Encyclopedia Categories | Jewish Women's Archive

Emily Jacobson

Emily Jacobson, raised by a family of fencers, reached the pinnacle of her career when she competed in the 2004 Olympics, which was the first time women were allowed to compete as sabre fencers.

Sada Jacobson won the bronze medal for sabre fencing at the 2004 Olympics (the first Olympics where women were allowed to compete in sabre), then did one better in 2008, bringing home both a silver and another bronze medal.

Rusty Kanokogi

The first woman allowed to train with male judo students at Japan’s judo headquarters, the Kodokan, Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi pioneered women’s judo as an Olympic sport.

Deena Kastor

Long distance runner Deena Kastor was an eight–time national champion in cross country and holds the American records in the marathon, half–marathon, 5K, 8K, and 15K races.

Agnes Keleti

In 1944, when the Germans invaded Hungary, gymnast Agnes Keleti bought fake identification papers and carried the bodies of the dead to mass graves during the battle of Budapest. After the war, she returned to gymnastics; her career highlight was the 1956 Olympics, where 35-year-old Keleti won many medals, including four gold for uneven parallel bars, balance beam, floor exercise and combined exercise-team.

Traute Kleinova

Gertrude “Traute” Kleinová was a Czechoslovakian table tennis player. Noticed at a young age for her athletic ability, she later defeated the reigning world champion in 1935 and went to the World Championships in London. During the war, Kleinová was deported to Theresienstadt and then Auschwitz but she survived and emigrated to the United States.

Annie Londonderry

A symbol of women’s growing independence at the turn of the twentieth century, Annie “Londonderry” Kopchovsky became the first woman cyclist to circle the globe in 1895.

Lily Kronberger

Lily Kronberger, born in Budapest in 1887, was one of the worlds’ best figure skaters of her time, winning four consecutive world championships between 1908 and 1911.

Naomi Kutin

Naomi Kutin earned the nickname “Supergirl” and set the weightlifting record for her weight class … at age ten.

Nancy Lieberman at NBA All-Star Game, February 12, 2010

Nancy Lieberman-Cline

Hailed as one of the greats of women’s basketball, Nancy Lieberman set a record as the youngest Olympic medalist in basketball and was inducted into multiple sports halls of fame. When the Women’s Basketball League briefly disbanded, she became the first woman to play for a men’s professional team.

Portrayals of Women in Israeli Media

Representations of women in a variety of Israeli media, such as advertising, news, and entertainment, reflect and perpetuate the marginality of women in Israeli society. While representations have diversified over the years, showing Israeli women in more varied professional roles and enjoying sexual freedom and independence, overall the gender inequity remains and women are still marginalized in Israeli media.

Aly Raisman

Alexandra “Aly” Raisman not only won gold and bronze medals for her individual performances at the 2012 Olympics but captained the women’s gymnastic team that won the gold medal that year.

Bobbie Rosenfeld with Trophies, circa 1920s

Fanny "Bobbie" Rosenfeld

Fanny “Bobbie” Rosenfeld (1904-1969) is Canada’s woman athlete of the first-half (20th) century. She competed in numerous sports, set national and world records, and earned many awards and championships. She also participated in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games and was a coach, sports administrator, official, and sports columnist.

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.

Anna Sipos

Born in Hungary, Anna Sipos was the second-best women’s table tennis player of her time, winning twenty-one medals—eleven gold—at the World Table Tennis Championship. Her career was cut short when Hungarian sports became Judenfrei (cleansed of Jews) in 1942.

Three rows of girls wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts, posing with their teacher in front of a building

Sport in Israel: Yishuv to the Early 21st Century

Women have been involved in sports in Israel since the Yishuv period, participating as teams, as individuals, and as coaches. Though more women are now participating in competitive sports, the field still reflects a masculine culture of power struggle and a desire to defeat the enemy. More recent political efforts in Israel have attempted to achieve women's equality in athletics.

Emmy Eisenberg, arms linked with two men, all wearing boots, stockings, and short pants/a shorter skirt

Sports in Austria 1918-1938

This article gives an overview of the participation of Jewish women in Austrian sport from the Habsburg monarchy to the present day. Drawing on selected biographies of sportswomen and functionaries, and with a regional focus on the capital city of Vienna, it explores the double relationship between female emancipation and Jewish self-assertion in an environment that had long been male-dominated and anti-Semitic.

Sports in Germany: 1898-1938

Women’s participation in Jewish gymnastics clubs increased significantly during the first two decades of the twentieth century. The Jewish sports movement grew during the 1920s, allowing women to participate in cross-country running, swimming, and tennis. After German sports clubs annulled Jewish membership in 1933, women poured into these Jewish sports groups.

Sports in the United States

Historians of American sport and of American Jewish history have generally neglected the study of sports by and for Jewish American women. As sport increasingly played a significant role in American society in the twentieth century, it also became part of Jewish women’s experiences in American life.

Eva Szekely

Born in Budapest, Eva Szekely was forced to stop swimming during the Nazi occupation of Hungary. However, she returned to the sport after the war and went on to win thirty-two national individual swimming titles and eleven national team titles. At the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, she set a new Olympic record in the 200-meter breaststroke.

Dara Torres

An athlete of remarkable endurance and drive, twelve-time Olympic medalist Dara Torres is the only American swimmer to have competed in five Olympics.

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