America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today – Pamela Nadell

By National Museum of American Jewish Military History
When: Wed, June 12, 2019 — 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Where: 1811 R Street Northwest Washington, DC 20009

Pamela Nadell joins us to discuss her new book America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today .

What does it mean to be a Jewish woman in America? In a gripping historical narrative, Pamela S. Nadell weaves together the stories of a diverse group of extraordinary people―from the colonial-era matriarch Grace Nathan and her great-granddaughter, poet Emma Lazarus, to labor organizer Bessie Hillman and the great justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to scores of other activists, workers, wives, and mothers who helped carve out a Jewish American identity. This includes women connected to the military and wartime from Abigail Minis in the Revolution to Eugenia Levy Phillips serving the Confederate cause to WWII WACs like Doris Brill.

Pamela Nadell is the author of America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today, published in 2019 by W.W. Norton. A professor and Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History at American University in Washington, DC, she is a recipient of the university’s highest faculty award, Scholar/Teacher of the Year. Her other books include Women Who Would be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination, 1889-1985, a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award.