The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women

Features thousands of biographic and thematic essays on Jewish women around the world. Learn more

Melissa R. Klapper

Melissa R. Klapper is Professor of History and Director of Women’s & Gender Studies at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. She is the author of Jewish Girls Coming of Age in America, 1860-1920 (NYU, 2005), Small Strangers: The Experiences of Immigrant Children in the United States, 1880-1925 (Ivan R. Dee, 2007), and Ballet Class: An American History (Oxford, 2020). Her book Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women’s Activism, 1890-1940 (NYU, 2013) won the National Jewish Book Award in Women’s Studies

Blog Posts

Florence Prag Kahn
August 6, 2020

Jewish Women and the Afterlife of the Suffrage Movement

Melissa R. Klapper

What did Jewish suffragists do after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment?

Articles by this author

Officers of the National Woman's Party, 1922

Suffrage in the United States

American Jewish women were heavily involved in the suffrage movement from its earliest days, though mostly as individuals rather than through organizations. Middle-class Jewish women believed the vote was necessary to achieve their broader reform goals, while working-class women hoped enfranchisement would improve their working conditions and economic opportunities. By the time the Nineteenth Amendment finally passed in 1919 the American Jewish community overwhelmingly supported it.

Bessie Louise Moses, circa 1922

Bessie Louise Moses

Gynecologist, professor, and contraceptive pioneer Bessie Louise Moses spent a long professional life as a public health advocate and women’s health specialist. She founded the first birth control clinic in Baltimore, organized clinics throughout Maryland, and lectured and wrote a book promoting contraception to the public.

Florence Bamberger

Educational administrator, professor, and author Florence Bamberger devoted her life and career to developing and implementing her progressive views on teaching. Her commitment to supervisory models of pedagogy continues to influence schools of education today.

How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Melissa R. Klapper." (Viewed on September 25, 2023) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/klapper-melissa>.

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