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I was a very good legislator—very effective and aggressive. My first year in the House of Delegates, one of the men said to me, "You know, when you get up to speak, we forget you are a woman." |
Senator Rosalie Silber AbramsThe first Jewish woman elected to the Maryland State Senate, Rosalie Silber Abrams was an energetic and activist legislator who oversaw the passage of nearly 300 bills during her seventeen-year career in the Maryland General Assembly. Born in 1916, Rosalie's early life revolved around her family's business, Silber's Bakery, a beloved Baltimore institution famous for its rye bread, peach cake and chocolate-topped cookies. Rosalie obtained business and nursing degrees before managing Silber's from 1947 to 1953. She then married William Abrams, had daughter Elizabeth in 1954, and was an at-home mom until running for the House of Delegates in 1966. In 1970, Rosalie was elected to the State Senate, departing in 1983 to become Director of the Maryland Office of Aging until her retirement in 1996. Recognized for her outstanding leadership, Rosalie was awarded a First Citizen Award by the Maryland State Senate. Rosalie has been a strong social activist throughout her life, marching for women's equal rights, protesting the Vietnam War, and working to legalize abortion. Rosalie Abrams died on February 27, 2009. | |
| © 2004 Jewish Women's Archive. Photograph by Joan Roth | |