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Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace

Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace

Thursday, May 2, 2013 7:00 pm

At the turn of the twentieth century, American Jewish women were consistently and publicly engaged in all the major issues of their day, including suffrage, birth control, and peace. The activism of American Jewish women was grounded in their gender, religious, cultural, and ethnic identities. No history of these movements in the United States is complete without analyzing the impact of Jewish women's presence.

Dr. Melissa R. Klapper is the professor of history and director of women's and gender studies at Rowan University. Dr. Klapper’s research has received awards from sources including the American Jewish Archives Center, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Harvard University, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Her latest book is Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace:  American Jewish Women's Activism, 1890-1940.

Image at left

Emma Goldman speaking to a crowd of garment workers about birth control in Union Square, New York, 1916. Courtesy of the Jewish Women’s Archive.


This was the Norman Asher Memorial Lecture, an annual program that reflects the education vision of the late Norman Asher, a biblical and Talmudic scholar and leading Chicago attorney and philanthropist.