The Print­ers

Medieval Era, Late 1400s 

Italy and Around the World

Press Pio­neers

For many years, books were copied by hand, but when Johannes Guten­berg invent­ed the print­ing press, his machine changed every­thing. As the loud clang­ing of the met­al press replaced the whis­per-like strokes of the quill across parch­ment, the print­ing press mass-pro­duced books and spread knowl­edge around the world. At the dawn of this rev­o­lu­tion, Jew­ish women were lead­ers in the print­ing and pro­duc­tion of Hebrew books.

Estel­li­na Conat, an Ital­ian Jew from Man­tua, was like­ly the very first woman in print­ing. She oper­at­ed a print­ing press with her hus­band for Hebrew texts and reli­gious books, and print­ed books on her own account, includ­ing the book Behi­nat Olam, writ­ten by an impor­tant medieval Jew­ish philoso­pher. This book was the first inscribed by any female typog­ra­ph­er. It is even pos­si­ble that anoth­er Ital­ian Jew­ish woman was print­ing one year earlier.

His­to­ri­ans debate whether Devo­rah Cusi over­saw the pro­duc­tion of the sec­ond ever print­ed Hebrew book, a four-vol­ume col­lec­tion of Jew­ish laws called the Tur. The first Hebrew book was print­ed by Johannes Guten­berg himself!

As print­ing spread, Jew­ish women across Europe became lead­ers in the pub­li­ca­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of Jew­ish books. In the Pol­ish city of Lvov, Judith Rosanes was the first Jew­ish woman to estab­lish a com­mer­cial Hebrew press, employ­ing twen­ty-four men in her busi­ness. A true entre­pre­neur, she charged writ­ers mon­ey to pro­duce their books and print­ed only books she believed would sell. Devo­rah Romm’s press print­ed thou­sands of books in Lithua­nia, includ­ing the first print­ing of the Vil­na Shas, a print­ed edi­tion of the Tal­mud still in use today.

Jew­ish women print­ed, even when it was hard. In Spain, the four daugh­ters of Juan de Luce­na were charged with the ​“crime” of print­ing Hebrew books dur­ing the Inqui­si­tion. In Con­stan­tino­ple, Doña Rey­na Mendes, daugh­ter of Doña Gra­cia Nasi, was the first Jew­ish woman to estab­lish her own print­ing press, and she did it as a Jew­ish con­ver­so who con­vert­ed to Chris­tian­i­ty but prac­ticed Judaism in secret – at great risk to her own life. Jew­ish female print­ers kept the chain of Jew­ish tra­di­tion unbro­ken, even when the forces of his­to­ry tried to tear it apart.

“I, Estel­li­na, the wife of my wor­thy hus­band Abra­ham Conat, wrote this book…”– Inscrip­tion in Behi­nat Olam

Esther

Sec­ond Tem­ple Era

Around 380 BCE

Per­sia

Queen

In the heart of the vast Per­sian Empire lived a shy Jew­ish orphan named Esther. She was as beau­ti­ful as a star but was a sup­port­ing actress in her own life sto­ry. She did what­ev­er peo­ple told her to do.

When King Aha­suerus dethroned his wife, Vashti, he chose Esther, among all the women in his king­dom, as his new queen. It was a dan­ger­ous time to be a Jew. The First Tem­ple in Jerusalem was destroyed, the King­dom of Judah dis­solved, and the Jews were exiled to for­eign lands. In Hebrew, Esther’s name means ​“hid­den.” She kept her Jew­ish her­itage con­cealed, even from her hus­band, the king, as her guardian Mordechai instructed.

Every­thing changed for Esther when the king’s trust­ed advi­sor, Haman, hatched an evil plot to kill all the Jews of the empire in a sin­gle day. The plan threat­ened Esther’s peo­ple and Esther her­self. But she was afraid to approach the king and ask for his pro­tec­tion. He might get angry with her, or worse. She could be put to death!

Esther had a choice. She could con­tin­ue to hide who she real­ly was or reveal her iden­ti­ty to save her peo­ple. Esther asked the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty to fast and pray on her behalf. From this spir­i­tu­al well, she found the courage to face the king and han­dle the evil Haman.

Rather than out­right­ly accus­ing Haman, Esther invit­ed the king and Haman to a ban­quet she pre­pared. In this inti­mate set­ting, she unveiled her Jew­ish iden­ti­ty and Haman’s vile plot. King Aha­suerus, enraged that his advi­sor would kill his loy­al and beloved queen, ordered Haman’s exe­cu­tion and stopped the order against the Jews.

On Purim, Jews cel­e­brate Esther’s courage. As they ful­fill the oblig­a­tion to hear Esther’s sto­ry in the Megillah, they remem­ber the strength hid­den with­in each of us to assume a lead­ing role in the sto­ry of our people.

“If it pleas­es Your Majesty, let my life be grant­ed me as my wish, and my peo­ple as my request.” –Esther 7:3

Excerpt­ed from Chutz­pah Girls: 100 Tales of Dar­ing Jew­ish Women by Julie Sil­ver­stein and Tami Schloss­berg Pruw­er pub­lished by Toby Press.