If you haven’t heard of Yalta yet, it’s okay – many people haven’t. But as the second most mentioned woman in the Talmud, Yalta does deserve more fame, especially as her daring escapades left many speechless. Often described as the ‘first Jewish feminist,’ Yalta was a leading woman of the time, going around smashing barrels of wine, adjudicating for women’s issues, contradicting the highest regarded rabbis, and rewriting ancient laws to finally include women in Jewish practices
The Woman Who Ignited the Hasmonean Rebellion
Very few know her story. It isn’t taught in schools and certainly not in kindergartens, but according to the midrash, Hannah, daughter of Matityahu, sister of the Maccabees, was a key figure in the Hanukkah story. What does the midrash tell us of the woman who stood up to protect her Jewish sisters? How did she use her wedding day to spark the fire of rebellion in her brothers?
Ruth the Moabite: The Most Beautiful Woman You’ve Never Seen
The Book of Ruth is an extraordinary biblical story. At its center is the brave friendship between two women that leads to the founding of the Davidic dynasty, and a heroine whose character traits made her an everlasting symbol of beauty
The Story of Israel’s First Shelter for Battered Women
“We didn’t think we were making history. All we wanted was to work on behalf of women”: The story of the first shelter for battered women in Israel, established in Haifa in 1977, and the women who founded it
Girls’ Day: Celebrating Girl Power During Hanukkah!
This is the story of a holiday that originated in the Jewish communities of North Africa and the Middle East and its revival here in Israel
Did a Woman Really Read from the Torah in the 15th century?
Leifheit bat Asher owned a copy of the oldest printed Jewish prayer book. Was she also called to the Torah?
The Feminist Revival of Tu B’Av, the Jewish Festival of Love
Did an Orthodox girls’ movement and its legendary founder revive an ancient and obscure holiday in the forests of Poland?
The Rebel Woman Who Fell in the Battle of Tel Hai
When asked to help the residents of Kfar Giladi, Devorah Drechler did not hesitate. When instructed to move on to Tel Hai she went gladly—and there she met her death
The Housewives Who Took on the USSR to Help Soviet Jewry
How a women’s protest group made a difference by raising the cause of Soviet Jewish political prisoners during the Cold War
The Story of Regina Jonas, the First Female Rabbi
Regina Jonas, the first ordained woman Rabbi, writes to Martin Buber, Jewish philosopher and scholar of Hasidic lore, asking for guidance during the dark times of Berlin in 1938.
