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As a counselor for students at Louisiana State University’s Medical School, Mollie Wallick became an advocate for gay and lesbian students both at the university and in the larger community.
When told she was too young to be a socialist, Anna Strunsky Walling claimed that she’d been born with her passion for socialism as much as she’d been born with her talent for writing.
Barbara Walters became a household name in television journalism for her adept, exclusive interviews with some of the most noted people on the world stage, from Katherine Hepburn and Princess Grace of Monaco to Fidel Castro and Vladimir Putin.
Despite her many years acting on Broadway and with the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre, Zoe Wanamaker may be best known to younger audiences for her role as Madame Hooch in the 2001 film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Frieda Schiff Warburg’s determination to carry on her father’s philanthropic traditions led her to support and shape major Jewish institutions in America and Israel.
Having experienced the sexism rampant in higher education herself, Elga Ruth Wasserman guided Yale through the difficult process of becoming a co-ed university.
In 2014, Rabbi Deborah Waxman became the first woman (and first lesbian) to simultaneously lead both a seminary and a congregational organization as head of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and the Jewish Reconstructionist Communities.
A dedicated activist for women’s rights and racial equality, Gertrude Weil showed that local, small-scale political action could have far-reaching effects.
Called the Harriet Tubman of the Jewish domestic violence movement, Hanna Ruderman Weinberg both helped individuals escape their abusers and consulted on national domestic violence organizations.
A career serving the Jewish Federation brought Jill Weinberg to her life’s work as the first director of the Midwest Regional Office of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Fiction writer Jennifer Weiner made headlines when she challenged book critics for dismissing books by women as “chick lit” but reviewing and honoring books by men on the same topics.
Josephine Stern Weiner’s lifetime of community service culminated in her creation of Women in Community Services (WICS), an umbrella organization that coordinated efforts between Jews and Christians, blacks and whites, at the height of the civil rights movement.
Through her genealogical program Routes to Roots, Miriam Weiner helped Jews access historical records that had survived the Soviet suppression of information throughout Eastern Europe.
When she was elected president of the American Federation of Teachers in 2008, Randi Weingarten became the first openly gay leader of an American national labor union.
Frustrated by friends who didn’t share her passion for the news, Danielle Weisberg joined forces with longtime friend Carly Zakin to create theSkimm, a digital newsletter for millennials.
Trude Weiss-Rosmarin made great advances for women’s involvement in Jewish life through the schools she created and her editorship of the Jewish Spectator.
