Week of February 18

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February 20, 1916

"New York Times" profile of silent film star, Theda Bara

February 21, 1942

Early music harpsichordist Wanda Landowska plays Bach at New York City's Town Hall

February 22, 1920

"New Orleans Times-Picayune" celebrates 100th birthday of Elizabeth D.A. Cohen, Louisiana's first practicing female physician

February 22, 1993

Judith Kaye is nominated as Chief Judge of New York State Court

February 24, 1912

Founding of Hadassah

 

February 20, 1916

"New York Times" profile of silent film star, Theda Bara

Born Theodosia Goodman on July 22, 1890, Theda Bara had a brief but notable career as the star of dozens of silent films. Raised in Cincinnati, Bara moved to New York City at age 18 to pursue an acting career. Only marginally successful on the stage, she became an overnight sensation when director Frank Powell cast her as the star of A Fool There Was in 1915. In the film, which was based on a stage melodrama that was in turn based on a Rudyard Kipling poem, Bara played a temptress who squeezed money, dignity, and finally life out of men. As the sensuous, cruel seductress, Bara created the original "vamp."

Over the next five years, Bara starred in 40 films, almost always as a "vamp," an exotic woman luring men to ruin. Her films were considered scandalous, and at least one critic advocated censoring them. However, Bara was wildly popular with the public, who flocked to her films. A profile of Bara that appeared in the New York Times on February 20, 1916, reported that 500,000 fans followed Bara everywhere she went. She was said to have received over a thousand marriage proposals from adoring fans. Others named children after her. One critic called her "a clever actress with...a marvelously mobile and expressive face."

Despite Bara's popularity, the Fox studio refused to renew her contract after 1919. The film industry had moved on to a cleaner image of sexuality. Seductresses would abound in later Hollywood films, but without the aura of mystery and menace that had defined Bara's roles. After 1920, Bara starred in only two more films, in 1925 and 1926. Although the 1916 profile predicted that Bara would eventually move to the stage, where she would succeed as "a skillful tragedienne," her acting career ended when film roles disappeared. She died on April 7, 1955. Today, the only surviving Bara film is A Fool There Was, her first success.

Source: Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, pp. 118-120; New York Times, January 24, 1916, February 20, 1916.

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February 21, 1942

Early music harpsichordist Wanda Landowska plays Bach at New York City's Town Hall

Born in Warsaw in 1879, Wanda Landowska studied piano at the Warsaw Conservatory, from which she graduated at age 14. In 1900, she moved to Paris, where she taught piano and performed. In both cities, she devoted herself to learning the harpsichord, an instrument which had all but disappeared from the active classical repertoire. Although Bach, Handel, and others had composed myriad harpsichord pieces, by 1900, virtually no one played the instrument and works written for it were generally transposed for piano. But Landowska was determined to play these works on the original instrument, despite discouragement from musicologists and fellow musicians.

In 1912, Landowska commissioned a harpsichord to be built for her own use; she later transported the instrument all over Europe for her numerous performances. She began to teach harpsichord in Paris and, after a stint in Berlin, opened her own school outside Paris in 1919. Already renowned as a teacher and performer, she made her U.S. debut in 1923, with the Philadelphia Orchestra. After her first New York recital the following year, she found a large following in the U.S. and played often to packed houses. In 1941, forced to flee Nazi-occupied Paris, Landowska and her life partner, Denise Restout, were eventually able to make their way to the United States where they settled permanently.

The following year, on February 21, 1942, Landowska made history with a performance of Bach's "Goldberg Variations" at New York's Town Hall. It was the first time in the 20^th century that the piece, originally written for the harpsichord, was performed publicly on that instrument. It is now a staple of the repertoire. A Landowska student later remembered that hearing that first performance was "like being in front of one of the greatest wonders of nature." Landowska made a similar splash in 1948 with a performance of Bach's complete "Well-Tempered Clavier." Her mastery of the harpsichord inspired not only listeners and students, but also composers, several of whom wrote new harpsichord works especially for her.

In addition to playing and teaching, Landowska also wrote about music. A 1909 book, written with her husband (Henry Lew, who died in 1919), and first published in French, addressed "music of the past." During her years in the U.S., she published frequent essays and book reviews. After her death, some of this material, along with previously unpublished essays, was published as Landowska on Music (1964). In the volume's essays, Landowska wrote about the interpretation of Bach and other music. She also made a passionate case for the role of the individual performer as an interpreter. At a time when many musicians believed that a performer should simply reproduce the notes on the page as closely as possible, Landowska wrote that the performer should, instead, add her own style, combining intuition and knowledge to produce an "ecstasy of music."

Landowska was frequently honored for her work. She received citations from the Charles Cros Academy in France and from the U.S. National Federation of Music Clubs, both recognizing her recordings. France admitted her to the Legion of Honor in 1925, and awarded her the Grand Prix of the Paris Exposition in 1937. Landowska gave her last public performance in 1954. She died in Connecticut in 1959.

Source: New York Times, August 17, 1959; August 23, 1959; December 20, 1964; June 19, 1983; July 10, 1999; www.glbtq.com/arts/landowska_w.html.

