Resisting taboos around discussing death, Rochel Udovich Berman has worked to educate people on Jewish funerary practices and encourage them to participate in the mitzvah of caring for the dead.
Barbara Rosberg Frum earned a reputation as one of Canada’s all-time great journalists for her ability to gently pressure interviewees into revealing truths.
For Constance Amberg Sporborg, knowledge was power: she spent decades educating women about their choices, from immigrants at Ellis Island to voters at the ballot boxes.
A social reformer ahead of her time, Bertha Floersheim Rauh initiated dozens of vital services and completely overhauled Pittsburgh’s Department of Public Welfare.
A lifelong New Yorker, Lucy Goldschmidt Moses used her wealth to improve the city she loved, from restoring Central Park’s iconic Bow Bridge to funding the city’s hospitals and medical schools.
Fania Marinoff may have been an actress of stage and screen, but she was best known as a hostess whose home became a major hub for artistic circles in New York.
Both with her husband and in her own right, Edith Altschul Lehman funded endeavors from building schools in Israel to creating a children’s zoo in Central Park.
Alexandra “Aly” Raisman not only won gold and bronze medals for her individual performances at the 2012 Olympics but captained the women’s gymnastic team that won the gold medal that year.
Though her work was largely uncredited and behind the scenes, Lucy Fox Robins Lang contributed greatly to both the labor movement and the anarchist movement as aide and confidante to major figures like Emma Goldman and Samuel Gompers.
Highly unusual for her time, Sara Landau not only made a name for herself as a respected economist, but paired her scholarship with inexhaustible volunteerism both in her community and through national organizations.
Marilyn Hirch brought her knowledge as an art historian and Jewish scholar to her thoughtful illustration and writing of children’s books, including the beloved K’tonton series.
An important benefactress of Brandeis University, Florence Grunsfeld Heller made her mark as one of the first women to run a general Jewish organization, the Jewish Welfare Board.
For twenty-five years, Ruth Bernard Fromenson worked with Hadassah to send supplies to Palestine, from clothes and medical supplies to toys for war orphans.
Miriam Freund-Rosenthal brought her passion for art and history to her leadership of Hadassah, convincing the artist Marc Chagall to create stained glass windows for Hadassah’s medical center in Jerusalem and compiling a history of Hadassah for posterity.
Rose Gruening created a number of social assistance organizations to aid immigrant families, offering practical help that included childcare, funding for college educations, and even a summer camp.
Bessie Goldstein Gotsfeld helped organize American Mizrachi Women (now known as AMIT), pushed for its independence from men’s groups, and made aiding children in Israel a major goal of the organization.
Pauline Goldmark’s talents as a researcher made her indispensable to labor rights initiatives, from investigating the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire to helping lead Columbia University’s School of Social Work.
Jane Brass Fischel created and led organizations to support Jews of all ages, from the Hebrew Children’s Home for orphans to the Home of the Daughters of Jacob, an elder care facility.
Doris Bauman Gold founded Biblio Press to offer Jewish women a better sense of their history and to create a venue for authors of new feminist rituals and prayers.
Known as “Mama G.” and “Mrs. Seminary,” Adele Ginzberg helped her husband, Louis Ginzberg, create a warm atmosphere at the Jewish Theological Seminary and helped lay the groundwork for women’s greater inclusion in Conservative Judaism.