May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978
“Despite a historical record that shows sustained involvement of American Jewish women with early Zionism and Palestine, this topic has received scant scholarly attention.” – from ‘Women and the Zionist Enterprise’ by Shulamit Reinharz and Mark A. Raider.
SHABBAT READING
A Kabbalist in Montreal: The Life and Times of Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg: Ira Robinson, Touro University Press: 314 pp., $119
The Golem of Montreal: Allan Nadler, Jewish Review of Books, Fall 2022 — In one of the most bizarre, yet deadly serious rulings (about the undead) in the vast literature of rabbinic responsa (She’elot u-Teshuvot), the renowned seventeenth-century sage of Amsterdam and London, Hakham Zvi Ashkenazi, was asked whether one may count a golem for a minyan. … Ira Robinson’s new biography paints a rich and extensively researched portrait of Yudel Rosenberg, the deeply learned but highly eccentric chief rabbi of Montreal, who moonlighted as a faith healer, magical amulet salesman, Oracle, halakhic innovator, Hasidic storyteller, and the most aggressively enterprising kosher chicken slaughterhouse supervisor in Canadian Jewish history. (Ira Robinson is the Associate Director, CIJR)
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LARGELY UNKNOWN
Meet Eva Frank: The First Jewish Female Messiah: Shira Telushkin, JStor Daily, Apr. 27, 2022 — We know very little detail about Eva Frank in her own words. There is her father’s portrayal of a dream she had, in which an old man from heaven soothes her anxiety about being the representation of the divine Messiah on Earth.
How I Went Undercover to Help Save Soviet Jewry: Nina Paul, Jewish National Fund, Aug. 24, 2020 –– In 1978, I, along with my cousin Jeff Levine (of Encino, California), was asked to participate in a very secret mission during the “Save Soviet Jewry” period. It was run by the Mossad and I was always ready for an adventure!
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The Women Behind the Balfour Declaration: Natalie Livingstone, WSJ, Oct. 13, 2022
Book Review | Hidden Heroes: One Woman’s Story of Resistance and Rescue in The Soviet Union: Yisroel Medad, Fathom Journal, October 2021
The Housewives Who Took on the USSR to Help Soviet Jewry: Shai Ben-Ari, The Librarians, Mar. 11, 2019
Irena Sendler and the Girls from Kansas: Jack Mayer, National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer 2020, Volume 41, Number 3
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FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:
10 Jewish Women From History You Should’ve Learned About in School: Clara Sophia Camber, HeyAlma, Feb. 1, 2019 — Sometimes we don’t even know what we don’t know. I did not know that my history — the history of Jews — was different from the history that I was taught in Virginia public schools. And when I finally had the opportunity to study Jewish history in college, there was still a lot missing. I learned about famous Jews such as Theodor Herzl, David Ben Gurion, and Moses Mendelssohn. There was still a lot missing. Mainly: the women.
Spy Mystery of British Sisters Who Helped Jewish Refugees Flee the Nazis: Dalya Elberge, The Guardian, Nov. 5, 2017 — The extraordinary story of two British sisters who became unlikely heroines in helping Jews to flee Nazi persecution is to be told on the big screen.
One Woman’s Mission to Rewrite Nazi History on Wikipedia: Noam Cohen, Wired, Sept. 7, 2021–– When Ksenia Coffman started editing Wikipedia, she was like a tourist in Buenos Aires in the 1950s. She came to learn the tango, admire the architecture, sip maté. She didn’t know there was a Nazi problem.
Excavations by Carolina Archaeologist Reveal First Known Depictions Of Two Biblical Heroines, Episode In Ancient Jewish Art: University Communications, The University of North Carolina of Chapel Hill, July 5th, 2022 — A team of specialists and students led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Jodi Magness recently returned to Israel’s Lower Galilee to continue unearthing nearly 1,600-year-old mosaics in an ancient Jewish synagogue at Huqoq.
Zionism: Jewish Women’s Archives
Now You See Us: Putting Orthodox Women in the Picture: Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll, JC, Nov. 4, 2021 — On a scorching August day, a number of Jewish women found themselves outside a Jerusalem apartment complex in fur coats and winter jackets.
The Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry and Natan Sharansky: University of Southampton Special Collections, Mar. 25, 2022 — This week we take a look at an inspirational protest group – the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry (aka ‘The 35s’) and their campaign to free Anatoly Shcharansky aka Natan Sharansky – one of many Jewish persons who were refused a Visa when seeking to emigrate from the USSR and subsequently harassed and imprisoned by the KGB. These people were known as ‘Refuseniks’ by the Western press and the campaign of support for Soviet Jewry was part of the broader fight for human rights within the former USSR.
“The Struggle of Soviet Jewry: The Refuseniks”: JBS, YouTube, Apr. 12, 2022 — JBS journalist Micah Halpern hosts a fascinating discussion amongst key players in the saga of Soviet Jewry.
The Women of Zionism | History of Israel Explained: Unpacked, YouTube, Dec. 12, 2019 — The study of history almost always focuses on men. We all know that. That’s why this week we’re redressing the gender balance and unpacking ten awesome women of Zionism who have made – and who continue to make – an incredible impact on the State of Israel.
Zionism: The First Women’s Movement – Conversations on Zionism – Episode 24: ZTV, Zionism Studios, July 6, 2022 — From Gibraltar to Jerusalem, the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem has a thing or two to say about what it means to be a woman in power, the Bedouin, Jewish, Druze and Arab women she’s working with in Israel, and the strong Emirati women she’s meeting through the UAE-Israel Business Council she founded. Tune in to hear all this and more.