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February 22, 1920

"New Orleans Times-Picayune" celebrates 100th birthday of Elizabeth D.A. Cohen, Louisiana's first practicing female physician

Elizabeth D. A. Cohen, who would become the first practicing female physician in Louisiana, was born in New York City on February 22, 1820, the daughter of Phoebe and Magnus Cohen. She married a doctor named Aaron Cohen with whom she had five children. When one of her sons died of measles as a little boy, she determined that she too should become a doctor in order to help mothers care for their children.

When her husband moved to New Orleans to study surgery in 1853, Elizabeth chose to move to Philadelphia where she enrolled in the nation's first medical school for women, the Philadelphia College of Medicine. Upon graduation in 1857, she joined her husband in New Orleans, in time to serve patients during a major outbreak of yellow fever.

Cohen reminisced about her career for two articles about her that appeared in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, one on her 93rd birthday and one on her 100th birthday. She recalled working through two yellow fever epidemics and described "attend[ing] to families through generations." It was hard for Cohen to gain recognition as a doctor. The city directory of 1867 listed her as a midwife. In 1869, she was included as a "doctress." Only in 1876 did the directory finally describe her as a physician. When she was admitted to an old age home, she asked the registrar to "insert M.D. after her name."

Cohen retired from her active practice in 1887 and entered the Jewish community-sponsored Touro Infirmary in 1888 as a resident of the Department of the Aged and Infirm. She took an active volunteer role at Touro, overseeing the sewing and linen room. In her 100th birthday interview in 1920, she demonstrated that she was still attuned to what was going on in the world, noting (in anticipation of the ratification of the 19th amendment that year); "things will be better when women can vote and can protect their own property and their own children. Even if I am a hundred, I'm for votes for women."

Cohen died in New Orleans on May 28, 1921 and was buried in the Gates of Prayer Cemetery on Canal Street.

Source: Catherine Kahn, "Cohen, Elizabeth D.A.," Jewish Women in America: an Historical Encyclopedia, pp. 243-244.

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February 22, 1993

Judith Kaye is nominated as Chief Judge of New York State Court

When Governor Mario Cuomo nominated Judith Kaye for the position of Chief Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals on February 22, 1993, she became the first woman to hold that post. The appointment followed ten years on the bench for Kaye, during which time she was the only female judge on the Court of Appeals.

Born in Monticello, New York, Kaye was educated at Barnard College and New York University. She practiced law in New York City until her appointment to the Court of Appeals. As a judge, Kaye has been noted for ruling that provisions of the State Constitution can be applied when they provide more protection for individual rights than does the United States Constitution.

Kaye has published articles relating to women and law, and—responding to her nomination—publicly urged Governor Cuomo to appoint additional women to the Court. Today, Kaye serves as chair of the Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children and as a member of the board of editors of the New York State Bar Journal. In 2007, Judge Kaye became the first Chief Judge ever to complete a full 14 year term, and was appointed to a second term by Governor Eliot Spitzer on February 7, 2007, confirmed by the Senate on March 6, and sworn in on March 19, 2007.

Sources: New York Times, February 23, 1993; March 18, 1993; www.courts.state.ny.us/ctapps/jkaye.htm.

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February 24, 1912

Founding of Hadassah

On February 24, 1912, 38 women gathered at Temple Emanu-El in New York City to create a new organization called Daughters of Zion. Under the leadership of Henrietta Szold, they hoped to create "a large organization of women Zionists" devoted to "the promotion of Jewish institutions and enterprises in Palestine, and the fostering of Jewish ideals." In 1914, Daughters of Zion, was renamed Hadassah: The Women's Zionist Organization of America. Today Hadassah describes itself as the largest voluntary women's organization and largest Jewish membership organization in the United States.

Dissatisfied by the limited opportunities for women's leadership in the Jewish world and inspired by a 1909 trip to Palestine, Szold determined to create her own organization where women could lead in practical social service work. Szold organized her group according to strict scientific and business principles. Modeling Hadassah after the National Council of Jewish Women, founded in 1893, she adopted a system of local chapters headed by a national office, and insisted that the organization be focused on social service.

Avoiding religious and political controversy, Hadassah recruited women from all streams of Judaism and reached out to non-Zionists as well as Zionists. Stressing woman-to-woman contact on humanitarian and social feminist grounds, the organization grew quickly. From an initial roster of 38 women, the organization grew to 21,000 members in 34 chapters within its first five years. Today it claims more than 300,000 members.

Hadassah turned to health care for its first projects, sending two nurses in 1913 to create a visiting nurse service in Palestine. Hadassah nurses established the region's first pediatric and maternity clinics, and helped to eradicate trachoma. Today, Hadassah supports two major medical centers in Jerusalem, among other endeavors.

Active in health and education issues in the U.S. as well as in Israel, Hadassah has also turned to its roots by sponsoring study groups on Jewish and contemporary topics from stem cell research to Israeli women's fiction. Keeping Szold's example before them, Hadassah members continue to show that women can change the Jewish world.

See also: This Week in History entries for December 21, 1935, and February 13, 1945.

Sources: jwa.org/exhibits/wov/szold/; www.hadassah.org; Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, pp. 571-583; Marlin Levin, It Takes a Dream: The Story of Hadassah (Hewlett, NY, 1997).

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