Encyclopedia Categories | Jewish Women's Archive

Benvenida Abravanel

Benvenida Abravanel, both born into and married within the important Abravanel family of Spain and Portugal, was one of the most influential, wealthiest, and charitable Jewish women of early modern Italy. After fleeing the Iberian peninsula, her family settled in Naples, stayed in Venice, and then resettled in Ferrara. Her family life, however, was wracked by strife, including the presence of her husband Samuel’s illegitimate son in the family and a struggle within the family over her husband’s assets after he died.

Founder and president Shifra Bronznick in a floral dress, smiling at a clear podium with a sign reading Better Work Better Life 100

Advancing Women Professionals in the Jewish Community

Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community (AWP) was founded by Shifra Bronznick in 2001 as an intervention “to advance Jewish women into leadership, stimulate new models of shared leadership, and promote policies for healthy, effective workplaces.” Over fifteen years, AWP conducted groundbreaking research and adapted strategies from other sectors that engaged women and men in decisive, systems-based change.

Mildred Elizabeth Levine Albert

Mildred Albert charmed the fashion world as an international fashion consultant, lecturer, columnist, and radio and television personality. She carved a niche for herself in the fashion world as the head of a modeling agency and an inventor of new kinds of fashion shows.

Beatrice Alexander

Beatrice Alexander, best known as Madame Alexander, started her dollmaking business out of her home in 1923; it later became one of the largest in the United States. She created many collections based on historic events as well as literature, music, art, and film, believing that dolls play a vital role in the early development of children. Her dolls are now on permanent display at museums worldwide, including the Smithsonian Institute.

Rose Haas Alschuler

Rose Haas Alschuler founded and directed more than twenty nursery schools and early childhood education programs before turning her attention to Zionist causes and becoming a vital fundraiser for the State of Israel.

Sadie Cecilia Annenberg

Sadie Annenberg's husband Moe made the couple millionaires by pawning Sadie’s jewelry and starting several businesses. Sadie Annenberg used that money to generously support numerous Jewish causes in both the United States and the State of Israel, including those in the arts, politics, science, and more.

Argentina: Philanthropic Organizations

Three Jewish women’s philanthropic organizations emerged on the scene in early 20th-century Argentina to support orphans and poor children in the community. The Society of Israelite Beneficent Women was responsible for the Jewish Girls’ Orphanage that opened in 1919. The Yiddish-speaking Women’s Aid Association formed the Jewish Infants’ Home to help new mothers and ran a Kindergarten. The Women’s Commission helped run the Jewish Boys’ Orphanage.

A Moroccan-Born Mother with Two of her Argentine-Born Daughters, circa 1929

Argentina: Sephardic Women

Argentina’s Sephardic community included Jews from all over the Sephardi diaspora. Immigrant women often worked alongside their fathers or husbands in general stores, as well as doing household chores and raising children. As Sephardic communities became more established, women’s educational opportunities expanded, and women played important roles in philanthropy and Zionism.

Judeo-Argentine newspapers and magazines from different periods in Yiddish, Hebrew and Spanish

Argentina: Zionist Activities

Argentine Jewish women were important players in Zionism, from early women’s committees of male groups to independent female ones. They carried out significant work on behalf of WIZO (Women’s International Zionist Organization) to help women and children in the Jewish community of Palestine and later in Israel, and participated in other Zionist organizations.

Fanny Baronin Von Arnstein

Fanny von Arnstein, who rose to the rank of baroness, navigated the artistic and political upheaval of the Napoleonic Era as a hostess of salons that welcomed celebrities, artists, musicians, and politicians. The respect she garnered fostered the growing acceptance of Jewish in Viennese high society. During the Napoleonic Wars, she aided the sick and wounded and advocated unsuccessfully for the equal rights of Jews at the Congress of Vienna.

Patricia Arquette

Patricia Arquette has navigated a career path from Hollywood to television and back again, culminating in a landslide of awards for her supporting role in 2014’s Boyhood.

Assimilation in the United States: Nineteenth Century

Female German Jewish immigrants were uniquely impacted by both their gender and class during the process of their assimilation to American life. They began participating in voluntary social work, which secularized over time, reflecting the women’s increased sense of personal autonomy. Through their work, German Jewish women immigrants preserved Jewish tradition and expanded their roles beyond the home.

Beatrice Fox Auerbach

People who shopped or worked at G. Fox and Company in Hartford, Connecticut, from the 1930s to the 1960s have fond memories of Beatrice Fox Auerbach and her department store. Auerbach, who became president of G. Fox and Company after her father died, was a talented executive, and the company became the largest privately owned department store in the country.

Australia: 1788 to the Present

The first Jewish women, like the first Jewish men, arrived in Australia on the very first day of European settlement in 1788. Those convict pioneers were followed by free settlers who made Jewish communal and congregational life viable and helped to develop the vast continent. Jewish women have made significant contributions to Australia's national story.

Sophie Cahn Axman

Sophie Cahn Axman became known for her work as a probation officer helping troubled children. In 1904 found her calling as a probation officer for Jewish boys housed at the Manhattan House of Corrections.

Edith Jacobi Baerwald

Edith Jacobi Baerwald devoted her energy to philanthropic organizations, but she also loved connecting directly with the people she helped through her volunteer work at settlement houses. She considered volunteer work a social obligation and poured her time and tireless energy into numerous projects.

Baghdadi Jewish Women in India

Baghdadi Jews arrived in India in the late eighteenth century and ultimately formed important diaspora communities in Bombay and Calcutta. Many notable Baghdadi Indian women were involved in philanthropy, Jewish and Zionist organizations, education, and film acting.

Dorothy Lehman Bernhard

Dorothy Lehman Bernhard made great contributions to the causes dearest to her, including child welfare, the arts, and the Jewish community, both by overseeing over 30 organizations and, more directly, by becoming a foster parent.

Felicie Bernstein

Felicie Bernstein was one of the last Berlin salonnières, a patron of modern art and artists, and a philanthropist who supported early feminism.

Angelica Berrie

A lifelong philanthropist, Angelica Berrie has helped transform the world by funding causes ranging from religious tolerance to nanotechnology.

Sara Blakely

Sara Blakely’s creation and marketing of Spanx made her the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, a success she has paid forward by training aspiring female entrepreneurs.

Ginevra Blanis

Ginevra Blanis was a late sixteenth-century silk manufacturer of the Florentine ghetto and Siena. She left her mark as a founder of the young community with her philanthropy and in the public communication of what she considered Jewish values in the provisions of her will.

Henrietta Gittelson Blaustein

Henrietta Gittelson Blaustein was an American philanthropist. When her husband died in 1937, she became the chairperson of the Louis and Henrietta Blaustein Foundation. In 1951, the foundation awarded $1,000,000 to the Sinai Hospital and the Jewish Medical Center in Baltimore – the largest individual contribution ever made to a Jewish organization at that time.

Florence Meyer Blumenthal

Florence Meyer Blumenthal, an extraordinary philanthropist and arts patron, organized her own arts foundation in Paris, and donated millions of dollars to established institutions and public charities in America and France. Blumenthal’s foundation funded hundreds of promising artists and allowed them to focus on pursuing their craft.

Madeleine Borg

Madeleine Borg, a juvenile rights advocate, is known for reframing juvenile rehabilitation efforts in both Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Borg founded the American Big Sisters movement in 1912 and went on to establish the Council Home for Jewish Girls.

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The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

Philanthropy and Volunteerism: Philanthropy