Encyclopedia Categories | Jewish Women's Archive

Jane Friedenwald

Jane Ahlborn Friedenwald used her position as a member of one of the most prominent Jewish families in Baltimore to support and promote vital Jewish causes and institutions.

Marti Friedlander taking a self-portrait in a mirror

London-born Marti Friedlander migrated to New Zealand in 1958. She became one of the country’s most outstanding and influential photographers in portraiture, photo-journalism, photo-books, and “street” photography. Her photographs still live vigorous public lives in exhibitions, books, and periodicals published after her death.

Carrie Bamberger Frank Fuld

The daughter of German Jewish immigrant parents, Carrie Bamberger Frank Fuld was a philanthropist who, in partnership with her brother, department store magnate Louis Bamberger, founded the internationally acclaimed Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Fuld was also involved in many Jewish philanthropic causes throughout her life.

Susan Galler

As founder of the consulting firm Galler Group LLC, Susan Galler has helped institutions from public television and radio stations to Planned Parenthood affiliates launch capital campaigns that allow them to grow and take on new challenges.

Mary Gendler

Mary Loeb Gendler has helped shape social justice movements in indirect but effective ways, from crafting new rituals for Jewish feminists to helping Tibetan exiles leverage the tools of nonviolent protest.

Anna Maria Goldsmid

Anna Maria Goldsmid was a Victorian Jewish advocate of women’s education and Jewish emancipation who made a name for herself as a translator, lecturer, philanthropist, and poet.

Jeane Herskovits Gottesman

Jeane Herskovits Gottesman was a philanthropist noted for her spiritual devotion to her work. She raised money for Jewish education, helping to support Yeshiva University, and was also a dedicated board member of Hadassah. Through Hadassah’s Youth Aliyah program, she helped rescue Jewish children during the Holocaust.

Sally Gottesman

Sally Gottesman, born 1962 in New Jersey and residing in New York, is a non-profit entrepreneur whose leadership and philanthropy have had a major impact on the Jewish feminist and justice landscape.

Jennie Grossinger

Once called the “the best-known hotelkeeper in America," Jennie Grossinger played host to thousands of guests at her family's famed Catskills resort, including prominent politicians and movie stars. A driving force behind the hotel's expansion, she was also very active in charitable work.

Florence Shloss Guggenheim

A lifelong philanthropist and cofounder of the Guggenheim Foundation, Florence Shloss Guggenheim supported arts and music, including free concerts in Central Park.

Irene Rothschild Guggenheim

Irene Rothschild Guggenheim founded the Brightside Day Nursery and made it her life’s work, overseeing children’s services from day care for newborns to vocational training for teenagers. She later became director of the association of Day Nurseries of New York City, raising the standards of childcare in New York, and a trustee of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies.

Peggy Guggenheim

Peggy Guggenheim amassed one of Italy’s most important modern art collections, displaying works artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Fernand Léger, Max Ernst, and Jackson Pollock in her galleries in London and New York, as well as at her famous palazzo in Venice, which was later turned into a museum.

Rahel Levin Varnhagen, July 7, 1822, by William Hensel

Habsburg Monarchy: Nineteenth to Twentieth Centuries

Jewish women in the Habsburg Monarchy experienced the stresses and strains of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Jewish life as Jews, as women of their particular social classes, and as inhabitants of the different regions of the Monarchy. In some regions, they modernized and acculturated, but the overwhelming majority remained deeply pious, traditional Jews.

Six women and one man standing together, four wearing white doctor's coats

Hadassah: Yishuv to the Present Day

Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America (HWZOA) has a lengthy history of activity in the Yishuv and Israel, going back to 1913, about a year after it was founded in New York, and continuing to this day. This activity, outstanding in its scope, continuity, stability, and diversity, encompasses efforts in the sphere of health and medical services and in the welfare of children and youth.

Nan Halperin

Nan Halperin was known as “The Wonder Girl” for her comic performances and rapid quick changes on the vaudeville stage. Halperin had a highly successful career, making her Broadway debut in 1914 and headlining on Broadway until 1934. She was one of the highest-paid actresses in vaudeville, famous for her “song cycle” performances.

Ruth Mosko Handler

Best known as the inventor of the Barbie doll, Ruth Mosko Handler combined her marketing genius with her husband Elliot Handler’s creative designs to form the toy company Mattel, Inc., in 1939. Her battles with cancer later in her career led her to create the company Nearly Me, which developed prosthetics for breast cancer survivors.

Blanche Hart

Blanche Hart, the first female superintendent of United Jewish Charities, helped lay the foundations for Jewish social services throughout Detroit.

Kitty Carlisle Hart

Actress and singer Kitty Carlisle Hart was honored for her tireless crusade for funding for the arts when the New York State Theater in Albany was named after her.

Reina Hartmann

Reina Goldstein Hartmann focused her career on improving the lives of Jewish women in her native Chicago, serving as the leader of the Mothers Aid of the Chicago Lying-In Hospital and Dispensary as well as other organizations.

Sylvia Hassenfeld

One of the most important American Jewish communal leaders and philanthropists of the twentieth century, Sylvia Hassenfeld led the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) through the humanitarian crisis of the Soviet Union’s collapse and the massive airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

Rita Eleanor Hauser

Rita E. Hauser’s was a trailblazer for women in law, politics, and foreign affairs at a time when few women entered the legal profession or achieved top-level positions in business and politics. Her dual background in politics and international law led to her key role in persuading Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization to recognize Israel and renounce terrorism.

Lina Frank Hecht

Lina Frank Hecht was a prominent figure in the Jewish philanthropic community in late nineteenth-century Boston. Known for the creation of a Jewish Sunday school for new immigrants, Hecht influenced generations of children through her leadership and generosity.

Florence Heller

An important benefactress of Brandeis University, Florence Grunsfeld Heller made her mark as one of the first women to run a general Jewish organization, the Jewish Welfare Board. She also founded the Florence Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare at Brandeis in 1959.

Lee M. Hendler

Beyond her work as the current chair of her family’s charitable foundation, Lee M. Hendler has continued her parents’ legacy by becoming a philanthropist and teaching her children and grandchildren the importance of service to others.

Esther Herrman

Esther Mendels Herrman’s generosity and activism helped create many vital Jewish and secular institutions, from Barnard College (where she is considered a “founder”) to the 92nd Street Y

Sharing Stories
Inspiring Change

The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

Philanthropy and Volunteerism: Philanthropy