Philanthropy and Volunteerism

June 29, 2017

The Other JWA

Emily Cataneo

JWA made a startling discovery recently: we have a doppelgänger. Okay, that’s not quite accurate. Perhaps it would be better to say that our URL, jwa.org, has a near-doppelgänger: jwa.org.uk. Who was this mysterious British JWA, we wondered?

Topics: Feminism, Social Work

May 17, 2017

Saturdays with Rhoda

Katy Ronkin

Almost every Saturday for the last five years, I’ve gone to visit my friend Rhoda Nissenbaum. We read together and talk, along with my mother and Rhoda’s aide, Sarah. What started as my Bat Mitzvah project has blossomed into a beautiful friendship. Fortunately, I was able to record my recent meeting with Rhoda, and we got a chance to talk about her life, all 97 years of it!

Topics: Activism, Volunteers

Ellen Odetta Cuffe

Ellen Odette Cuffe, Lady Desart, was celebrated as the most important Jewish woman in Irish history for her boundless philanthropy and political acumen.

Mary Gendler

Mary Loeb Gendler has helped shape social justice movements in indirect but effective ways, from crafting new rituals for Jewish feminists to helping Tibetan exiles leverage the tools of nonviolent protest.

March 21, 2017

From the Archives: The Challenge of Identification

Robbie Terman

I recently received a research request for a photograph of a woman named Gertrude Glogower. At the time, the only thing I knew about her was that she was a past president of the Greater Detroit section of the National Council for Jewish Woman, whose records we hold.

Topics: Jewish History, Philanthropy

February 6, 2017

From the Archives: Blanche Hart, the Jane Addams of Detroit

Robbie Terman

The year Blanche Hart was born, the United States celebrated its 100^th birthday. The telephone was patented, Mark Twain published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and the Transcontinental Express train traveled from New York City to San Francisco in just 83 hours and 39 minutes.

Topics: Volunteers

Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman spent years crafting novels that explored relationships and magical realism before the “overnight” success of 1995’s Practical Magic catapulted her to success.

Nicki Newman Tanner

As part of her lifelong devotion to Wellesley College, Nicki Newman Tanner chaired a record-breaking capital campaign for the college in 1993, raising $168 million from alumnae and disproving the assumption that women give less than men.

Suzanne G. Priebatsch

Suzanne Priebatsch has focused her career in investment management on helping people become more “financially literate” so they can manage their wealth during their lifetimes and pass on legacies that reflect their values.

Nancy Schwartz Sternoff

Nancy Schwartz Sternoff dedicated her career to advancing women, non-profits, and the Jewish community.

Lee M. Hendler

Beyond her work as the current chair of her family’s charitable foundation, Lee M. Hendler has continued her parents’ legacy by becoming a philanthropist and teaching her children and grandchildren the importance of service to others.

Doris Zelinsky

While Doris Zelinsky has spent her professional career in the food industry, the work closest to her heart has been preserving the memory of the Holocaust.

Ruth Breslau Fein

Ruth Fein had a distinguished career as the first woman at the helm of several prestigious organizations.

Brenda Brown Rever

From empowering and educating young girls, to preserving the oral histories of women over 75, Brenda Brown Rever has helped shape women’s stories and been shaped by them in return.

Susan Galler

As founder of the consulting firm Galler Group LLC, Susan Galler has helped institutions from public television and radio stations to Planned Parenthood affiliates launch capital campaigns that allow them to grow and take on new challenges.

"The Jewish Woman" Magazine Cover, October 1921

Benevolent Societies and Tzedakah

Examine different ways that American Jewish women historically—and we today—fulfill the obligation of tzedakah (charity) and gemilut chesed (acts of loving kindness).

Object #662, "Tzedek Means Justice," from Katrina's Jewish Voices

Hurricane Katrina: Community Responsibility and Tikkun Olam

Explore Hurricane Katrina as an example of how Jews respond to catastrophe. Gail Chalew, a Jewish reporter from New Orleans, tells the story of Haley Fields, a thirteen year old girl from Los Angeles, who came up with her own unique way of helping those in need.

Ray Frank's Yom Kippur Sermon, 1890

Read the 1890 Yom Kippur sermon by Ray Frank, the first Jewish woman to preach formally from a pulpit, and consider what unites and divides the Jewish people both historically and today.

Gertrude Wineman

Gertrude Wineman was an indefatigable leader of the Jewish community of Detroit for almost forty years.

Josephine Stern Weiner

Josephine Stern Weiner’s lifetime of community service culminated in her creation of Women in Community Services (WICS), an umbrella organization that coordinated efforts between Jews and Christians, blacks and whites, at the height of the civil rights movement.

Helen DeRoy

Helen Lowentritt DeRoy’s business savvy in the auto industry was matched only by her generosity as a philanthropist through the worst years of the Depression.

Blanche Hart

Blanche Hart, the first female superintendent of United Jewish Charities, helped lay the foundations for Jewish social services throughout Detroit.

Emma Lazaroff Schaver

Opera singer Emma Lazaroff Schaver was profoundly affected by giving concerts to Holocaust survivors in displaced persons camps, an experience that shaped the rest of her life.

Rising Voices Fellow Abby Richmond Selling Her First Book

June 8, 2016

Using My Words

Abby Richmond

My world completely changed when I learned how to read in first grade. From that time forward, I brought books with me everywhere I went. As a shy girl who rarely had the courage to speak her mind, I learned to make friends with characters in cozy novels.

Topics: Philanthropy, Politics and Government, Fiction

Julia Neuberger

Baroness Julia Neuberger’s work as a rabbi helps guide her decisions as a voting member of the House of Lords.

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