Holocaust

Content type
Collection

Episode 82: When Jewish Women Talked to the Dead

In this season of ghosts and haunted houses, we’re taking you back to a time when communicating with the dead was a popular way to spend an evening. Séances were the main practice of the spiritualist movement, which is based on the belief that when people die, they survive as spirits, and that we can talk to these spirits with the help of a medium. The movement had its heyday in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Jews all over the world, from London to Brooklyn to Cairo, were at the forefront. Scholar Sam Glauber-Zimra explains why spiritualism had such appeal among Jews, what rabbis had to say about it, and why Jewish women were prominent as mediums. 

Mental Maps—Involuntary Memory by Penny Hes Yassour

From the Archive: Penny Yassour, "Mental Maps—Involuntary Memory"

Deborah Dash Moore
Mimi Jessica Brown Wooten

The Posen Library shares Penny Hes Yassour's depiction of a 1938 German railway map.

Ilona Friedman

Project
General

Isadora Kianovsky interviewed Ilona Friedman on July 30, 2022, in Tampa, Florida, as part of the Jewish Women’s Archive General Oral History Project. Friedman discusses her childhood in Budapest, her family's experiences during World War II, immigration to the United States, her education and career in the medical field, her relationship to Judaism and music, her travels to Israel and Russia, and recent volunteer work.

Blanche Narodick

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Blanche Narodick on June 6, 2001, in Seattle, Washington for the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Narodick reflects on her childhood, education, professional life in Chicago, marriage, involvement with Jewish organizations, experiences during World War Two, work with the American Red Cross, friendships, and personal philosophy on life.

Anne Levy

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Anne Levy on November 14, 2006, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Oral History Project. Levy shares her journey from surviving the Holocaust to settling in New Orleans, her experiences during Hurricane Katrina, the devastation of the city, and her enduring connection to Judaism, family, and New Orleans.

Madeleine Kunin

Project
DAVAR: Vermont Jewish Women's History Project

Ann Zinn Buffum and Sandra Stillman Gartner interviewed Madeleine Kunin on May 1, 2006, in Burlington, Vermont, as part of DAVAR's Oral History Project. Kunin shares her journey from Switzerland to the United States, her career in journalism, her involvement in Vermont politics as the first woman governor, and her role in education under the Clinton administration.

Aviva Kempner

Project
Washington D.C. Stories

Deborah Ross interviewed Aviva Kempner on February 13, 2001, in Washington, DC, as part of the Washington D.C. Stories Oral History Project. Kempner recounts how she came to be a filmmaker, and her connection to Judaism, to Israel, and to the greater Washington D.C. Jewish community.

Ruth Jungster Frankel

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Ruth Jungster Frankel on August 7 and 15, 2001, in Seattle, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women’s Words project. Frankel reflects on her experiences growing up in Germany, witnessing Hitler's rise to power, immigrating to the United States, involvement at Temple Herzi, her husband's Alzheimer's, and her engagement in Jewish camps, trips to Israel, and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Cecillia Etkin

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Pamela Brown Lavitt interviewed Cecillia Etkin on June 14 and August 1, 2001, at her home in Seattle, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women's Words project. Etkin discusses her childhood in Romania, her experiences in concentration camps, her work as a "mikveh lady," and her role in educating youth about the Holocaust, highlighting her resilience and dedication to preserving Jewish traditions and supporting her community.

Molly Cone

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Roz Bornstein interviewed Molly Cone on May 22, 2001, in Seattle, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women’s Words Oral History Project. Cone recounts her family's immigration history, childhood in Tacoma, Washington, feeling different as a minority, education, writing career, marriage, raising children, Jewish holidays, and her passion for travel, including visits to Israel.

Frieda Piepsch Sondland

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Roz Bornstein interviewed Frieda Sondland on May 1 and 17, 2001, in Mercer Island, Washington, as part of the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Frieda recounts her family's escape from Nazi Germany, their journey to South America, and their eventual settlement in Seattle, highlighting community involvement, and the challenges of parenting and aging.

