On Their Own Terms

"Jewish Women and Their Salons" profiles high-octane females

DIANA LIEBERMAN

Conversation (Yale University Press;
$50), Braun and Bilski tell detailed sto-
ries of 14 Jewish "salonieres," with ref-
erences to numerous others. These sto-
ries add up to a frank picture of the
role of women and Jews over the cen-
turies in Europe and into "exile" in the
United States.

Special to the Jewish News

C

onsider the contributions of
Supreme Court Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg, actress-singer-
moviemaker Barbra Streisand, politi-
cian Bella Abzug, Nobel Prize-winning
scientist Rosalyn Yalow, opera singer-
Beverly Sills.
Now consider a world in which these
women — and the countless other
accomplished and energetic Jewish
women who have so influenced our
own time — would be forced to con-
fine their energies to their homes and
the homes of their friends.
This is the world of the exhibit "The
Power of Conversation: Jewish Women
and Their Salons," showing at the
Jewish Museum in New York through
July 10, 2005.
Until the last century, women were
either denied or strongly discouraged
from overt involvement in society —
especially Jewish women. So how could
a woman express her energy and talent?
As exhibit curators Emily Braun and
Emily Bilski write: "Her explicit tool
was conversation."

om an earlier era.

Gertrude Stein
with her
portrait by
Picasso

The gatherings that educated Jewish
women hosted in their homes became a
stage for literary figures, artists, aristo-
crats, politicians and others to exchange
ideas. At the same time, the salons gave
their hostesses, or "salonieres," influ-
ence that greatly exceeded their rank or
fame.
The Jewish Museum exhibit exam-
ines salons — intellectual open houses
from Berlin, Vienna, Paris, London,
Milan, New York and Los Angeles from
the 18th- early 20th centuries.

To assemble
this exhibit, Braun and Bilski spent
more than four years sifting through
letters, essays, plays, paintings, musical
scores and other materials from around
the world. Although not all the intellec-
tual "at-homes" known as salons were
hosted by Jews, they found that an
overwhelming number featured Jewish
women at their centers.
In their 280-page hardcover cata-
logue of the exhibit, Jewish Women
and Their Salons: The Power of

Fanny Hensel nee Mendelssohn
Bartholdy, 1829; drawing by Wilhelm
Hensel; pencil on board

Modern Conversabo

Intergenerational group continues the salon tradition in suburban Detroit.

DIANA LIEBERMAN

Special to the Jewish News

W

hen Ruth Driker Kroll
heard the Jewish Museum
in New York was presenting
an exhibit titled "The Art of
Conversation," she was intrigued.
"This is our lives," she said. "This is
what we do."
Unlike the original "salonieres," the
women in Kroll's discussion group —
numbering 15-18 attendees — have
not been prohibited by society from
achievement in the larger world. They
have achieved success in medicine, lit-
erature, social work, education and
other professions.

5/12
2005

62

But, along the way, they
From left;
may have lost the opportuni-
Suzanne Ostrowski
ty for no-holds-barred,
of West Bloomfield,
unscripted communication,
Karen Sears of
explained Marla Rowe
Davisberg, Susan
Gorosh, a second-generation
Rogers of
member of the group. To
Birmingham,
make up for this loss, they
Arlene Frank of
meet once a month in each
Detroit and Marla
other's living rooms. The
Rowe Gorosh of
group is known simply as
West Bloomfield
"Conversations."
enjoy coffee and
"It's wonderful to learn
conversation.
from each other," said
Gorosh, a physician who
The
lives in West Bloomfield. "We discuss
social topics that affect us, current
intergenerational aspect is especially
events."
important, Gorosh said. The group
was founded by her mother, Bea

Rowe, and several friends, including
Kroll and the late Lee Hoffman.
"The strength of this group is its

