Business & Economics: Entrepreneurs
Mary Ann Cohen Magnin
Until her death, Mary Ann Cohen Magnin took an active interest in the department store she founded, I. Magnin and Company, an exclusive chain that specialized in women’s clothing. Energetic, stubborn, and with an outstanding intuition for business, Magnin rose to stunning success at the turn of the twentieth century.
Lane Bryant Malsin
Regina Margareten
Regina Margareten was hailed as the “Matzah Queen” and the “matriarch of the kosher food industry” for both her business sense and her innovations to improve the quality of her products.
Etta Wedell Mastbaum
Etta Wedell Mastbaum was the scion of a prominent nineteenth- and twentieth-century Philadelphia family. A philanthropist, department store executive, art collector, and director of a national chain of motion picture theaters, Mastbaum donated a collection of Rodin sculptures and ephemera to the city of Philadelphia.
Ellen Lehman Mccluskey
Ellen Lehman McCluskey, a firm believer that quality design is a result of close communication between architect and interior designer, built her own design firm into a business with national, international, and professional respect.
Florence Zacks Melton
Abigail Minis
Marion Simon Misch
Marion Misch participated in a great number of volunteer activities through her lifetime, all the while running a successful business following the death of her husband. Her primary interests centered on education and Judaism, and her volunteerism reflected her concern for these issues.
Lillian Nassau
Carrie Marcus Neiman
A born saleswoman, Carrie Marcus Neiman made her family’s department stores synonymous with high-end retail fashion. Dallas’s legendary Neiman Marcus specialty store owes its style, its personal brand of service, and its first cache of merchandise to Neiman, the fashion authority who helped launch a retailing concept.
Niki Russ Federman
Niki Russ Federman is the fourth-generation co-owner of Russ & Daughters, the iconic appetizing shop founded in 1914 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan by her great-grandfather, Joel Russ. Known globally for its bagels, lox, babkas, and other Ashkenazi Jewish food delicacies, Russ & Daughters is believed to be the first business in America to include daughters in the name. As the fourth generation to own Russ & Daughters, Russ Federman has overseen its expansion while retaining an authentic legacy of Jewish food.
Suze Orman
Rosanna Dyer Osterman
Rosanna Dyer Osterman’s supplies helped travelers explore the western frontier, but it was her life-saving efforts as a nurse for which she was best remembered.
Bracha Peli
Bracha Peli was unique among the literary community of pre-state Palestine, creating what was probably the most successful and dynamic publishing house in the country at the time. Born Bronya Kutzenok in Tsarist Russia, Peli had an expansive and highly successful career.
Poland: Early Modern (1500-1795)
Polish Jewish Women played a complex role in their society and culture during the early Modern Period. This role was usually gender segregated, but upon a closer look, was more gender flexible than one might think.
Ruth Porat
Suzanne G. Priebatsch
Kira Radinsky
Heather Reisman
Heather Reisman was possibly the most powerful person in Canada’s book publishing industry at the turn of the twenty-first century and certainly the country’s most prominent Jewish businesswoman. In addition to charitable giving, Reisman has shown sensitivity to Jewish concerns in the conduct of her business.
Judith Rodin
Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn
Sophie Sonia Rosenberg
Sophia Sonia Rosenberg was the creator and owner of Sonia Gowns Inc, an elegant dress company. After immigrating to New York in 1908, she worked for various dress companies and entered a business alliance with Gloria Vanderbilt in 1935.
Nettie Rosenstein
Ida Cohen Rosenthal
Ida Cohen Rosenthal not only created the modern bra, she also helped found Maidenform, Inc., and make it the most successful bra manufacturer in the world.