Sara Stone

Project
Katrina's Jewish Voices

Rosalind Hinton interviewed Sara Stone on February 7, 2008, in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of the Katrina's Jewish Voices Project. Stone details her early life, activism in the Jewish community of the South, experiences of prejudice, organizing the Women's Division of the Jewish Welfare Fund, and her resilience in the face of personal tragedy and Hurricane Katrina.

Berlin "Stumbling Stone" to commemorate Holocaust victim with rose and sign reading "never again" placed on top

I Visited Six European Jewish Communities to Explore My Own Identity

Zia Saylor

My travels in Europe helped me reconcile some of the tensions in my Jewish identity.

Cartoon of woman in front of her painting, look at camera

A New Film About Charlotte Salomon Strips Her Soul from Her Art

Amelia Merrill

What could have been an innovative look at a forgotten artist instead becomes another cookie-cutter biopic.

Topics: Painting, Holocaust, Film
Liz Kleinrock Instagram Still (with Brené Brown quote "if you're not in the arena also getting your ass kicked, I'm not interested in your opinion"

Learning Asian Jewish History Helped Me Make Space for Both My Identities

Liz Kleinrock

In learning the rich history of Jews in Asia, I finally found a sense of belonging.

Two black-and-white photos of girls

Czarna, Reimagined

Julie Zuckerman

A previous essay for JWA leads Julie Zuckerman to a long-lost relative and opens a door to her family’s past.

Episode 75: Eleanor Reissa's Invisible Birthmark

After a career spent telling other people's stories, Eleanor Reissa has finally uncovered her own. It started with 56 letters she found in a drawer while cleaning out her late mother's apartment. They were letters from her father to her mother, just a few years after they had both survived World War II. The letters sent Eleanor on a search to retrace her family history in Europe, which she chronicles in her new memoir, The Letters Project: A Daughter's Journey. In this episode of Can We Talk?, Nahanni Rous talks with Eleanor about how her life has been defined by being the daughter of people who lived through the Holocaust.

Fritzie Fritzshall Headshot

A Tale of Kindness and Survival

Marissa Wojcik

The women in Auschwitz helped Fritzie survive. She repaid them by telling their stories.

Topics: Holocaust, Recipes
Collage with Image of Gisella Perl

Lessons From Gisella Perl, Reflections on the Texas Abortion Ban

Sarah Gorbatov

Holocaust survivor and doctor Gisella Perl's story has long been unsung; learning her story can serve all of us in our struggle for reproductive rights today.

Baroness Germaine de Rothschild

A member of one of France’s most privileged Jewish families, Germaine de Rothschild (née Halphen) was a noted philanthropist, accomplished musician, author of two books, and mother of four. Most significantly, she orchestrated France’s Kindertransport efforts, helping provide refuge to between 350 and 450 Jewish children.

Episode 69: Dara Horn: People Love Dead Jews

Dara Horn’s new book is a departure from her usual imaginative fiction. It’s a collection of essays provocatively titled People Love Dead Jews. She also has a companion podcast called Adventures with Dead Jews. In both, Dara explores the subtler side of antisemitism, in which the role Jews play in the non-Jewish imagination has little to do with real Jewish lives.

Molly Yeh and Marissa Wojcik

How a Celebrity Chef Helped Me Connect with My Mixed Heritage

Marissa Wojcik

Celebrity chef Molly Yeh inspired me to share my Jewish fusion recipes with the world.

Arielle Beth Klein performance.

Writing a One-Woman Show Re-Connected Me with My Jewish Heritage

Arielle Beth Klein

Writing a play about being a bad Jew helped me become a better one. 

Donate

Help us elevate the voices of Jewish women.

donate now

Get JWA in your inbox

Read the latest from JWA from your inbox.

sign up now