“Agents of Change” are remarkable Jewish women of Washington State who made their mark, created change, and inspired others. Are you a self-identified woman from Washington State who broke a barrier, stood up to lead, went above and beyond, or achieved something meaningful, or do you know someone who is? If so, we want to hear from you. We are not looking for a full life story, but instead, we invite you to share one aspect of your story with us using the suggested prompts.
By submitting my story to this question set, I understand that it will be shared with the Washington State Jewish Historical Society and included in their digital museum, The Washington Jewish Museum.
Einat Lachover (Ph.D. Tel-Aviv University, 2003) is a senior lecturer at Sapir Academic College. Her work is dedicated to critical analysis of the encounters between gender and a broad range of media forms and contexts, such as gendered construction of news production; gendered discourse in news media; gender ideologies in popular media; and girlhood and media.
Renée Levine Melammed is a professor of Jewish History at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem whose fields of research include the lives of conversos and Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish women. Her current project deals with women’s lives as reflected in the Cairo Genizah, in particular, through letters. She has published numerous articles in four languages, as well as the books Heretics or Daughters of Israel: The Crypto-Jewish Women of Castile (Oxford, 1999); A Question of Identity: Iberian Conversos in Historical Perspective (Oxford, 2004); and An Ode to Salonika: The Ladino Verses of Bouena Sarfatty (Indiana University Press, 2013). She is also the academic editor of Nashim.
Susan Landau-Chark earned her PhD in Jewish Studies from Concordia University (Montreal). Her thesis was on the Role of the Contemporary Rabbinical Wife in Canadian Society. Her most recent publication is "Traversing the 49th Parallel: The Jewish Experience Prior to 1881," in Neither in Dark Speeches nor in Similitudes: Reflections and Refractions Between Canadian and American Jews (2016)
Leonard Bell (School of Humanities, University of Auckland) is the co-editor of Jewish Lives in New Zealand: A History (2012) and the author of Colonial Constructs: European Images of Maori 1840-1914 (1992), In Transit: Questions of Home andBelonging in New Zealand Art (2007), Marti Friedlander (2009 & 2010), and Strangers Arrive: Emigres and the Arts in New Zealand 1930-1980 (2017). His Marti Friedlander: Portraits of the Artists will be published in August 2020.
Miriam Bell is a journalist, writer, and editor who works across a range of publications, including several Australasian Jewish media titles. She has contributed to the books, Jewish Lives in New Zealand and Identity & Involvement Volume III: Auckland Jewry into the 21st Century. She has a MA from the University of Auckland and a graduate diploma in journalism from Auckland University of Technology.
Writer, musician, composer, performer, and Torah teacher, Alicia Jo Rabins explores poetry, music, Passover, and social distancing in this interview/performance on April 12, 2020.
Dr. Jamie Ehrenpreis is board-certified pediatrician in Chicago committed to advancing healthcare access for under-served patients in her community, and works at a Federally Qualified Health Center called AHS Family Health Center. She also has a degree in Jewish Studies from Indiana University where she studied Jewish history and the Yiddish language. Her hobbies include writing, bird watching, and playing with her puppy.
The Rising Voices Fellowship is a ten-month program for female-identified Jewish teens in 10th-12th grades with a passion for writing and an interest in Judaism, feminism, and social justice. Through the program, participants develop authentic voices, strengthen their leadership through writing, and begin to influence the important conversations of the Jewish and feminist communities. Fellows write blog posts each month, which are published on jwa.org. (Read the work of the individual Rising Voices Fellows here.)
Esther Safran Foer, author of I Want You to Know We're Still Here, discusses uncovering family secrets and chronicling them in her first memoir, on April 2, 2020.
Our world has been rocked by the rapid spread of COVID-19 and its economic and social ripple effects. While virtually no one has been left untouched by these upheavals, they have impacted individuals’ lives in very different ways. Share your experience of the pandemic here.
By submitting your story to this question set, you understand that it may be shared with the Council of American Jewish Museums and its member institutions.
We invite you to virtually join the JWA Book Talks for conversations with authors about books, writing, and telling Jewish stories. Watch recordings of past QBT here. Presented in partnership with JewishLIVE and established with generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The experience of Southern Jewish women is one of complex societal expectations: the historically domestic role of Southern women in tandem with the subversive rebellion and pursuance of justice associated with the history of Jewish women. However, as history--specifically Southern--is collected, the strong voices of these Jewish women are often left out of the narrative. We hope that you refer to this question set in order to shine a light on the experience of Southern Jewish women and help collect their stories.
