Cover Story
Making History
Shula Reinharz's fervent Jewish identity leads to the first international
institute to study Jewish women.
SHARON LUCKERMAN
Editorial Assistant
B
oston. November, 1995.
Three women have little
idea of the historic -outcome
of their slim report on
Jewish American women called
"Voices for Change."
They work hard and smart to be
among presenters at the General
Assembly of the Council of Jewish
Federations from North America and
abroad.
But when Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzchak Rabin is assassinated just
days before, they wonder if anyone
will attend their presentation.
Their topic, "Future Directions for
American Jewish Women," however,
touches a deep chord, and the room is
packed.
Sociology Professor Shulamit
Reinharz, director of the Women's
Studies Program at Brandeis
University in Waltham, Mass., begins
reading major points from the year-
long study by Hadassah's National
Commission of American Jewish
Women. She stops suddenly
"Nobody studies us," Reinharz tells
the crowd of mostly women. She
holds up her thin paper. "This is all
we know."
.
Another presenter, Marlene Post,
then-Hadassah national president,
spontaneously cries out, "We're going
to change that. We'll create an insti-
tute so this research can get done!"
One-and-a-half years later. July,
1997. Hadassah, the largest Jewish
women's organization in North
America, joins forces with Brandeis
University to create the Hadassah
International Research Institute on
Jewish Women at Brandeis (HIRIJW),
the first international institute in the
world to study Jewish women.
3/30
2001
held three conferences to discuss issues
that include women and violence, gen-
der and Jewish law.
They also publish works by several
of the 45 scholars-in-residence, initiate
a newsletter and an academic journal
called Nashim (Hebrew for women),
hire graduate students and accept
interns.
But perhaps most significantly, the
institute and the Scholars Program
(within the Women's Studies program)
move from their cramped quarters on
campus to the new Women's Studies
Research Center, an innovative and
imaginative space.
Reinharz's ability to dream, coupled
with the courage to walk into the
unknown, leads her to transform a
10,000-square-foot storage warehouse
into a place where women
can meet, share ideas,
research, make art, create
music, dance, exhibit artwork
and more. There is even a
playroom for scholars' chil-
dren.
Gifts to build the center
range from a $1 million
donation from philanthropist
Walter Annenberg's wife,
Lee, to a $28,000 glass sculp-
ture from Dale Chihuly,
related box].
renowned Seattle glass artist.
"She's indomitable and
Over the phone, Reinharz
charismatic. She reminds me o
is both warm and direct. She
Eleanor Roosevelt," says
is a woman who has figured
George Zeltzer, who insisted
out how the world _works
Reinharz be the lecturer this
George and Pearl Zeltzer with Jehuda and Shulamit Reinharz
and directs that knowledge
year.
to advance women's causes.
"You'll be amazed at her
The risks she takes have enlarged her
vitality," says his wife, Pearl.
scope, while her courage propels oth-
Fantasy Becomes Reality
George Zeltzer, of West Bloomfield,
ers where they have not been before.
November,
2000.
Three
years
after
the
first met Reinharz in Ann Arbor when
That foresight has been recognized.
HIRIJW
opens,
Reinharz
and
co-
she taught at the University of
Reinharz is the first and only woman full
director
and
Brandeis
Professor
Sylvia
Michigan from 1972-82 in the psy-
professor in sociology at Brandeis. She
Barack Fishman make good on prom-
chology department and later in
created the world's only graduate degree
ises to hold international conferences
women's studies. Zeltzer then was an
program in Jewish women's studies.
on Jewish women. To date, they've
officer of the Jewish Federation of
A board is established, composed of
male and female academics and Jewish
community leaders from around the
world. Barbra Streisand is honorary
chair and Shulamit Reinharz is found-
ing director.
' F ueled by her concern for Jewish
women and a passion for ideas and
making them work, Reinharz not only
gets the institute off the ground, but
dares to single-handedly raise $4.5
million to build and endow a women's
center. In Three years, the Women's
Studies Research Center will house
both the HIRIJW and Brandeis'
Women's Studies Program.
That dynamic woman-who-could,
Shulamit (Shula) Reinharz, 54, is
coming to Detroit to discuss what
women at the institute have discov-
ered. She will lecture on
"Jewish Women Around the
World: What Difference Does
a Country Make?" April 1 at
the West Bloomfield Jewish
Community Center.
The following day, she will
speak about "Neglected
Women in Jewish History" as
this year's George M. and
Pearl A. Zeltzer Lecture on
Women and Judaism [see
Detroit, which created a lecture chair
in Jewish history at the universiry. The
first professor hired for the job was
Reinharz's husband, Jehuda Reinharz,
currently president of Brandeis
University.
One memory Reinharz shares of her
time in Ann Arbor illustrates the cou-
ple's early interest in Jewish education.
A Jewish faculty member complained
that he, his wife and child would have
to leave Ann Arbor. They were unable
to find a day school for their child.
The Reinharzes said they had an
idea. The Hebrew Day School of Ann
Arbor they helped found recently cele-
brated its 25th anniversary. And the
idea came before the Reinharzes had
their own children, Yael, 24, and
Naomi, 19.