• About
  • Jewish Community Directory
  • Subscription Information
  • Contact Us
American Jewish World
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • All
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia & New Zealand
    • Europe
    • Israel/Mideast
    • Latin America
    • Minnesota
    • US & Canada
    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

  • Arts
    • All
    • Blue Box
    • Books & Literature
    • Music
    • Televison & Film
    • Theater & Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel & Culture
    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • AJW Digital Archives
  • News
    • All
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia & New Zealand
    • Europe
    • Israel/Mideast
    • Latin America
    • Minnesota
    • US & Canada
    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

    ​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

  • Arts
    • All
    • Blue Box
    • Books & Literature
    • Music
    • Televison & Film
    • Theater & Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Not Great Britain’s finest hour

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

    Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel & Culture
    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Robyn Frank finds her niche in the cookie business

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Editorial: More from my European vacation

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

    Our Rosh Hashana special edition

  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • AJW Digital Archives
No Result
View All Result
Morning News
No Result
View All Result
Home Arts

Book raises profile of extraordinary American Jewish women

Author hopes the book will help increase awareness of the importance of studying Jewish women’s history

mordecai by mordecai
May 24, 2020
in Arts, Books & Literature
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

By JOSEFIN DOLSTEN

NEW YORK (JTA) — While looking at family photos, historian Pamela Nadell noticed how female relatives dressed differently with each generation. Her great-grandmother wore a high lace collar and covered her hair with a wig, like some Orthodox Jews. Her daughter’s go-to is a pair of skinny jeans.

READ ALSO

Not Great Britain’s finest hour

Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

Pamella Nadell is the author of the forthcoming book America’s Jewish Women: A History From Colonial Times to Today. (Book photo: Courtesy of W. W. Norton & Company; Nadell photo: Sophia Myszkowski)

Nadell, a professor of Jewish studies and women and gender studies at American University, saw an evolution in the images — not only in how her family members thought about being Jewish but of American Jewish women at large.

That inspired her latest book, in which she chronicles the history of American Jewish women. Nadell calls it “the culmination of a lifetime of scholarship.”

America’s Jewish Women: A History From Colonial Times to Today, which will be released on March 5, combines the stories of prominent Jewish women — among them poet Emma Lazarus, labor organizer Bessie Hillman and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — with those of women whose names are much lesser known.

Nadell, 67, doesn’t like to refer to the latter as “ordinary” but rather as “women whose lives were spread over smaller canvasses.”

“I don’t want to just talk about the famous,” she said in a phone interview. “That’s not really women’s history. Women’s history is understanding the breadth and trajectory of women’s lives writ large.”

In the book, readers learn about Rachel Lazarus, who moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1821 after marrying a widower. Disappointed by the small Jewish community and in search of a congregation, she and her husband started praying in an Episcopal church. Lazarus ended up converting to Christianity on her deathbed, against her husband’s wishes. Her letters to the mostly forgotten British novelist Maria Edgeworth offer a valuable portrait of Southern domestic life in the early 19th century.

There is also Rose Hatkin, an immigrant to the United States in the early 1900s, who “could feel grateful for her three-room domain that held her two brass candlesticks carried all the way from Poland, an icebox, a cabinet for meat and dairy dishes, and an inkwell, a souvenir from her Niagara Falls honeymoon.”

Nadell sees many parallels between the history she covers and issues facing American Jewish women today. She documents instances of anti-Semitism in the 20th-century women’s movement, such as at a conference in Copenhagen in 1980, when the Israeli delegates “were shouted down and even physically menaced” and a non-Jewish author “heard people say that having Jews … in the women’s movement ‘gave it a bad name.’”

Speaking to JTA, Nadell drew a line between those experiences and current allegations plaguing the Women’s March, whose organizers have been criticized for not doing enough to call out anti-Semitism and some of whom have expressed support for the openly anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

“I think it’s important that readers know that there was anti-Semitism in the women’s movement in the 1970s and 1980s and 1990s,” she said. “This isn’t new. How can you effect change if you don’t know the past?”

