Jewish "Junior League": The Rise and Demise of the Fort Worth Council of Jewish Women (review)

Studies of Jewish women's volunteer societies and communal groups, highlighting the centrality of women's social activism to the larger narrative of American Jewish history, have proliferated in the past decade. Few, however, have focused on local chapters of these national organizations, particularly those operating outside of the major Jewish population centers such as New York. Therefore, Hollace Ava Weiner's work on the Fort Worth Council of Jewish Women serves as a welcome corrective to this gap in the current literature.

In Jewish "Junior League," Weiner traces the evolution of the Fort Worth Council from its early twentieth-century founding until its dissolution at the century's end. In 1901, a group of affluent Jewish women convened to form a local chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women. The rise of the Council coincided with the creation of several women's literary societies and clubs in the larger community, influenced by events of the Women's Pavilion at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. That exposition also led to the founding of the National Council of Jewish Women. A few Jewish women gained entry into non-Jewish venues such as the Women's Wednesday Club, but most found the doors of the elite women's groups closed to them. The Council offered Jewish women familiar social networks and a place to organize and execute civic projects. From its earliest years, the members of the Council saw their organization as representative of middle-class, Progressive-era ideals and a way for Jewish women of Fort Worth to acculturate into the larger society. Their vision of the Council's purpose mirrored that of the national body, suggesting the extent to which class status shaped Jewish acculturation similarly throughout the country.

Over the next six decades, the Council proved adept at establishing itself as one of the most active philanthropic organizations in Forth Worth. The Council opened an Americanization school for all immigrants in the community, operated sewing circles to provide clothing to the needy, and, perhaps most famously, organized the annual book fair, an event which brought thousands of people together to raise money for civic improvements, such as a home for delinquent youths, a playground, and a day-care center, benefiting all residents of Fort Worth. The book fair stood out as a particular achievement by bolstering the Council volunteers' business acumen, and enabling them to cement ties with non-Jews in the community. These philanthropic endeavors secured their place as one of Fort Worth's most well-known and prestigious clubs.

Despite its success in creating and sustaining new projects in Fort Worth, not everyone applauded the Council's efforts. Jewish women outside of the Council, members of Hadassah or of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Orthodox synagogue, Ahavath Sholom, questioned its priorities and the extent to which the Council pursued secular activities. Nonmembers labeled the Council an elitist organization, which some members considered a compliment. One Council member, looking back on her experiences, noted with pride that "the Council was like 'a Jewish Junior League'" (82). Yet regardless of how elite it appeared in the eyes of other Jewish women, members of the most selective women's club, the Junior League, believed Council members to be unworthy of membership in their own organization. The admission of Jewish women into the Fort Worth chapter of the Junior League would have constituted the highest level of Jewish acceptance in non-Jewish circles. Only in 1972 did the Fort Worth Junior League induct its first Jewish member, who also served as an officer in the Council. Jewish women could claim that Council membership paved their way for acceptance into the larger society, but they would soon see that acceptance came at a cost to their own group's survival.

By the early 1970s, the increasing number of women with paid employment, combined with...