{"id":172213,"date":"2025-03-26T14:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T12:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.nli.org.il\/?p=172213"},"modified":"2026-01-06T14:50:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:50:28","slug":"schlomit_flaum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blognli2026.moonsite.co.il\/en\/schlomit_flaum\/","title":{"rendered":"Around the World in 15 Years: The First Israeli Woman to Travel the Globe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You\u2019ve probably never heard of Schlomit Flaum. In fact, she was nearly forgotten even during her lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Schlomit (Frida) Flaum was a groundbreaking figure\u2014a writer who traveled paths no Hebrew woman had ventured down before. Driven by curiosity, courage, and a desire to explore, she lived a pioneering yet isolated life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She left behind no family, no loved ones to preserve her memory. Even within the educational, cultural, and literary circles of her time, Flaum\u2019s name faded into obscurity long before her death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, she did leave us something remarkable: her extraordinary Hebrew memoirfrom 1935, Wandering Daughter of Israel: Memories, Travels and Meetings (Bat Yisrael Nodedet\u2026 Zichronot Masa’ot U’pgishot<\/a>).<\/em> It was the first Hebrew-language travelogue written by a woman from the Land of Israel, and also the first Hebrew autobiography by such a woman\u2014an exceptional document illuminating the life of a singular individual.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The title page of Flaum’s book,
Wandering Daughter of Israel: Memories, Travels and Meetings,<\/em> 1935, published by the “L. Mayer” bookstore.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI have always been drawn to marginal and forgotten figures,\u201d writes Professor Nurit Govrin, among the leading researchers of Hebrew literature, introducing her book about Israel\u2019s first female backpacker. \u201cShe is mentioned only rarely, in passing, in memoirs of those who helped lay the foundations for early childhood education in the Land of Israel, or appears merely as a footnote in historical studies of the period,\u201d Govrin sadly notes. Having extensively researched Flaum\u2019s life and works, Govrin aims to restore her to the historical narrative and rescue her story from oblivion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why does Flaum deserve a place in our history at all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flaum was an educator by profession, but above all, she was an adventurer\u2014a woman endlessly driven to explore new places and encounter remarkable people. Her work often served as the ideal justification (or perhaps excuse) for embarking on her many journeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 20th century, the idea of a woman traveling the world alone was almost unheard of. Yet Flaum traveled extensively through the Middle East and Europe, and even made multiple trips to the United States, where her brothers lived. Of all her travels, however, it was her journey to India that left the deepest impression. Flaum was the first woman from the Land of Israel to visit India, becoming enchanted by the country, forming friendships with some of its most influential leaders, and returning home profoundly transformed by the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Flaum in the uniform of the American Red Cross, 1918. From her book.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Her life was undoubtedly extraordinary, but it was also marked by profound sadness. Despite her achievements, Flaum leaves the impression of a deeply lonely woman. She never married, had no family of her own, and\u2014perhaps more significantly\u2014formed no lasting or meaningful friendships, at least none that we know of today. In her book, she reassures readers by describing her solitude as something that strengthened and motivated her: \u201cI had no time to feel my loneliness\u201d (p. 51\u2014all quotes are from Wandering Daughter of Israel: Memories, Travels and Meetings<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flaum never received recognition in her lifetime, nor afterward\u2014perhaps precisely because she was revolutionary, courageous, and far ahead of her time. She was mostly met with indifference, and from the little we know, her final decades were marked by severe poverty and hardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Flaum were alive today, she could easily have maintained a popular TikTok or Instagram account, sharing captivating photos from spectacular places she visited\u2014like the pyramids or the bustling markets of Damascus\u2014and the famous people she interviewed (from Gandhi to Shirley Temple), as well as events and exhibitions she attended. Sharing her adventures through reels or stories, she likely would have received enthusiastic praise and endless likes. But such possibilities did not exist in her time, and she had to settle for publishing her impressions in local newspapers and, eventually, in her remarkable memoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Early Years<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In her memoir, Flaum devotes three chapters to her childhood. Born in Kaunas, Lithuania, on Purim of 1893, she was the fourth of five siblings in a prosperous Zionist Jewish family. She shared an especially close bond with her father, whose captivating stories of his own travels deeply inspired her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her recollections of childhood and family relationships are complex\u2014blending feelings of love and gratitude with bitterness and resentment. Flaum\u2019s rebellious and independent spirit set her apart from her obedient and mild-mannered sisters, making her early years particularly challenging. Reflecting on this time, she wrote poignantly: \u201cMy tears, unnoticed by my family members, pooled in my heart, and sometimes it seems to me they have never dried there\u201d (p. 11).<\/p>\n\n\n

