The first and only complete exploration of the role of American women in the creation and support of the State of Israel.

The first and only complete exploration of the role of American women in the creation and support of the State of Israel Despite a historical record that shows sustained involvement of American Jewish women with early Zionism and Palestine, this topic has received scant scholarly attention. American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise offers a much needed clarification to the historical record. Essays in the book explore significant personalities, such as Golda Meir, Marie Syrkin, Emma Lazarus, and Henrietta Szold, and the pivotal role played by American Zionist women’s organizations including Hadassah, the Pioneer Women’s Organization (later Na’amat), and the Mizrachi Women’s Organization (later Amit Women). The collection reveals the multidimensionality of the relationship of American Jewish women and Zionism, including agricultural and vocational training, religion, ideology, and geography. Eyewitness documents and personal testimonies are included, illuminating the varied roles played by Zionist women in the founding of the modern Jewish state.

Cross-listed in the Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life

Shulamit Reinharz is Founding Director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Jacob Potofsky Professor of Sociology, Brandeis University, and General Editor for the Brandeis Series on Jewish Women. Mark A. Raider is associate professor of modern Jewish history, chair of the Judaic Studies Department, and director of the Center for Jewish Studies, University of Albany. He is the co-editor of The Plough Woman (Brandeis University Press) and the author of The Emergence of American Zionism.

“A powerful record of individual women whose different paths to Zionism was nurtured by their lives as Americans, as Jews and as activists.”
–Sheila Katz, author of Women and Gender in Early Jewish and Palestinian Nationalism