Ellen K. Rothman

Blog Posts

"Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace" Book Cover by Melissa Klapper

Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace

Ellen K. Rothman
Historian Melissa Klapper calls her new book, Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace “a project of documentation and restoration.”
Sammie Moshenberg Speaking at Rally, 2011

Meet Sammie Moshenberg - Mazel Tov!

Ellen K. Rothman

At its gala dinner on Tuesday, the National Council of Jewish Women will honor Sammie Moshenberg, Director of Washington Operations, for 30 years of service in NCJW’s Washington office.

Gerda Lerner, 1981

Saluting Gerda Lerner as Women’s History Month Begins

Ellen K. Rothman

Back in the day (as we now say) when I was an undergraduate at a college that had been educating the country’s elite—all men, of course—for almost 350 years, the first ripples of Second Wave feminism were stirring things up outside the ivy covered walls. Inside, in a classroom filled entirely with women, an untenured (but well-published) female Senior Lecturer was teaching the institution’s first course on women’s history.

Aron Lieb and Susan Kushner Resnick

She Saved Him, Too

Ellen K. Rothman

Susan Kushner Resnick was recovering from post-partum depression after the birth of her second child when she struck up an unlikely friendship with Aron Lieb, a widowed, childless, elderly Holo

National Women's Convention March, November 1977

“Women Who Make America”

Ellen K. Rothman

For the past year, I’ve enjoyed paying regular visits to MAKERS.com, a growing online collection of video interviews with an impressive array of women who have made a mark on the last half century of American history.

Mona Golabek

Making Family Stories into Art

Ellen K. Rothman

This weekend I was lucky enough to see two talented Jewish women make memorable art from their family stories. On Friday night, I went to Club Passim, the legendary folk venue in Harvard Square, to hear one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Lucy Kaplansky. Her set mixed old favorites with songs from her new CD, “Reunion.” The title track tells the story of two family reunions. The first in 1971, when she was 11, began at her grandmother’s bakery and continued at a fancy restaurant. The second “40 years on,” moved her to write “Here we are together/our fathers gone/ just daughters and sons.”

Topics: Holocaust, Music
Woman Holds Sign Reading "Women Belong in the House and the Senate," 2012

Women in Congress: The Good News and the Bad

Ellen K. Rothman

Ten years after the election that resulted in a doubling of the number of women in Congress, the old record of 90 women was broken on Tuesday. Five newcomers will join 15 returning female senators — including two Jewish women from California  — for an all-time high of 20, and there will be at least 77 women in the House (a few races are still undecided) when the 113th Congress convenes in January.

Kayla, Rusty, and the "best sport in the world"

Ellen K. Rothman

When I opened The Boston Globe on Friday morning, I was greeted by a large photo above the fold of a jubilant Kayla Harrison, who had just become the first US judo athlete to win an Olympic gold medal.

Embarrassed and Embarrassing Mothers

Ellen K. Rothman

In a video clip posted on the new website for MAKERS: Women Who Make America, writer Judy Blume remembers embarrassing her mother when she discussed female masturbation on Dr. Ruth’s talk show. “My mother was horrified,” Blume recalls many years later.

Topics: Motherhood

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