Subject Guide: Notable Jewish Women

Bertha Pappenheim Collection (AR 331) [Digitized]

The collection documents the professional work of Bertha Pappenheim. Most materials were written about her after her death. The collection contains only a few originals by Bertha Pappenheim.

Carola S. Trier Collection (AR 25039) [Digitized]

Trier was a dancer, acrobat, and most notably a roller-skating contortionist. After a debilitating injury, she became close with Joseph and Clara Pilates, the founders of the Pilates method of exercise and strength training. Trier furthered her studies in this area by training at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and developing a system of exercises and stretching techniques for dancers, many of which are still in use.

Edith Neumann Collection (AR 25262) [Digitized]

Neumann studied chemistry and physics at the University of Vienna and received her doctorate in 1927; the only woman at that time in the program. In 1948, after immigrating to the US, she worked as a bacteriologist at the Jewish Hospital in Brooklyn before accepting a position as microbiologist at Maimonides Hospital, where she remained for the next 20 years.

Elisabeth Freund Collection (AR 25099) [Digitized]

In 1944 Freund started working at the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia where she founded a center specializing in touch-and-learn teaching techniques. She became an authority on blind students, developing teaching manuals and kits for sharpening the taste and smell of blind students.

Elisabeth Model Collection (AR 6306) [Digitized]

Elisabeth studied sculpture in Munich, Paris and Amsterdam. After immigrating to the US, Model began to design costume jewelry for Hattie Carnegie and other designers and later resumed work as a professional artist and teacher. Over the next fifty years she would receive numerous awards and prizes and her drawings and multimedia sculptures can be found in many private and museum collections. She was the co-founder and long-time vice-president of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors in New York. 

Gabrielle Kaufmann Koppell Collection (AR 6182) [Digitized]

Gabriele Kaufmann-Koppel worked for a group called "Selbsthilfe juedischer Maedchen und Frauen aus Deutschland" in London in the 1930s, which aimed to help girls and young women who had emigrated from Germany. In 1934, she accompanied the first Kindertransport to New York and supervised children who had to be temporarily housed in the Hirsch Home. 

Henriette Fürth Collection (AR 11227) [Digitized]

Contains personal materials associated with the life of Henriette Fürth Katzenstein, women's rights activist. She published more than 200 articles and more than 30 books about social topics. Between 1919 and 1925 she was a deputy for the city council of Frankfurt, Germany.

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 NCJW’s broad interests, active membership and cooperation with Jewish and non-Jewish organizations contributed to its position as a leader among women’s social reform agencies.

Regina Jonas Clippings Collection (AR 4886C)

Regina Jonas was the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi. Prior to WWII, she put an emphasis on caring for the sick at the Jewish hospital. She performed rabbinical functions at Theresienstadt before her death at Auschwitz.

Librarian turned spy : [the story of Florence Mendheim]. New York ; Berlin : Leo Baeck Institute, 2022.

Hannah Arendt : an ethics of personal responsibility / Bethania Assy ; preface by Agnes Heller. Frankfurt am Main : Peter Lang, 2008.

Hidden music : the life of Fanny Mendelssohn / by Gloria Kamen. New York, N.Y. : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1996.

The enigma of Anna O. : a biography of Bertha Pappenheim / Melinda Given Guttmann. Wickford, RI : Moyer Bell, 2001.

Women composers in Germany / edited by Roswitha Sperber ; translation, Timothy Nevill. Bonn : Inter Nationes, 1996.