptures have been described as sensual, sublime, poetic and profoundly moving, placing her among the foremost figurative artists of our time. 

Jeanne Franko was a violinist and pianist who performed with her four siblings and had a solo career. After making her debut in Paris before she was fourteen, Franko went on to tour most of the United States with her siblings and later with the Jeanne Franko Trio, perform with many orchestras as a violin soloist, and teach music in New York. 

German-born Recha Freier founded Youth Aliyah in 1933, which assisted in sending Jewish European teenagers to Palestine prior to World War II to be trained as agricultural pioneers on kibbutzim. Although she was responsible for saving the lives of many thousands of Jewish youth, Freier’s efforts were not officially acknowledged until 1975, when she was eighty-three years old.

Born to a musical family, Lillian Fuchs was a talented pianist, violinist, violist, and composer who toured the United States and Europe. Fuchs was the inspiration for some of the greatest composers of the twentieth century and was a popular teacher at the Manhattan School of Music, Juilliard, and Mannes College of Music.

Esther Gamlielit was prominent in a lineage of Yemenite singers, after Brachah Zefira and before Shoshana Damari. Gamlielit was a talented singer, dancer, and actress, known for performing songs with the Yemenite-style pronunciation of the Hebrew letters het and ayin.

After surviving the Holocaust and immigrating from Budapest to Brazil, dancer Marika Gidali became an influential performer, teacher, and choreographer at a time when the arts faced serious repression under military dictatorship. In 1956 Gidali began dancing with the Ballet Company of Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. Gidali later set up her first school, which was the meeting point for many artists in the mid-1960s.

Focusing on difficult roles written for older women, Therese Giehse earned a reputation as a talented actress who brought Bertolt Brecht’s works to life. She co-founded an anti-Nazi literary cabaret called The Peppermill in 1933 and was known for touring successful anti-fascist theaterical works. She had a long collaboration with Brecht and developed a reputation as an “intellectual popular actress.”

Alma Gluck began her career as an opera singer, but it was her love of American folk songs that made her a best-selling musical artist. She debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1909. By 1911, she had transitioned from opera to vocal recitals, and by 1914 she was the most popular concert singer in America. Gluck helped found the American Guild of Musical Artists.