Encyclopedia Categories | Jewish Women's Archive

Ruth Clarke

In the spirit of tikkun olam, Ruth Clarke chose to repair the world by transforming her neighborhood.

Rosalie Cohen Introducing Eleanor Roosevelt at the Launching of New Orleans Israel Bonds Organization, 1951

A lifelong Zionist, Rosalie Cohen worked to promote Jewish culture and education both on a national level and locally in New Orleans. Cohen’s talents as a leader and organizer, as well as her gracious southern manners, were key assets in overcoming the obstacles she faced as a Zionist in a southern city and as a woman in a predominantly male Jewish national arena.

Veronika Cohen

Veronika Wolf Cohen has shaped Israeli minds in two very different ways, by developing national music curricula and by leading innovative Israeli-Palestinian dialogue groups.

Communism in the United States

From the 1920s into the 1950s, the Communist Party USA was the most dynamic sector of the American left, and Jewish women—especially Yiddish-speaking immigrants and their American-born daughters—were a major force within the party and its affiliated organizations. Their numbers included community organizers, labor activists, students, artists and intellectuals. When the communist movement faded in the 1950s, these women carried radical traditions into new movements for social justice and international cooperation.

Stosh Cotler

An unconventional CEO with tattoos, a black belt, and a reputation as a radical social activist, Stosh Cotler has mobilized Jewish Americans to fight for immigration reform, racial equality, and workers’ rights.

Florence Dolowitz

Florence Dolowitz both cofounded the Women’s American ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation and Training) and helped lead the organization for decades.

Sylvia Goulston Dreyfus

Sylvia Goulston Dreyfus worked to improve Boston both through community activism and through her support of art and music. Along with being president of the Hecht Neighborhood House, she was trustee of the New England Conservatory, worked on the Berkshire Music Festival, and served as honorary chair of the Palestine Orchestra Fund.

Rose Dunkelman

Rose Dunkelman was an innovative, industrious Canadian Zionist leader who worked tirelessly for the Jewish national cause. Dunkelman was the founder and long-time vice-president of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO. In 1925 she founded the Toronto Hadassah Bazaar, and that same year she was named to the National Executive of the Zionist Organization of Canada.

Bruria Benbassat de Elnecavé

Bruria Benbassat de Elnecavé was an ardent activist who dedicated her life to educate Jewish Argentines in general and Jewish Argentine women in particular about Zionism and the State of Israel.

cover of the American Jewess magazine, May 1896, with a photograph of a woman with a large fan

English-Language American Jewish Women’s Magazines, 1895-1945

In the first half of the twentieth century, Jewish women published a wide array of magazines, bulletins, and newsletters, which displayed their skills as writers and editors. These publications served as tools for communication, publicity, and education and provided platforms for the diverse ideologies and perspectives of Jewish women.

Judith G. Epstein

Judith Epstein led Hadassah through the tumultuous years of World War II, shifting its mission from building infrastructure in Palestine to establishing an internationally recognized Jewish state. During her tenure, Hadassah became the largest Zionist organization in the world.

Feminism in the United States

Jewish women participated in and propelled all aspects of the women's rights movement, from suffrage in the nineteenth century to women's liberation in the twentieth. Despite occasional instances of antisemitism in the general feminist movement, Jewish women were passionate advocates of feminist goals.

Jane Brass Fischel

An outstanding communal leader in New York City’s Orthodox Jewish community in the early twentieth century, Jane Brass Fischel was a generous philanthropist and active participant in Jewish communal activities.

Jane Friedenwald

Jane Ahlborn Friedenwald used her position as a member of one of the most prominent Jewish families in Baltimore to support and promote vital Jewish causes and institutions.

Alicia Garza

After her impassioned plea that black lives matter ignited the internet, Alicia Garza helped lead the movement that has transformed the modern struggle for civil rights.

The title page of volume 1, issue 1, of a new series of the Die Deborah newspaper. The page reads, in German): "Vorwärts, meine Seele, vorwärts mit Macht! Eine deutsch-amerikanishe Wochenschrift Foerderung juedischer Interessen in Gemeinde, Schule und Haus. Als Wochenschrift begündet 1855 von Isaac M. Wise. Herausgegeben von einem Vereine jüdischer Schriftsteller."

German Immigrant Period in the United States

Among nineteenth-century German Jewish immigrants to the United States, married women often made their own sources of incomes. However, high rates of poverty in large cities motivated women to create benevolent societies. As women participated more in the public sphere, the traditionally strict dichotomy between male and female roles changed in immigrant communities.

Elizabeth Glaser

Elizabeth Glaser’s fight to save her HIV-positive children led to her creation of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation to save children worldwide from the devastation of AIDS.

Emma Leon Gottheil

As a translator, Emma Leon Gottheil helped spread the ideals of Zionism across America, but as founder of the Women’s League for Palestine, she turned those ideals into reality.

Greek Resistance During World War II

Sephardi and Romaniote women during the resistance movements in Greece and in Auschwitz Birkenau have been rarely mentioned in the literature on World War II, but they made varied contributions to the movement.

Aliza Greenblatt

Deep love for the Jewish people informed the life of Aliza Greenblatt, an American Yiddish poet and Zionist leader in women’s organizations. Greenblatt was among the first to organize the American Jewish community and raise funds toward the establishment of a Jewish national home. Many of her poems, widely published in the Yiddish press, were also set to music.

A square photo of young Haika Grossman, wearing a fur collar coat, with a stamp in the corner

Haika Grosman

Politically active from a young age, Haika Grosman played a key role in the underground resistance to Nazi occupation and the Holocaust and put her safety on the line in the name of the movement.

Mary Belle Grossman

In 1918, Mary Belle Grossman became one of the first two women admitted to membership in the American Bar Association. After the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, she became one of Cleveland’s most successful political activists.

Rose Gruening

Rose Gruening created a number of social assistance organizations to aid immigrant families, offering practical help that included childcare, funding for college educations, and even a summer camp.

Rivka Guber

Through her work as a soldier, writer, teacher, and volunteer supporting immigrants, Rivka Guber exhibited selflessness for her neighbors and for the young State of Israel as a whole, earning her the title “Mother of the Sons” and the respect of the nation.

Florence Shloss Guggenheim

A lifelong philanthropist and cofounder of the Guggenheim Foundation, Florence Shloss Guggenheim supported arts and music, including free concerts in Central Park.

Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change

The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

Activism: Community Organizing