In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Her Works Praise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America From Colonial Times to the Present
  • Ellen M. Umansky (bio)
Her Works Praise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America From Colonial Times to the Present. By Hasia R. Diner and Beryl Lieff Benderly. New York: Basic Books, 2002. xvii + 462 pp.

This ambitious work is a lengthy and lively social history of Jewish women in America. It begins with an intimate portrait of Rycke Nounes, one of twenty-three Jewish refugees who settled in New Amsterdam in September 1654 over the objections of Governor Peter Stuyvesant. More than four hundred pages and fifteen generations of women later, Diner and Benderly acknowledge that Stuyvesant's objections were well founded, for as he feared, "[a]dmitting the tiny storm-tossed band forever changed his colony and the city and nation that grew from it." Moreover, as he may have intuited, "it was the arrival and labor of women that made their presence permanent and transforming" (426 ).

Interweaving portraits of such well-known figures as Rebecca Gratz, Emma Lazarus, Fanny Brice, Bess Myerson, and Betty Friedan with those of equally fascinating, lesser known women, Diner and Benderly offer new insight into the uniqueness of the American Jewish experience. Using gender as a major tool of analysis, they reveal the ways in which American Jewish women's assertion of "their sense of entitlement to power, influence, and equality in the Jewish world" provided much of the creativity that fueled and continues to fuel American Jewish life (xvi). [End Page 165] At times, the number of women whose stories are told is overwhelming, and, without the inclusion of an annotated list of proper names, I found it difficult to remember many of those about whom I had read. Still, there are numerous, particularly memorable accounts. Among them are those of immigrant seamstress turned businesswoman, Lena Himmelstein Bryant, founder of Lane Bryant large-size women's clothing and the first-ever commercially available maternity outfits; Hungarian immigrant Regina Horowitz Margareten who began making and selling matzah soon after her arrival in the U.S. in 1883 ; and pioneer Frances Wisebart Jacobs, who helped create Denver's earliest Jewish and nonsectarian social service organizations, its first kindergarten, the Charity Organization Society (which evolved into the Denver Community Chest), and a tuberculosis sanitarium for indigent patients, later renamed the National Jewish Hospital. There are portraits of educators, writers, actresses, prostitutes, settlement workers, nurses, soldiers, politicians, civil rights activists, rabbis, and judges whom readers may find equally memorable. Curiously missing, however, are accounts of women athletes (although Jewish male athletes such as Hank Greenberg are mentioned) and those who, like AIDS pioneer Dr. Mathilde Krim, have made significant contributions to twentieth-century medical research. Also missing is any acknowledgement of Jewish lesbians. This is especially surprising in light of the book's lengthy discussions of Jewish feminism and contemporary spirituality, areas in which lesbian scholars, rabbis, and community activists continue to play a major role.

In addition to portraits of individual women, this book explores the many areas of family, communal, and religious life that were largely shaped and/or had a particular impact on Jewish women. Arranged chronologically, it is divided into five parts. While chapter titles are helpful, some chapters are not sufficiently footnoted, and chapter subtitles, included in abundance, are for the most part, unclear. Scholars may be disappointed in the book's overreliance on secondary sources, leading in some cases to factual errors. Yet its illumination of the lives of generations of American Jewish women, attention to both commonality and difference, and more than fifteen pages of photographs, make this book well worth reading. Those who view American Jewish history through the lens of male experience will be challenged and enlightened by this work, for as Diner and Benderly convincingly show, "the work that women do and the works that they create will [continue to help] compose the essence of what it means to be Jewish in America" (427 ).

Ellen M. Umansky
Fairfield University
Ellen M. Umansky

Ellen M. Umansky is the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Professor of Judaic Studies at Fairfield University. Her new book, From Christian Science to...

pdf

Share