A native of Germany,
Jonas worked as a
teacher, then in the
1930s she studied theol-
ogy at the Berline

Hochschule fiier die
Wissenschaft des
Judentums (Berlin
Academy for the Science
of Judaism, a seminary
for liberal rabbis and
educators). She graduat-
ed with the degree "aca-
demic teacher of reli-
gion;" her thesis was,
"Can a Woman Be a
Rabbi According to
Halachic Sources?"
After concluding that
there was no halachic
reason she could not be
ordained, Jonas turned
to Rabbi Leo Baeck, a
leading figure among
German Jewry, who
directed her to Rabbi
Max Dienemann, head
of the Liberal Rabbis'
Association, who in 1935 privately
ordained Jonas.
Unable to find a pulpit, Jonas worked
for Jewish social-service institutions. In
1942, she was arrested and sent to
Theresienstadt, where among her close
colleagues was Viktor Frankl, the psy-
chologist and author. From there, she
was sent to Auschwitz, where Jonas was
murdered in 1944. (Note: It is still pos-
sible to view a handwritten list of Jonas'
lectures, aptly called "Lectures of the
One and Only Woman Rabbi, Regina
Jonas," in the archives at
Theresienstadt.)

#22) Betty Friedan (born 1921) was a
founder, in 1966, and first president of
NOW, the National Organization of
Women. (One of her early colleagues was
Gloria Steinem, the daughter of a gentile
mother and a Jewish father.)
According to Friedan, the typical
housewife lived essentially the same exis-
tence as one in a "comfortable concentra-
tion camp."
Friedan, the author of the widely influ-
ential The Feminine Mystique (1963) con-
sequently strongly urged women to secure
paid employment outside the home.
Friedan, also an outspoken supporter
of abortion rights and the Equal Rights
Amendment, in 1982 appeared to
compromise a bit in her book The
Second Stage, much to the agitation of
many of her feminist friends. In her
later years, Friedan has focused much
of her attention on women and aging,
as evinced in her 1994 publication The

Fountain of Age.

4/13
2001

96

#23) Clara Haskil (1895-1960), of
Bucharest, was one of the great pianists
of the first part of the century. Born in
Romania, she was a child prodigy. When
Clara was 4, her mother took her to the
Bucharest Conservatory, where a profes-
sor played a piece Clara had never heard.
She immediately played it back, then
repeated it in a different key. By the time
she was 6, Clara had received a scholar-
ship from the Queen of Romania to
continue her studies.
Though she performed in concert for
some time, she suffered numerous physi-
cal setbacks, including scoliosis and a
brain tumor.

#24) Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was
an immigrant from Russia who devoted
her life in the United States (she came
here when she was 16) to anarchism. In
1906, she founded Mother Earth, a jour-
nal dedicated to advancing the cause. An
early spokesman for birth control,
Goldman also condemned the draft in
World War I.
In 1919, the United States deported
Goldman to Russia, but she quickly
became disillusioned with commu-
nism. Nine years before her death,
Goldman published a two-volume
autobiography, Living My Life.

#25) Sheila Van Damm (born 1922)
was a popular race-car driver through-
out Europe. A native of England, she
was European racing champ in 1954
and 1955.

#26) Penina Moise (1797-1881)
served as superintendent of the

Sunday school at Beth Elokim
Congregation of Charleston, S.C., the
first Reform temple in the United
States. She also wrote many of the
hymns still found in the Union

Hymnal.
Much of what Moise knew was self-
taught. She quit school at 12, after the
death of her father, but continued
studying and writing privately, includ-
ing Fanny's Sketch Book, published in
1833.
In her later years, Moise went
blind, yet she continued to teach and
often welcomed into her home
Charleston's most influential and
intellectual residents.

#27) Rosalyn Yalow (born 1921) was
the first American woman to receive
the Nobel Prize in science for her
work on using radiological substances
to diagnose and treat disease.

#28) Ida Rosenthal (born 1928) was a
co-founder of Maidenform Brassieres,
which created and manufactured the
first modern bras.
Rosenthal began her career as a
dressmaker, then joined forces with
her husband, William, to create a user-
friendly cotton bra (rather than the
exceedingly tight and uncomfortable
ones available at the time). Another of
her amazing developments: bras with
cup sizes.
In 1923, the Rosenthals formed the
Maiden Form Brassiere Company.

#29) Nechama Leibovitz (1905-1997)

was a leading Torah
scholar, most
famous for her
weekly commen-
taries on the parsha,
or Torah portion of
the week. Born in
Riga, Leibovitz
moved in 1919 to
Berlin, studying
German language
and literature at the
University of Berlin
and Marbourg.
In 1930, she set-
tled in pre-state
Israel, where she
first began working
at the Mizrachi
Women Teachers
Seminary in
Jerusalem, and later
served as professor
of Bible at Tel Aviv
University.
Leibovitz, who
eschewed formal
titles and liked to
be called simply by her first name,
believed in following the literal mean-
ing of the text.
Her commentaries, started in 1942,
were heard regularly on Israel Radio
and published on Gilyanot (folios) dis-
tributed throughout the world.
Leibovitz was renowned not only fo r
her own insight, but for her profound
knowledge of virtually every Jewish
(and in some cases, not Jewish) source
on the Torah. In her Gilyanot, she
would refer to the Talmud,
midrashim, contemporary philoso-
phers and even leading gentile schol-
ars. Her only restriction: she used
material only by those authors who
viewed the Bible as God's word.
Honored with numerous prizes,
including the Bialik Prize for
Literature and the Israel Prize,
Leibovitz also published several books
with commentaries on the weekly
Torah portion, as well as many articles
on teaching the Torah.
(Note: To view Leibovitz's commen-
taries on the Internet, go to
www.jajzd.org.il/torani/nehama.)

#30) Laura Zametkin Hobson (1900-
1986) was the author of Gentleman's
Agreement, which Darryl Zanuck, a gen
tile, turned into a film — the first to
examine anti-Semitism — after Jewish
producers refused to touch the project.
The 1947 Academy Award-winner fo
best film, Gentleman's Agreement starred
Gregory Peck as a gentile who poses as
Jew to understand what it's really like to
be Jewish in the United States.

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