From Fashion to Politics: Hadassah and Jewish American Women in the Post World War II Era

Shirli Brautbar

Published by Academic Studies Press 2012

From Fashion to Politics

Hadassah and Jewish American Women in the Post World War II Era

Shirli Brautbar

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781618111814

Overview
Contents

About this book

Not only fashion and politics, but scholarship, gender, religion, discrimination – every hot button issue is examined in the story of the triumphant rise of Hadassah. A fascinating and important book. —Rabbi David Wolpe. Sinai Temple, Los Angeles

Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist organization of America, has wielded power in the halls of American political institutions and in the minds of many Jews in the United States. This book enriches our understanding of both modern Jewish history and American women’s history. Hadassah is important not only for what it tells us about women but also for what it reveals about Jewish history and politics, about Zionism, and about America.

In the post-World War II era, Hadassah played a significant role in shaping Jewish women’s political action and identity. Widely known for its work in Israel, Hadassah played a central role in shaping the way generations of American Jewish women thought about themselves and about their involvement on the American political scene.

Author / Editor information

Dr. Brautbar received her B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and Applied History at Carnegie Mellon University, her M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago, and her Ph.D in History from the University of Southern California. She is Assistant Professor of History at Nevada State College and winner of the Nevada State College iTeach Heritage award. Professor Brautbar has published articles in her research areas of: Jewish women’s history, Zionism, and political movements. She serves on the academic review board of the Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies.

Reviews

“By reevaluating Hadassah’s philanthropic mission, public service work, educational efforts, and rhetoric in the context of world and domestic events, Brautbar presents a revisionists history that questions further the accuracy of the idea, popularized by the waves metaphor, that the postwar period was a nadir in feminist history. . . . Through painstaking research in the minutia of daily operations, Brautbar is able to relate Hadassah’s aspirations to become an important force in domestic politics and foreign affairs.” —Kathleen A. Laughlin, The American Jewish Archives Journal 2013 Vol. LXV Nos. 1 & 2

"In her history of Hadassah in the postwar period, Brautar shows how a very narrow definition of the political has constrained the scholarship on the US Jewish women’s Zionist organization. She demonstrates how Hadassah actively influenced US sentiment and policy on the new state of Israel, communism, civil rights, and Soviet Jewry. Her study also illuminates larger questions, such as how Zionism moved from a peripheral ideological position among US Jews to a mainstay in much of US Jewish life. […] Brautbar demonstrates why Hadassah, as the largest US Zionist organization, deserves continued attention […] Recommend. All academic levels/libraries." —S.E. Imhoff, Indiana University

Brautbar is at her best in depicting Hadassah’s use of traditional gender roles to promote effective participation by women in the public sphere...Hadassah members can take pride in and learn a great deal about their organization’s achievements, both for American Jewish women and for Israel, from [this] thoughtful [book]. —Roselyn Bell, Hadassah

Not only fashion and politics, but scholarship, gender, religion, discrimination – every hot button issue is examined in the story of the triumphant rise of Hadassah. A fascinating and important book. —Rabbi David Wolpe. Sinai Temple, Los Angeles

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
INTRODUCTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter I. A State Is Born: Hadassah Adjusts to the New State of Israel and the Political Complexities of Homeland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Chapter II. A ‘Bulwark against Communism’: Hadassah’s Political Activism in Foreign Policy During the 1950s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Chapter III. Jewish American Women in Action: Hadassah Members and Political Engagement in Domestic Issues in the 1950s and 1960s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
Chapter IV. ‘Ema’ or ‘Conscious Jewess’: Jewish Maternalism, Activism, and Gender Roles in the 1950s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
Chapter V. Fashioning Gender and Jewishness: Hadassah, Fashion Shows, and Beauty Culture in the Post–World War II Era Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
Chapter VI. From the Six-Day War to Nuclear Disarmament: Hadassah and Foreign Policy in the 1960s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
Endnotes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149

Language: English
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 154
Keywords: Hadassah; Women’s Zionist organization of America; Jewish history; Zionism; post-World War II; Israel; scholarship; gender; religion; discrimination; Soviet Jewry; philanthropic mission; public service work; educational efforts; women activists; feminists; Judaism

eBook

Published: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 9781618111814