Our Origin Story
How did HBI begin?
The genesis of HBI can be traced to a 1995 report of the Hadassah-sponsored National Commission on American Jewish Women, chaired by Brandeis sociologist Dr. Shulamit Reinharz, who ultimately became the founding director of HBI. Titled Voices for Change: Future Directions for American Jewish Women, the report summarized existing research and concluded that while information on Jewish women’s history, lives and culture existed, there was a need for robust support for future research. Thanks to a generous endowment from Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, HBI (originally known as the International Research Institute on Jewish Women) opened at Brandeis University in 1997. The mission of HBI was later expanded to include gender more generally.
Dr. Shulamit Reinharz, the founding director, describes the mission, “Fresh ways of thinking about Jews and gender worldwide – producing and promoting scholarly research, artistic projects and public engagement,” as broad and “multidimensional” so that it encourages “every field of inquiry.”
Watch Dr. Shulamit Reinharz, founding director, tell HBI’s origin story.