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Zionism

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Rosa Ginossar

Rosa Ginossar’s determined lobbying of the British Authority in Palestine won women the right to practice law in Israel.

Karen Gershon

Writer and poet Karen Gershon escaped the Holocaust by being sent to England on the Kindertransport. Her best-known book, We Came as Children (1966), documented the collective experiences of refugee children and established her literary reputation in England. Her introspective poetry often reflects on her family and the Holocaust.

Ruth Gay

Through her writing, Ruth Glazer Gay captured an engaging view of the Jewish community, both past and present. As a writer, journalist, and archivist, she demonstrated throughout her life the possibility of having an intellectually vibrant career while still accommodating marriage and motherhood.

Sylva Gelber

Sylva Gelber dedicated her life to social work, labor politics, and women’s rights. She was the first student to enroll in Henrietta Szold’s School of Social Work in Jerusalem after immigrating to Palestine in 1932. When she returned to Canada in 1948, Gelber became nationally recognized as as a political advocate for women’s rights.

Mamie Gamoran

Mamie Goldsmith Gamoran combated assimilation in America by writing children’s books on Jewish history and holidays that encouraged children to feel proud of their dual identities as Jews and Americans. Gamoran served as a volunteer for Hadassah and as both a national board member and vice president of Histadrut Ivriot of America, an organization that promoted the Hebrew language.

Dora Gad

Dora Gad (1912-2003) was a prominent Israeli architect and interior designer. In the early decades of Israel's statehood, Gad played a key role in designing projects for the newly established national institutions in Israel. In 1966, she received the Israel Prize in architecture, the first woman to have ever received this prize.

Frieda Fromm-Reichmann

Frieda Fromm-Reichman was a German-American psychiatrist best known for her innovations in the psychotherapeutic treatment of schizophrenics and manic-depressive patients previously deemed unsuitable for psychoanalysis. Towards the end of her life, Fromm-Reichman received international recognition for her creative and insightful contributions to psychotherapy.

Ruth Bernard Fromenson

Ruth Bernard Fromenson was an early twentieth-century Zionist and Jewish communal worker who volunteered extensively within Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.

Charlotte Friend

Cell biologist and immunologist Charlotte Friend discovered a virus that could transmit leukemia and made major contributions to our understanding of cancer and its causes. She served as director of the Center for Experimental Cell Biology at Mount Sinai Medical School, and later as the president of the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association for Cancer Research.

Miriam Freund-Rosenthal

Miriam Freund-Rosenthal brought her passion for art and history to her leadership of Hadassah. Among other leadership positions, she served as the national president from 1956 to 1960.

Recha Freier

German-born Recha Freier founded Youth Aliyah in 1933, which assisted in sending Jewish European teenagers to Palestine prior to World War II to be trained as agricultural pioneers on kibbutzim. Although she was responsible for saving the lives of many thousands of Jewish youth, Freier’s efforts were not officially acknowledged until 1975, when she was eighty-three years old.

Lillian Freiman

Lillian Freiman was unquestionably the most prominent Jewish woman in Canada in the interwar period. Freiman was exemplary for her degree of independent social activism and devotion to an array of Jewish and non-Jewish social causes.

Lee Weiss Frank

Lee Weiss Frank worked as a reporter and radio show host, was involved in the Women’s International League for Peace, and was a prominent public figure in Philadelphia. Her legacy extends beyond her community work and journalism, as she was a prolific artist painting in oil and in watercolor.

Modern France

From the French Revolution to the twenty-first century, Jewish women in France have undergone radical legal, political, cultural, and religious transformations. Seizing upon the increasing number of opportunities available to them, both as Jews and as women, Jewish women have left their marks on all areas of French society.

Sarah Feiga Meinkin Foner

Born into a family that encouraged her love of Jewish learning, Sarah Foner asked to learn Hebrew when she was only five years old and published her first novel in her twenties. During her lengthy writing career, Foner’s publications often reflected her interest in Jewish and women’s issues and centered notably independent female characters.

Gisi Fleischmann

Gisi Fleischmann was a steadfast and brave fighter in the underground resistance to Nazism during World War II. Many times, she refused to escape Slovakia to safety and instead chose to stay and fight for her people to the bitter end.

Janette Fishenfeld

Janette Fishenfeld was a Brazilian author, columnist, and Zionist. In her works, she portrayed a nuanced, complex view of the Brazilian Jewish community and advocated for the Zionist cause.

Paulette Weill Oppert Fink

After Paulette Fink’s husband, serving in the French Army, escaped capture, Fink and her family fled to the unoccupied zone of France and joined the Resistance, hiding Jewish children and helping them escape. Despite her husband’s death, Fink continued working with the Resistance and the Jewish Brigade. When the war ended, she continued her work with refugees before settling in Minneapolis.

Sylvia Fine

Humorous composer Sylvia Fine created unique and influential music in her partnership with Danny Kaye. Fine wrote over 100 songs for Kaye to perform, including the music for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Inspector General, and On the Riviera. She taught musical comedy at the University of Southern California and Yale and made philanthropic contributions to universities and Jewish organizations.

Sheila Finestone

Senator Sheila Finestone was an important figure in Canadian parliamentary history, founding the Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians for the Inter-Parliamentary Union. She took up issues including human rights and served as president of the Quebec Federation of Women. A cornerstone of Canadian Jewish history, Finestone dedicated her life to advocacy and activism.

Bobbi Fiedler

When Los Angeles announced plans in 1976 to desegregate schools by busing students, Bobbi Fielder was inspired to enter politics. She served on the Los Angeles Board of Education, where she quickly overturned the busing initiative, and subsequently served three terms in the House of Representatives. After losing a Senate race, Fielder withdrew from politics and became a consultant.

Mary Fels

Mary Fels used her wealth and her talents to further the Zionist cause, arguing passionately for a Jewish state and helping create both settlements and industry in Israel. Both Fels and her husband, a successful soap manufacturer, felt their wealth gave them a responsibility to reform capitalism and use their money for philanthropy.

Sara Rivka Feder-Keyfitz

A childhood friend of Golda Meir, Sara Feder-Keyfitz grew up to be a significant Zionist and feminist leader in her own right. From 1951 to 1955, she served as the national president of Pioneer Women

Rokhl Faygnberg (Imri)

Rokhl Faygnberg witnessed many of the defining events of modern Jewish history in her life, which took her from her shtetl to Israel. She was one of few women to establish herself as a professional Jewish writer and journalist, first in Yiddish and then in Hebrew, and in so doing was often outspoken, polemical, and controversial.

Sara N. Evans

Sara Nachamson Evans served as the “first lady” of Durham, North Carolina, from 1951 to 1963. Known affectionately as “Miz Evans” by her friends and family, she was a prominent local, regional, and national leader of Hadassah.

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