Exceptional Jewish Women

By Ann E – Part of a two-part series…

We all know exceptional Jewish women. Our formidable mothers for a start, then there is a whole stream of yentes - our sisters, aunts, cousins and not forgetting our grandmothers – no doubt exceptional in their own inimitable way. Throughout history there have been amazing Jewish women doing incredible things. Browsing through the Jewish Women's archive alone produces more than 25 pages of biographies and that's just the USA and Canada!

So where does one start to choose from this rich field of personalities? Most people know about Golda Meir and Henrietta Szold but who is aware of the remarkable lives of Mala Zimetbaum, Gluckel von Hameln or Judy Feld Carr?

Jewish women have been active in a very wide range of fields – art, literature, science, politics, feminism, acting, dancing and even spying. I have tried in this article to focus on a

few exceptional women who are relatively unknown.

Gluckel von Hameln

Going back several centuries, Gluckel was a businesswoman and diarist, who provides us with an intimate picture of German Jewish communal life in the late 17^th and early 18th century. She was born in Hamburg in 1646. Married at fourteen, Glückel helped her husband with his business as a jewel merchant, interviewing prospective agents, drawing up agreements, and keeping accounts while raising fourteen children. She travelled extensively through Germany, France, Holland and Denmark, both for business and to secure good matches for her children. When her husband died, he left the business in her hands.

She not only maintained the jewel trade, but lent money at interest and set up a sock factory in Hamburg, selling her wares at local fairs. However, after eleven years of widowhood, she married a banker who squandered all of her money and died, leaving her penniless and dependent on her children, something she had fought to avoid her entire life. Glückel began writing her autobiography in 1691, two years after her first husband died. Written in Western Yiddish, it is a combination of an ethical will, a memoir, stories of her ancestors, and an account of important events in the communities where she lived. A copy of her diary is kept in the Bavarian State Library.

Regina Jonas

Regina Jonas was the first female rabbi. Jonas studied at a Jewish seminary in Berlin. The school only offered female students teaching degrees, but Jonas hoped they would make an exception for her. Her 1930 thesis argued that there was no law forbidding women to become rabbis, that there were many biblical and historical examples of women teaching and arbitrating Jewish law, and that a woman could choose to take on the obligations of mitzvot if she so wished. Despite her professors’ praise for her thesis, Jonas was only granted a teaching degree. She became a teacher at several girls’ schools in Berlin but continued to study Talmud and lobby for ordination. She was finally ordained in 1935 by Rabbi Max Dienemann, executive director of the Conference of Liberal Rabbis. She worked as a pastoral counselor at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin. But as more and more rabbis were deported, she began preaching at liberal synagogues. Even after her deportation to Theresienstadt, she continued to preach, teach, and inspire her fellow inmates until her final deportation to Auschwitz.

Mala Zimetbaum

Malka or Mala Zimetbaum was a great World War II heroine. She was Belgian of Polish descent. She is known for her escape from Auschwitz and the resistance she displayed at her execution following her escape failure. Although she had a relatively privileged position due to her knowledge of languages, she devoted herself to helping other inmates. Zimetbaum also got food and medicine for people in need, cheered people up, and encouraged them. She was trusted by staff and prisoners alike.

She was in love with another prisoner, a Pole called Edward Galinski, and they planned to escape together. They succeeded in escaping to a nearby town but were discovered by a German patrol. Although Galinski could have saved himself, he gave himself up as they had promised each other not to separate.

Details of her execution are too horrific to recount but information regarding Zimetbaum was made available to the public in an official testimony delivered during the trial of Eichmann.  There is a monument to Zimetbaum in the Romi Goldmuntz centre in Antwerp (now closed).

Part 2 coming soon..