Non­fic­tion

Jew­ish Women in Pre-State Israel: Life, His­to­ry, Pol­i­tics, and Culture

Ruth Kark, Mar­galit Shi­lo, Galit Hasan-Rokem, eds,; Shu­lamit Rein­harz, fwd.
  • Review
By – January 11, 2012

The his­to­ry of the Yishuv, the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in Pales­tine before the estab­lish­ment of the State of Israel, appears to be male. The role of women, as is often the case, has been ignored. The Hadas­sah-Bran­deis Insti­tute, found­ed in 1997, and the Lafer Cen­ter for Women and Gen­der Stud­ies at Hebrew Uni­ver­si­ty spon­sored a con­fer­ence in 1998 devot­ed to the con­tri­bu­tion of Jew­ish women to the cre­ation of the State of Israel. The papers in this anthol­o­gy come from that con­fer­ence. They cov­er the his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tive and women’s place (or lack there­of ) in it; women and immi­gra­tion; pio­neers and defend­ers; edu­ca­tion, health, and pol­i­tics; cre­ativ­i­ty in word and music; and shap­ing the col­lec­tive mem­o­ry. By exam­in­ing top­ics such as the immi­gra­tion of Amer­i­can Jew­ish women to Pales­tine, the lack of edu­ca­tion for women and the con­tri­bu­tions of the Roth­schilds and Mon­te­fiores in this area, and the women work­ers’ move­ment, this vol­ume sheds light on the impor­tant con­tri­bu­tions of women to Israel. The arti­cles cov­er Ashke­nazi, Sephar­di, and Mizrahi women. Exten­sive notes and a glos­sary will help read­ers find fur­ther infor­ma­tion. It would have been help­ful to include the affil­i­a­tions of the con­trib­u­tors. This is a valu­able resource for aca­d­e­m­ic libraries sup­port­ing women’s stud­ies, gen­der stud­ies, and Jew­ish stud­ies programs.

Bar­bara M. Bibel is a librar­i­an at the Oak­land Pub­lic Library in Oak­land, CA; and at Con­gre­ga­tion Netiv­ot Shalom, Berke­ley, CA.

Discussion Questions