Putting Women into American Jewish History

Abstract

According to the September 1978 issue of American Jewish History, sixty-one courses in American Jewish Studies are currently offered in colleges and universities throughout the country; at least a third of them are introductory history surveys.[1] I teach one of these surveys, The American Jewish Experience, crosslisted in Judaic Studies and History at the State University of New York at Buffalo. This paper will summarize my experience in putting women into that course. My motivation to teach a nonsexist survey course on American Jewish history was threefold. First, as an historian my commitment to the new social history made the effort imperative; a history course that omits half the population supposedly being studied is clearly inaccurate and inadequate. Second, as a Jew I am concerned that American Jewish women are being kept ignorant of the wide range of political, economic, social, and cultural activities of their predecessors and are therefore deprived of a rich source of role models. Finally, as a feminist, I am committed to improving the status of women in Jewish life as in every other aspect of life. Unless Jewish students have a realistic knowledge of the ideological and structural factors that have determined the status of American Jewish women in the past, they will be unable to respond affirmatively and effectively to the need for change in the present and the future.