| | 
Follow "This Day of Jewish American Heritage" to connect every day in May to significant moments in American Jewish history and to learn about the myriad achievements of American Jewish women in our nation's political, cultural, and spiritual life.
We have created a special badge that can be used to display each day's item on your webpage. You can cut and paste the necessary code from our JAHM Badge Page. If you are on Facebook, don't forget to stop by the Jewish Women's Archive page, install your own copy on the "Jewish American Heritage Month" application, and share it with friends.
May 1, 1916 Labor leaders announce their engagement at May Day Parade
May 2, 1975 AJC publishes bicentennial guidebook by Gladys Rosen
May 3, 2000 Longest-serving federal employee Lillie Steinhorn retires
May 4, 1930 Opera singer Roberta Peters born
May 5, 1900 Birth of Nacha Rivkin, founder of the first U.S. girls' yeshiva
May 6, 1943 Publication of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead"
May 7, 1973 Poet Maxine Kumin wins Pulitzer Prize
May 8, 1942 Poet Muriel Rukeyser receives $1000 literary award
May 9, 1894 Esther Ruskay speaks at founding of NY section of National Council of Jewish Women
May 10, 1992 Singer Sylvia Blagman Syms dies during standing ovation
May 11, 1884 Birth of singer Alma Gluck
May 12, 1985 Amy Eilberg ordained as first female Conservative rabbi
May 13, 1953 Gladys Heldman launches World Tennis Magazine
May 14, 2004 Mayyim Hayyim, a progressive community mikveh, opens
May 15, 1895 Birth of Judaica librarian Fanny Goldstein
May 16, 1999 Angela Warnick Buchdahl invested as first Asian-American cantor
May 17, 1874 Yiddish theatre star Bertha Kalich born
May 18, 1921 Lily Winner publishes a defense of open immigration in the The Nation
May 19, 1974 Sandy Sasso ordained as first female Reconstructionist rabbi
May 20, 1989 Death of comedian Gilda Radner at 42
May 21, 1907 Atlantic City hotel apologizes to Bertha Rayner Frank for anti-Jewish discrimination
May 22, 1899 Clara de Hirsch Home for Working Girls opens
May 23, 2004 Susan Sontag publishes last essay
May 24, 1982 Carol Gilligan publishes In a Different Voice
May 25, 1929 Birth of opera star Beverly Sills
May 26, 1910 Political trailblazer Belle Moskowitz wins passage of bill regulating of NY dance halls
May 27, 1935 Activist Clara Shavelson leads butcher shop boycott
May 28, 1858 Birth of Settlement Cookbook author, Lizzie Black Kander
May 29, 1921 Birth of choreographer Pearl Lang
May 30, 1868 Racy actress, Adah Isaacs Menken, appears in last performance
May 31, 1911 Birth of multi-talented Ruth Hagy Brod
| |
-
"The New Colossus" by poet Emma Lazarus has become synonymous with the promise of America embodied by the Statue of Liberty.
-
The Statue of Liberty was a symbol of the promise and paradox of American liberty to anarchist activist Emma Goldman. For immigrants and Holocaust refugees though it was a symbol of hope.
-
In 1909, young female Jewish activists, some wearing banners like this, lobbied for attention to the needs of immigrant workers. A strike by NYC garment workers, known as the Uprising of the 20,000, set off a series of strikes nationwide, bringing the demands of women workers to the national agenda. Lady Liberty's Yiddish sash reads “Down with Slavery.”
-
Barbra Streisand's movie Yentl brought together American musical theater which made Steisand a star with an imagined Jewish historical (and feminist) past.
-
Learn more about Jewish women in American history.
-
Take some time to learn about and celebrate Jewish American Heritage from people in your own life!
-
Oral history narratives are one of the best ways to capture the changing meaning of ritual practice in the lives of American Jewish women.
-
In every era, Jewish immigrants to America have had to reconcile the cultural expectations with which they grew up to the radically different cultural contexts of American life.
-
American Jewish cooking reflects both the recipes and traditions that immigrants carried with them as well as adjustments and innovations they have made in America.
Follow the links to explore the rich history of American Jewish women.
What connects the Statue of Liberty with Emma Lazarus? Immigration and patriotism with labor protests? Musical theatre and domestic ritual with potato kugel and halvah? You guessed it: Jewish American Heritage!
This portrayal of the Statue of Liberty shows her adorned with a banner modeled on one from a famous image taken at a May Day parade in 1909. The Yiddish lettering proclaims, "Down with Slavery," capturing Jewish involvement in the struggle for social justice and embodying Emma Lazarus's declaration that "until we are all free, we are none of us free." The Jewish Women's Archive celebrates Jewish American Heritage Month in honor of the legacy of American Jewish women and the country that they struggled to create.
About Jewish American Heritage Month
Jewish American Heritage Month was established in 2006 by President George W. Bush as a result of devoted advocacy by Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and with the co-sponsorship of Senator Arlen Specter. The Jewish Women's Archive invites you to celebrate May and every month of the year by using the resources on our website to highlight American Jewish heritage and the achievements of American Jewish women. You can order your own copies of JWA's Jewish American Heritage Statue of Liberty postcard to send to friends, loved ones, and mere acquaintances.
For this third annual celebration, the Jewish Women's Archive, in cooperation with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), has launched This Day of Jewish American Heritage, a daily online feature that connects every day in May to significant moments in American Jewish history. The month of May encompasses a broad range of achievements of American Jewish women including: 19th century stage performer Adah Isaacs Menken, Beverly Sills, Ayn Rand, labor activist Bessie Abramowitz Hillman, pioneering political advisor Belle Moskowitz, and comedian Gilda Radner. Learn about their lives!
More Jewish American Heritage Month resources can be found at:
See also
Stories:
Heroes:
Resources:
|
