Events
Online History Course: Jewish Women's Protest in the U.S.
This fall, join JWA and Central Synagogue for a deep dive into the protests of Jewish women, who have fought for change from factory floors to college campuses to legislative sessions. Learn with four leading scholars as they show how Jewish women’s voices and actions reshaped our cultural and political landscape. Register here.
Thursday, Nov 14, 8 PM ET—Tamar W. Carroll, Jewish Women’s Protest in the 20th Century
Jewish women have been involved in myriad forms of protest on countless social and political issues over the last century. What tactics have they taken, and how have different movements influenced each other? This talk will provide some snapshots of different approaches to social change Jewish women have pursued in the United States.
Tamar W. Carroll is Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Rochester Institute of Technology. Among other works, she is the author of Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty, and Feminist Activism and the co-curator of “Whose Streets? Our Streets!”: New York City, 1980-2000.
Thursday, Nov 21, 8 PM ET—Annelise Orleck, Jewish Women and Labor Activism
Jewish women were at the heart of the labor movement in the U.S. From the picket line to the stage, their protests for fair wages, decent working conditions, and equal pay created change for American workers and shaped both labor and women's movements for years to come.
Annelise Orleck teaches U.S. history, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. She is the author of five books on the history of women, labor, immigration and poor people's movements. Among them are two works primarily on Jewish subjects: Common Sense and a Little Fire: Women and Working-Class Politics in the United States and Soviet Jewish Americans.
Thursday, Dec 5, 8 PM ET—Samira K. Mehta, Jewish Women and the Fight for Reproductive Justice
What roles did Jewish women play in the fight for abortion and birth control? How have they advocated for reproductive freedom in the years since Roe v. Wade? Learn about how their protest and activism have shaped the struggle for reproductive justice in the U.S in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Samira K. Mehta is Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies and Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she also serves as the Director of Jewish Studies. She is the author of Beyond Chrismukkah: The Christian-Jewish Interfaith Family in the United States, The Racism of People Who Love You: Essays on Mixed Race Belonging, and God Bless the Pill: Contraception and Sexuality in American Religion.
Thursday, Dec. 12, 8 PM ET—Jillian M. Hinderliter, Jewish Women and the Women’s Health Movement
Drawing directly from archival collections and feminist publications from the 1970s, Jillian Hinderliter will explore how American Jewish women helped create the women's health movement and the role Jewish identity played in shaping their health activism.
Jillian M. Hinderliter is Assistant Professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and the Moses M. and Hannah L. Malkin Fellow in Jewish History and Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She teaches courses on Jewish women in America since 1654, feminist thought, and women’s health activism in the twentieth-century United States.
January Book Talks
Join JWA on Thursdays, January 16-30, at 8 PM ET for exciting conversations with innovative authors. Register here.
Thursday, Jan 16, 8 PM ET—Anya Liftig, Holler Rat: A Memoir
Anya Liftig grew up with her feet in two very different worlds. While her mother's upbringing was so rural that the other kids called her "holler rat," her father came from a comfortable, upper-middle-class Jewish family. A funny, vivid, and heartbreaking memoir about forging identity in the chasm between cultures and classes.
Thursday, Jan 23, 8 PM ET—Maira Kalman, Still Life with Remorse
Maira Kalman uses her signature wit and tenderness to reveal how family history plays an influential role in all of our work, lives, and perspectives. Still Life with Remorse illuminates the powerful universal truths in our most personal family stories.
Thursday, Jan 23, 8 PM ET—Rachel Somerstein, Invisible Labor: The Untold Story of the Cesarean Section
An incisive yet personal look at the science and history of the most common surgery performed in America—the cesarean section—and an exposé on the disturbing state of maternal medical care.
