American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise (review)

This anthology of essays examining the interplay between American Jewish women, Zionism, and the Yishuv has been long overdue. While the 1990s witnessed a burgeoning scholarship in the history of American Jewish women and showed American Jewish women's history "deeply intertwined with the writing of American women's history,"¹ this meticulously edited work firmly embeds American Jewish women in the history of Zionism and highlights their contribution and dedication to the Zionist enterprise during the pre-state era. Reinharz and Raider show in this unique volume that American Jewish women's Zionism, just like American Zionism as a whole, was not a monolithic movement, but "included distinctive political, cultural, and religious groupings" (73). It was also characterized by ambivalence and ambiguity that in general defined American Jewish attitudes toward Zionism during the pre-state era.

With contributions from a variety of scholars and political activists, American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise, provides a multifaceted account of American Jewish women's understanding of the Zionist idea, and how they advanced as well as sustained the Zionist agenda. Divided into four parts, the volume is organized thematically by discussing significant personalities of American Zionism (Emma Lazarus, Irma Lindheim, Henrietta Szold, Golda Meir, Marie Syrkin), the role played by American Zionist women's organizations (American Hadassah, International Council of Jewish Women, Pioneer Women's Organization), and certain themes (religion, agricultural and vocational training, geography, feminism) of the pre-state era that reveal the multiplicity of ideological backgrounds and positions of American Jewish women. The third part of the book is dedicated to aliyah, the ultimate expression of Zionist commitment, and shows that Zionist women's activity was much more complex and not "merely philanthropic" (186). While Joseph B. Glass probes a number of personal, religious, economic, and ideological factors that led to American Jewish women's emigration to Palestine, Sara Kadosh's examination of the double life of Rose Viteles, an assimilated upper-middle-class Jewish woman who served as de facto treasurer of the Haganah, breaks new ground in a neglected aspect of American Jewish and Zionist history. The fourth part of the book includes a sampling of eyewitness accounts and memoirs that show that Zionism was not merely an organization to these pioneer women but, in the words of Irma (Rama) Lindheim, "a civilization, a way of life to be lived . . . " (333). Reinharz and Raider are hopeful that these personal testimonies will spark the interest of scholars to investigate a largely untapped resource of women's writings that would greatly enrich the fields of Zionist history, American Jewish history, and women's history.

The volume's thematic breakdown and organization is further aided by brief introductions at the beginning of each part and chapter. The editors greatly facilitate the reader's access to the complexity of American Jewish women's experiences with Zionism by providing a brief synopsis of each featured article and by explaining how it underlines the centrality of women in the complex relationship of American Jews, the Yishuv, and the Zionist enterprise. Essays by Arthur Zeiger on Emma Lazarus and by Mary McCune on Hadassah emphasize how American Jewish women in their own right shaped and defined American Zionism, and, in the case of Henrietta Szold, created a women's Zionist organization that through "effective recruitment tactics played a significant, if until recently overlooked, role in sustaining the American Zionist movement through a period of membership decline and heightened disinterest among many middle-class American Jews" (107).

While the editors' goal is to "focus attention on American Jewish women and Zionism, and as a result, to reshape the historical lens through which the pre-state era is generally viewed" (xx), the book's particular value lies in the wide spectrum of interpretive approaches. Whereas Mary McCune focuses on Henrietta Szold's promotion of a "women's interpretation of Zionism" (106) that appealed to middle-class women, Mira Katzburg-Yungman underlines that Hadassah's widespread support in the...