Narrator from Weaving Women's Words: Baltimore Stories

Shoshana Shoubin Cardin

Known by presidents and prime ministers, Shoshana Shoubin Cardin has achieved iconic status in the world of international Jewish diplomacy. The daughter of chalutzim (pioneers), Shoshana was born in 1926 in Palestine and came to the United States a year later. Raised in a committed Zionist family, Shoshana was an avid student who excelled in both Jewish and general studies. After studying at Johns Hopkins University's McCoy College and UCLA, she taught elementary school and married attorney, Jerry Cardin. They had four children, Steven, Ilene, Nina and Sanford, and were among the first Jews to move to "rural" Baltimore County, just outside the Beltway. Continuing in her parents' footsteps, the Cardin home became a gathering place for family, community and political events. An activist and leader in numerous local organizations, Shoshana also rose through the ranks to become the first woman to lead major, national Jewish organizations: Council of Jewish Federations, United Israel Appeal, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL), the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). A visionary leader, Shoshana was most recently instrumental in creating the Shoshana S. Cardin Jewish Community High School, Baltimore's first transdenominational Jewish high school.


	When I was growing up, the whole atmosphere was Jewish. It was there—you could feel it, you could smell it, you could eat it. You knew if you went into someone's house, you would have a dish that related to a dish you had eaten in your own home. It was 100 percent immersion.
Shoshana Shoubin Cardin Known by presidents and prime ministers, Shoshana Shoubin Cardin has achieved iconic status in the world of international Jewish diplomacy. The daughter of chalutzim (pioneers), Shoshana was born in 1926 in Palestine and came to the United States a year later. Raised in a committed Zionist family, Shoshana was an avid student who excelled in both Jewish and general studies. After studying at Johns Hopkins University's McCoy College and UCLA, she taught elementary school and married attorney, Jerry Cardin. They had four children, Steven, Ilene, Nina and Sanford, and were among the first Jews to move to "rural" Baltimore County, just outside the Beltway. Continuing in her parents' footsteps, the Cardin home became a gathering place for family, community and political events. An activist and leader in numerous local organizations, Shoshana also rose through the ranks to become the first woman to lead major, national Jewish organizations: Council of Jewish Federations, United Israel Appeal, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL), the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). A visionary leader, Shoshana was most recently instrumental in creating the Shoshana S. Cardin Jewish Community High School, Baltimore's first transdenominational Jewish high school.
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© 2004 Jewish Women's Archive. Photograph by Joan Roth