Subject Guide: Notable Jewish Women

Anna Bogin papers (RG 565)

Bogin was a Yiddish poet and writer, who was born in Postawa, Byelorussia and later immigrated to the U.S. in 1911. Collection includes manuscripts of Bogin's poems and short stories and some correspondence.

Anna Margolin papers (RG 1166)

Pen name of Rosa Lebensbaum. Yiddish poet, journalist. Collection includes letters from Yiddish writers and family members as well as letters from Margolin to others. Manuscripts by Margolin.

Celia Adler papers (RG 399)

Yiddish actress, daughter of Jacob P. Adler. Performed with various American Yiddish theater companies. Born in the United States. The collection contains correspondence, clippings, contracts, playbills and photographs relating to Celia Adler's career.

Genia Silkes (RG 1187)

Genia was a teacher, historian, and member of the YIVO staff in New York. She taught in Yiddish schools in Warsaw before World War II, and during the Holocaust period worked in the schools of the Warsaw Ghetto and participated in the underground Oneg Shabat Archives. Her papers include eyewitness accounts of children collected by the Jewish Historical Commission in Lodz.

Ida Kaminska and Meir Melman papers (RG 994)

The papers pertain predominantly to Ida Kaminska's theatrical career in the United States until her death. A smaller proportion of materials pertains to the pre-1969 period when Mrs. Kaminska and Mr. Melman lived in Warsaw and led the Esther Rachel Kaminska Jewish State Theater in Poland. 

Kadia Molodowsky papers (RG 703)

Molodowsky was a Yiddish poet, writer, playwright, and teacher. She was the editor of the journals 'Sviva' and 'Di heym' (Israel) and received several prizes for her literary work. Born in Bereza-Kartuska, Poland. Immigrated to the U.S. in 1935. Lived in Israel from 1950-1952.

Virginia Lightfoot papers (RG 715)

Virginia Lightfoot, in correspondence with Ilse Reinersdorf prior to the outbreak of World War II, became involved in an effort to rescue 328 German Jews in Breslau in 1939.

Great Jewish women / by Elma Ehrlich Levinger; illustrated by Marcile Weist Stalter. New York : Behrman's Jewish book house, 1940.

Hannah Senesh, her life & diary / Introd. by Abba Eban. New York, Schocken Books, 1972.

Remarkable Jewish women : rebels, rabbis, and other women from biblical times to the present / by Emily Taitz and Sondra Henry. Philadelphia : Jewish Publication Society, 1996.

Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov movement : a revolution in the name of tradition / Naomi Seidman. London : The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization ; Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2019.

Women of valor : a guide to celebrating Jewish women's history : a joint project of the Jewish Women's Archive and Ma'yan: The Jewish Women's Project, a program of the JCC on the Upper West Side. Brookline, MA : Jewish Women's Archive, 1998.

Written out of history : a hidden legacy of Jewish women revealed through their writings and letters / by Sondra Henry and Emily Taitz. New York, N.Y. : Bloch Pub. Co., 1978.

Kadia Molodowsky - Yiddish poet, writer, teacher of Yiddish and Hebrew, and editor.

Maiden of Ludmir - Hasidic religious leader.

Miryem Ulinover - Yiddish poet. 

Rivke bas Me'ir of Tikotin - The first female author of a Yiddish book; preacher and teacher of women.