Jewish Teaching StudioCalendar · History · Learning

Lives, work & historical moments

Jewish women’s history

Bring a wider range of Jewish women’s lives into the classroom. This collection spans public life, scholarship, the arts, science, activism, and community work across places and generations. Browse for a lesson example, a dated moment for a school newsletter or classroom bulletin board, or a starting point for student research. Search by name, date, country, profession, historical period, or themes such as education, migration, leadership, and women’s rights.

The collection aims to open a window onto Jewish women’s lives across times and places, including a broad range of work and recorded actions. Its coverage is limited by the sources and materials available; despite sustained research, some communities and periods remain underrepresented.

Lives and events to bring into a lesson

Many women’s stories receive little space in standard textbooks. Here, a dated event and a short life sketch sit side by side, so you can find an example that fits the subject or age group you are teaching and add context without needing to begin with a long research detour.

Use an entry to build a classroom timeline, compare women’s opportunities in different countries and periods, prepare a “this day in history” note for a school newsletter, or invite students to follow a name into a research question. Try searches such as Jewish women in science, women writers, migration, community leadership, or a particular country and decade.

A person and a moment

For example, in 2014 scholar Jael Silliman presented work connected with Recalling Jewish Calcutta, a digital archive documenting the Baghdadi Jewish community of Kolkata, India. It offers a way into women’s history, migration, family photographs, oral history, and the work of preserving community memory.