Hanna Weinberg
The daughter of a scholar and rabbi and the wife of a scholar and rabbi, Hanna Weinberg has spent her life sharing her love of Judaism with her family and the extended Jewish community. Born in 1927 in Germany, Hanna lived for a short time in Lithuania before moving to the United States when her father became a teacher at a Cleveland yeshiva. A few years later, upon founding and leading Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Hanna's father brought the family to Baltimore. In 1945, Hanna married one of the yeshiva's faculty members, Rabbi Yaacov Weinberg, and they had six children, Mathis, Aviva, Miriam, Yehudas, Naomi, and Simcha. In addition to her role as a rebbetzin, Hanna worked as a Hebrew teacher and coordinated volunteer services at the Jewish Convalescent Home. She founded Bikur Cholim, a network of volunteers who care for the ill and their families. Dedicated to assisting abused women within the Jewish community, Hanna has been instrumental in opening the eyes of the Jewish communal world to the dangers that women were facing in their own homes. Through her advocacy and lectures to Orthodox and non-Orthodox audiences, Hanna's pioneering work has inspired communities across the country to address domestic violence as an urgent item on their communal agendas.
Hanna was born in Germany but lived in Lithuania at the age of four when her family immigrated to the United States. She describes her early memories in Lithuania and the voyage by boat to New Haven, Connecticut, where her family settled for a few years before moving to Cleveland, Ohio. There, her father taught at a Talmudic academy, and then the family moved to Baltimore in 1937, where her father opened a seminary, Ner Israel. She recalls her educational experiences along the way, her neighborhood in Forest Park, Baltimore, encounters with antisemitism, and the Jewish holidays her family celebrated. Hanna tells the story of how she met her husband, one of the yeshiva's faculty members, Rabbi Yaacov Weinberg, and talks about their married life in Baltimore, where they raised six children. During the 1950s and '60s, Hanna volunteered with various community organizations and founded Bikur Cholim, a network of volunteers who care for the ill and their families. She also traces her involvement in advocacy for domestic violence victims and setting up an "underground railroad system" to get survivors to safe places. Hanna also talks about her six children and how their lives have unfolded. Ner Israel opened a branch in Canada, and the family moved briefly to Toronto, where Hanna found work with Jewish Convalescent Home and earned her geriatric certification from Julie College. She also did undergraduate work at Loyola and taught Hebrew school for twenty-one years. Finally, Hanna reflects on raising a large family, changes in Baltimore, playing music, and widowhood.
