Oral History Collection

The Nicki Newman Tanner

Oral History Collection

As part of JWA’s mission to expand the narrative of Jewish history, we have collected and recorded hundreds of interviews with leaders, activists, and community members across the United States, documenting their encounters with major events and movements of the 20th and 21st centuries and the many ways that gender, class, place, and religious and ethnic identities have shaped women’s lives. With generous support from Nicki Newman Tanner,  Mass Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, we are proud to make these interviews and transcripts available to the public. All entries include transcripts; audio or video recordings are also available where narrator permissions allow. 

More about the collection

Ruth Abrams

Project
Jewish Experience at Harvard

In this oral history interview, the Honorable Ruth Abrams reflects on her family’s Russian Jewish immigrant roots in Boston, her education in Newton and at Radcliffe and Harvard Law School, and her trailblazing legal career from assistant district attorney to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court while discussing gender discrimination in the legal profession, Jewish identity, civic life, and social change in twentieth-century Massachusetts.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Oral History Collection." (Viewed on August 12, 2026) <https://jwa.org/oralhistories>.