Subject Guide: Women's Suffrage and Liberation

Bernard C. Ehrenreich papers (P-26) [Digitized]

Papers belonging to Bernard C. Ehrenreich, a rabbi in Montgomery, Alabama & Stockton, California. His wife, Irma Bock Ehrenreich, was a strong supporter of the women's rights movement. Of note: Folder 2, Box 3 of this collection includes an excellent selection of materials printed by the National American Women's Suffrage Association, from 1913-1914 and later. 

Henriette Fürth Collection (AR 11227) [Digitized]

Henriette Fürth (nee Katzenstein), was an author, social worker, politician, and feminist with a lifelong involvement in social projects and women's rights. This collection contains both photocopies of material created during her life and documents about her created after her death are represented.  

Henriette Goldschmidt Autographs Collection (AR 2905) [Digitized]

The collection contains a handwritten curriculum vitae by Henriette Goldschmidt detailing her work as an educator and women's rights activist; and four handwritten and signed letters and postcards from Goldschmidt to Rosalie Perles, two of which discuss the opening of a high school for women in Leipzig that Goldschmidt founded. 

Lilli Liegner Collection (AR 1228) [Digitized]

The Lilli Liegner Collection focuses on the work of the Jüdischer Frauenbund in Breslau but also holds some material on the history of the related Liegner and Rawicz families as well as a few personal papers of Lilli Liegner. 

Margarete Berent Collection (AR 2861) [Digitized]

Margarete Berent was born in Berlin in 1887 and was to become the first female lawyer in Prussia. After schooling in Berlin, she studied law and received her doctorate magna cum laude in 1914, writing her dissertation on the “Die Zugewinngemeinschaft der Ehegatten” which became the basis for the reformation of the inheritance laws in Germany in 1958. Nevertheless, women were not allowed to take the bar or become lawyers until 1919. Once they were permitted, she quickly took the bar, passed, and established her own practice. In addition to her legal work she was very active in feminist circles and a member of numerous feminist associations and societies.

Marie Schloss Collection (AR 11815) [Digitized]

Marie Schloss made her name as an author, journalist, and a fighter for civil (specifically women’s) rights. This collection contains two unpublished biographies about the author, journalist and feminist Marie Haas Schloss.

National Council of Jewish Women collection (AR 6301) [Digitized]

The National Council of Jewish Women was founded in 1893 by Hannah Greenebaum Solomon, making it the oldest Jewish women’s volunteer organization in America. The collection contains case files (containing correspondence, handwritten notes, application forms, documents, and affidavits) in addition to general correspondence, speeches, brochures, and newspaper clippings from the Immigration and Naturalization Office of the National Council of Jewish Women, Worcester Section, regarding assistance provided to Jewish immigrants and permanent residents seeking citizenship from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Ray Frank Litman (1861-1848) papers (P-46) [Digitized]

This collection consists of papers of Ray (Rachel) Frank, the first Jewish woman to preach formally from a pulpit in the United States. It contains correspondence relating to her personal life and activities as an author and lecturer, programs, and printed and manuscript copies of sermons, speeches, and writings by Frank. There is also a scrapbook (1879-1901) of newspaper clippings of articles by and about Frank, reflecting her view on women's suffrage, Judaism, and other topics. 

Records of the National Council of Jewish Women, New York Section (I-469)

These records document the New York Section of the National Council of Jewish Women's early history through approximately 2004, representing a significant portion of the Section's work and impact in community programming and advocacy, as well as its supporting administrative, fundraising, membership, and public relations activities. As a section of the National Council, its records also include a substantial amount of material regarding the National Organization's programs, events, publications, and reports, dating from 1896 through 1999.

Ruth Abusch-Magder papers (P-841)

Papers document Abusch-Magder's involvement in Jewish student and Jewish feminist groups. Included is Abusch-Magder's senior Bachelors of Arts thesis written for Bernard College titled "The First National Jewish Women's Conference: a Study of the Early Jewish Feminist Movement" and a Jewish Feminist Resource Book that Abusch-Magder compiled with Abigail Weinberg from various published sources. Articles within the Jewish Feminist Sourcebook relate to abortion, anti-Semitism, Arab women's liberation, domestic violence, infertility, intermarriage, poverty, sexual stereotypes, and Zionism. 

Sarah Kussy Papers (P-4) [Digitized]

Contains the minute book (May-December, 1898) and other material of the Ladies' Patriotic Relief Society of Newark, N.J. organized to assist needy families during the Spanish-American War; a diary for the War Period, and mimeographed copies of the Kussy family genealogy and the history of Miriam Auxiliary of Oheb Shalom Congregation in Newark from 1880-1945.

Shira Eve Epstein papers undated (P-776)

Consists of a copy of Epstein's thesis, "The Havurah Movement and Jewish Feminism: Preserving While Re-envisioning Judaism" that was submitted to the History Department at Rutgers University, April 1999. Papers also include research articles, interview tapes, correspondence, copies of archival documents, and notes that Epstein used as background material for her thesis.

Shirley T. Joseph Papers (P-932)

This collection documents the community activism, political advocacy, and volunteer work of Shirley T. Joseph. Formats include clippings, correspondence, meeting minutes, memos, newsletters, notes, reports, printed matter, memorabilia, and audiovisual materials. Women's rights and anti-Semitism were Joseph's main focus, but other issues included here are poverty, hunger, and early childhood education. Topics of particular interest are anti-Semitism in the women’s movement and the intersection of feminist and Jewish perspectives.

Virginia Levitt Snitow Papers (P-876)

The collection encompasses the personal papers of Virginia Snitow, especially during her active years in the Women's Division of the American Jewish Congress and an organization she founded, US / Israel Women to Women. Papers contain correspondence, writings and voluminous notes with both fiction, and non-fiction writings on racial, gender and class equality.