The author also sees a parallel between Jewish women’s involvement in the labor movement in the early 1900s and Jewish women’s activism today.

“Jewish women’s involvement today in fighting for better conditions or protesting changes they don’t want to see happen, like restrictions on abortion rights, I see a direct line to the earlier women that I talk about in the book,” she said.

Some parallels concern internal community issues. Nadell shows that even in colonial times, Jewish families and congregations were worried about intermarriage.

A Jewish colonial-era woman named Abigail Franks wrote that she was “Soe Depresst that it was a pain … to Speak or See Any one” after her daughter Phila married a non-Jewish man.

Two centuries later, Nadell writes, another Jewish woman, Sarah Pene, secretly married a Catholic man after her mother refused to accept him despite his offer to convert. Around that time there was increased consternation about the phenomenon, though rates of intermarriage were far lower than today. In 1939, Nadell writes, “a Chicago rabbi denounced a recent spate of intermarriages.”

Nadell says there’s been talk about Jews and intermarriage, especially involving Jewish women, since colonial days.

“I write about Abigail Levy Franks’ reactions to her daughter Phila’s intermarriage,” she said, “and I don’t think anyone having the conversation about intermarriage today knows anything about that.”

While writing the book, Nadell found that certain women stood out. One of her “favorites” is Caroline Spiegel, a Quaker woman who converted to Judaism before marrying her husband Marcus. At the end of 1861, Marcus enlisted to fight for the Union Army in the Civil War and the two corresponded by letters.

His letters survived while Caroline’s did not, so historians have mainly focused on his experience.

“I was really drawn to her story,” Nadell said. “His letters are published and they are so well known, but nobody has ever really thought to read them to see what they told us about the life of a wife whose husband was away during the Civil War.”

Ultimately, she hopes the book will help increase awareness of the importance of studying Jewish women’s history.

“We talk about African-American women, we talk about Latinx women, we talk about Native American women,” she said. “We write about women of different social classes, we write about women from the South. I also think we need to recognize that America’s Jewish women have a distinctive history.”

Related Posts

Not Great Britain’s finest hour
Books & Literature

Not Great Britain’s finest hour

December 23, 2022
Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’
Theater & Performing Arts

Five reasons to see ‘A Servants’ Christmas’

December 11, 2022
Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes
Books & Literature

Stella Levi recalls life on Rhodes

November 13, 2022
Attention, young Jewish artists! We want your Hanuka-themed artworks
Visual Arts

Attention, young Jewish artists! We want your Hanuka-themed artworks

November 13, 2022
Strange journey of a prophet
Books & Literature

Strange journey of a prophet

October 18, 2022
‘Uncle Philip’s Coat’ is bigger than life
Theater & Performing Arts

‘Uncle Philip’s Coat’ is bigger than life

October 18, 2022
Next Post

In Britain, Labour Party rebels give Jews hope

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RECENT ARTICLES

From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

From a brothel to a Brooklyn dress shop

January 22, 2023
On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

On the 100th anniversary of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’

January 22, 2023
​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

​​’Echoes of the Holocaust’ to have world premiere in Minneapolis

January 20, 2023
In local appearance Nick Winton told the story of his father, humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton

In local appearance Nick Winton told the story of his father, humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton

December 23, 2022
Not Great Britain’s finest hour

Not Great Britain’s finest hour

December 23, 2022

About

Since 1912 the AJW has served as an important news resource for the Jewish community. The Jewish World unites the main Jewish communities in St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as those in Duluth, Rochester and smaller cities, and bridges the divides between the various Jewish religious streams.

Quick Links

  • About the AJW
  • Advertising Information
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Subscription Information
  • Jewish Community Directory

Contact Us

The American Jewish World
3249 Hennepin Ave., Suite 245
Minneapolis, MN 55408

Tel: 612.824.0030 / Fax: 612.823.0753
editor@ajwnews.com

  • Buy JNews
  • Landing Page
  • Documentation
  • Support Forum

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
  • News
  • Food
  • Health & Wellness
  • Lifestyle
  • Opinion

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.