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Gilda Radner

A gifted comedian, Gilda Radner made a name for herself as one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live. Throughout her comedic career, she often drew inspiration from her Jewish upbringing, thereby achieving a significant breakthrough in Jewish women’s visibility on television.

Irna Phillips

Irna Phillips created hugely popular soap operas for radio and television and introduced plotlines that shaped the format of many soaps that followed.

Molly Picon

A lively comic actress, Molly Picon brought Yiddish theater to a wider American audience. She acted in the first Yiddish play ever performed on Broadway and insisted on performing in Yiddish on a 1932 tour of Palestine. Filming on location in Poland, on the eve of World War II, Picon captured a view of shtetl life soon to be erased by the Holocaust.

Bess Myerson

When Bess Myerson encountered anti-Semitism as the first Jewish Miss America, she used her new-found fame to fight hatred through the Anti-Defamation League. Myerson stayed close to the Jewish tradition and people throughout her career, always presenting herself as a Jewish public figure.

Frances Horwich

Frances Horwich was loved by parents and children alike for her educational television show, Ding Dong School, which taught millions of children how to finger paint, grow plants, and do craft projects with household objects such as pipe cleaners and paper plates. She ended up writing 27 Ding Dong School books and two books for parents, as well as winning several awards over her career.

Goldie Hawn

After beginning her career as a dancer, Goldie Hawn won many awards for her critically acclaimed acting performances. She has been one of the most successful women in Hollywood and, since executive producing Private Benjamin in 1980, she has continued to produce films with her own production company.

Ruth Westheimer

Ruth Westheimer, who lost her entire family in the Holocaust, served in the Haganah, and received her Ed.D. from Columbia University, was an unlikely candidate for the role of host of a cheerful talk show about sex. However, her celebration of human sexuality, derived from Orthodox Judaism, has made her an influential and highly successful proponent of joyful, responsible sex from the 1980s into the third decade of the twenty-first century.

Wendy Wasserstein

In 1989, Wendy Wasserstein won the Pulitzer Prize for The Heidi Chronicles and was the first woman playwright to win a Tony Award. After graduating from the MFA program at the Yale School of Drama, in which she was the only woman, Wasserstein wrote countless dramas, three musicals, various comedy skits for television, and a series of essays published in the New Yorker, Esquire, and Harper’s Bazaar.

Zoe Wanamaker

Zoë Wanamaker is one of Britain’s most enduringly popular and talented actors. The recipient of numerous awards for both her stage and television work, she is known to millions of cinemagoers worldwide for her role as Madam Hooch in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001).

Barbara Jill Walters

Barbara Walters has probably interviewed more statesmen and stars than any other journalist in history. A list of her numerous and timely TV interviews, both on the weekly newsmagazine 20/20 and on The Barbara Walters Specials, reads like a "Who's Who" of newsmakers.

Wilma Shore

Wilma Shore was a writer and teacher most active between the 1940s and the 1960s. She lived at various times in Los Angeles and New York City, settling finally in New York City. Involved with left-wing political activity, she and her husband were blacklisted during the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings.

Dinah Shore

Dinah Shore, the quintessential American girl, was both America’s sweetheart in the 1940s and 1950s and a leading example of an independent woman in the 1970s. Her career as a singer and actress spanned over forty years and included stints on the radio and in the movies. Shore won nine Emmys, a Peabody, and a Golden Globe.

Vivienne Segal

A talented singer/actor and superb comedian, Vivienne Segal enjoyed a lengthy career. She was best known for her role as Vera Simpson, the older woman in love with the “heel,” Joey (played by Gene Kelly), in the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey.

Sallyann Amdur Sack

Sallyann Amdur Sack, an American genealogist and psychologist, founded many innovations in contemporary Jewish genealogy. She graduated from Harvard University (Phi Beta Kappa) and received her doctorate from George Washington University and was a clinical psychologist until the early 2020s.

Betty Ross

Betty Ross was a journalist known for her international purview and interviews with celebrities. In the mid-1920s she traveled extensively through Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Russia, gathering materials and interviewing celebrities. She was among the first journalists to conduct radio interviews.

Roseanne

Roseanne Barr shattered stereotypes of femininity and motherhood with her raunchy, iconoclastic comedy. Her hit sitcom Roseanne highlighted the lives of blue-collar workers and housewives, winning her multiple awards and recognition.

Hannah Toby Rose

As supervisor of education at the Brooklyn Museum, Hannah Toby Rose revolutionized how museums interacted with the public, from teaching art and art history classes in the galleries to lending video and audio recordings to enrich visitors’ experiences.

Luise Rainer

By the age of 27, Luise Rainer had become the first person to win two back-to-back Oscars. By her early thirties, her Hollywood phase had ended, and she proceeded to fight for political causes, support the war effort, and take occasional roles on television.

Lilli Palmer

After fleeing Nazi Germany, Lilli Palmer pursued her acting career in Paris, London, Hollywood, and New York. In the 1950s, she returned to Germany, becoming celebrated once again in her home country. Palmer was not only a prominent actor in numerous successful plays, films and television programs, but also a painter and an author of both fiction and non-fiction.

Carmel Myers

Born in San Francisco, California, actress and entertainer Carmel Myers acted in over seventy films, was an early television talk-show host, led a production company that packaged radio and television shows, held a patent for an electronic synchronizer that controlled studio lights, and imported and distributed French perfume.

Portrayals of Women in Israeli Media

Representations of women in a variety of Israeli media, such as advertising, news, and entertainment, reflect and perpetuate the marginality of women in Israeli society. While representations have diversified over the years, showing Israeli women in more varied professional roles and enjoying sexual freedom and independence, overall the gender inequity remains and women are still marginalized in Israeli media.

Women Journalists in Israel

Despite social barriers, Jewish women have played an essential role in the creation and propagation of news and journalism in Israel. With the advent of women’s magazines and the popularization of television, women became particularly involved in the news industry. However, while the numbers of female Israeli journalists have increased, women journalists still face gender-based discrimination. In recent years, many have become vocal members of women’s rights movements such as #MeToo and advocates for a more equitable future.

Shari Lewis

Shari Lewis won twelve Emmy awards for her children’s programming, which featured puppets on variety shows and children’s shows. She had several TV shows, including the Shari Lewis Show and Lamb Chop’s Play-Along, and earned some of the industry’s highest honors, including a Peabody Award.

Linda Lavin

A prolific performer on stage and small screen, actor-singer Linda Lavin has been a role model for many of America’s working women. While her Jewish heritage has not always been the focus of her career, she has powerfully portrayed Jewish women whenever the roles have come her way—which they increasingly do.

Mariana Kroutoiarskaia

Mariana Kroutoiarskaia was a talented Russian composer and music producer who dedicated her entire life to music, film, and television. Kroutoiarskaia worked as a music editor for Russian television, a lecturer, and a composer for many films. She also supervised the arrangement and publication of music for children by various composers.

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