Examine different ways that American Jewish women historically—and we today—fulfill the obligation of tzedakah (charity) and gemilut chesed (acts of loving kindness).
Before the twentieth century, much of the responsibility for caring for the needy—the poor, recent immigrants, or the disabled—fell to private groups or charitable individuals. Even today, when government assistance may help people in need,
In a 1916 letter, Henrietta Szold (the founder of Hadassah) defied Jewish tradition and challenged rituals that exclude women by asserting her right to say Kaddish (the Jewish prayer for mourners).
Best known as the founder of Hadassah, Henrietta Szold was a dedicated and influential community leader, as well as an essayist, translator, and editor. Rai
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.
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities in August 2005, it changed many lives irrevocably. Katrina and the flooding that followed devastated homes, neighborhoods, and community infrastructures. It scattered families and
Children of Loneliness, a short story by immigrant writer Anzia Yezierska, illustrates how one young woman's struggle to find her own place in American society tears her from her parents and their way of life.
Anzia Yezierska was one of more than two million Eastern European Jews who arrived in the United States during a major wave of Jewish immigration from 1880 to 1924, seeking economic opportunity and re
Recipes are like a map. You can follow the path of a recipe to give you clues as to how Jews lived in different communities as they migrated. You can see which ingredients come from which places on our journeys and how changes to Jewish food culture ha
Zipporah (Zippy) Porath was born and raised in New York. Her father, Samuel J. Borowsky, was a renowned Hebrew educator and prominent Zionist and one of the founders of Young Judaea. In 1947, Zipporah arrived in Jerusalem on a one-year scholarship to t
Interrogate the notion of midrash using "The Coming of Lilith" by theologian Judith Plaskow as an example of how contemporary Jewish feminists have created their own midrashim—retellings of biblical stories—to incorporate women's viewpoints into the traditional texts of Judaism.
Historically, rabbis wrote midrash to explain problems they found in biblical texts. If there seemed to be a missing piece to a story, an inconsistency between two different passages, or a redundant word or verse, the rabbis would explain the
Discover how two remarkable Jewish women: The biblical figure, Esther, and the historical figure, Bella Abzug, both fought for justice and liberation by adopting personas that helped them achieve their goals.
The times and places with which they are identified had little in common: Persia in the 5th Century BCE and the United States in the 20th Century CE. Bella Abzug was a central figure in the emergence of second wave US feminism, while Esther’s bib
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.
Born in 1861 in San Francisco at a time when no prominent public religious roles were open to Jewish women, Rachel (Ray) Frank blazed new paths for women in Judaism. Through her career as the "Girl Rabbi of the Go
The letters from one girl's campaign to have the first Saturday morning Bat Mitzvah in her congregation in 1974 serve as a case study for exploring how we confront controversial issues and make change in our communities.
Today, a Jewish girl coming of age is likely to mark her entry to Jewish adulthood with some ceremony. But this was not always the case. The first Bat Mitzvah ceremony in America was celebrated in 1922 by Judith Kaplan (Eisenstein), daughter of Rabbi M
Using the provocative image of "Tefillin Barbie"—created in 2006 by soferet (ritual scribe) Jen Taylor Friedman—examine the relationship between gender, body image, and ritual garb.
Investigate what it means for American Jews to celebrate Passover and the Fourth of July in the context of religious and national freedom, by reading an editorial from the April 1897 issue of The American Jewess.
Passover, the Jewish holiday that commemorates the liberation of the Children of Israel from Egypt, marks a birthing moment for the Jewish people. As they pass through the Sea of Reeds, they are transformed from a band of slaves into a free nation.
