Gender and Jobs in the Jewish Community: Europe at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

U ']ntil the 1980s, the literature on Jewish women was sparse. Since then there has been a steady and impressive growth of writing on the subject, ranging from the history of salonieres (the women of the salons) and the German-Jewish middle-class to works on prostitutes or revolutionaries (those forever-popular heroines, Emma Goldman and Rosa Luxemburg). The most abundant literature on women and Judaism has focused on halakhic prescriptions for (or against) women in an effort to find a usable Judaism for women today. In comparison, the social history of gender andJews has lagged somewhat behind more philosophical, theoretical, or theological treatments, and the question ofJewish women's participation in the labor force has remained a subset of more general questions. This is particularly true for the social history of Jews in Western and Eastern Europe, in contrast to the numerous studies of Jewish immigrant women in the United States. Indeed, the Lower East Side of New York sometimes seems to represent the whole.' When thinking about working options forJewish women at the turn of the twentieth century, seams and bo[a]rders seem to sum it up. It is not a metaphorical reflection on the netherworld between nationstates that is currently so popular but rather a sober reflection of two of the most important categories of poorJewish women's work: making garments in the shop, factory, or home; and taking in and taking care of lodgers. Although this image emerges distinctly from research on the United States, the question of gender and jobs in Europe has been