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“To my father, may his memory be a blessing, who left me my life’s ideals, and to my rabbi and teacher Rabindranath Tagore, who taught me to know the spirit of the East”<\/em> – The dedication at the beginning of her book\u2014to the two men who shaped her life more than anyone else.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Flaum\u2019s unique personality is further reflected in the complete absence of romantic relationships throughout her memoir. Instead, she describes herself as prone to platonic infatuations\u2014first toward her teachers, later toward individuals she encountered during her journeys. In her book, she openly acknowledges this trait:
\u201cMy lonely heart yearned for love, yet I retreated inward, living within an imaginary world of my own creation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While attending high school in Frankfurt, Flaum gained a broad education, mastering several languages and developing a passion for history, literature, art, and theater. At age sixteen, she began shaping her future by enrolling in a two-year training program for kindergarten and early childhood educators. She felt she had found her true calling: \u201cMy life gained purpose\u2014to be useful in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Yet the sudden death of her beloved father, who passed away unexpectedly at age 48 when Flaum was only sixteen, profoundly changed the direction of her life. From the deep pain of this loss, she resolved to immigrate to the Land of Israel, fulfilling her father\u2019s Zionist dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this period, Flaum immersed herself in books about extraordinary Jewish women who became personal role models\u2014particularly Rahel Levin (likely Rahel Varnhagen, the groundbreaking German-Jewish author who later converted to Christianity), whom she greatly admired, as well as medieval Jewish poets and writers such as Sarra Copia Sullam. Inspired by their strength and achievements, Flaum embarked on her own journey to the Holy Land in 1911. Yet even after securing employment in Jerusalem with the educational organization \u201cEzra,\u201d she first set out on an adventurous journey through Europe and the Middle East\u2014a trip that foreshadowed the extensive travels of her future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon arriving at the kindergarten, she was appointed to manage in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City, Flaum was shocked by the terrible conditions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cMore than a hundred children packed tightly together like sardines in small rooms\u2014without a garden, without a playground, breathing foul, stale air\u2026 My heart was torn apart. The children were ravaged by malaria, malnourished, their eyes filled with pus\u2026 I had never before seen such desperate conditions\u201d (p. 41).<\/p>\n\n\n\n


She immediately rolled up her sleeves and began the arduous task ahead\u2014establishing basic cleanliness, improving nutrition, and even arranging visits from Jerusalem\u2019s new ophthalmologist, Dr. Ticho, who examined the suffering children. In her free hours, Flaum explored and wandered through the city.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A kindergarten class, illustration by Flaum from her book<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Her Travels<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After World War I, the Hebrew education system in the region came under the control of the Zionist Organization, which at the time also managed Jewish educational institutions in Damascus. Flaum relocated to Syria, where she managed kindergartens for two years. During her stay, she learned Arabic, traveled and enthusiastically befriended countless new acquaintances\u2014referred to consistently throughout her memoir as “friends”\u2014with an eagerness that seemed almost compulsive. Her independent lifestyle, though perhaps acceptable for men, was considered highly unconventional and inappropriate for a young, unmarried woman of that era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After concluding her work in Damascus, Flaum again broke with convention and societal norms\u2014choosing to become a nomad. For the next fifteen years, she traveled extensively around the globe at a pace so dizzying it can be difficult to follow. She visited cultural institutions and museums, attended meetings, and embarked on nature excursions, meticulously documenting every detail in her memoir. Yet despite her thorough descriptions, Flaum does not explain how she was able to finance these extensive travels. Moreover, even though her journeys occurred during the challenging interwar period, her accounts notably lack any complaints or mention of hardships. Flaum deliberately excluded such worldly details, choosing instead to focus solely on experiences she considered meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading about Flaum\u2019s extraordinary adventures, one might question whether her memoir perhaps contains exaggerations or elements of self-aggrandizement. However, Professor Govrin\u2019s research confirms that Flaum\u2019s descriptions are entirely accurate, including her remarkable encounters\u2014among them a documented interview with the child star Shirley Temple.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“A New Book for All: Wandering Daughter of Israel<\/em>” A rare advertisement from the newspaper Doar Hayom, June 4, 1935<\/a><\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Among Flaum\u2019s many remarkable encounters was a meeting in Rome in 1920 with Maria Montessori, the renowned Italian educator and physician who developed the Montessori method of education, emphasizing children\u2019s independent learning. \u201cWe spoke at length about the Land of Israel… How thrilled I was about the prospect of this extraordinary educator visiting our country,\u201d Flaum wrote in her travel diary (p. 100). During her visits to the United States, she spent time at Columbia University and even rubbed shoulders with Marie Curie and Albert Einstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding Flaum\u2019s character makes it clear how she succeeded in meeting some of the most influential and intriguing figures of her time. She possessed a journalist\u2019s instinct: meticulously preparing for every encounter by thoroughly researching the individuals and places she intended to visit, enabling her to engage in meaningful dialogues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not only curiosity and a thirst for knowledge that accompanied Flaum on her journeys\u2014she also carried the Land of Israel with her everywhere she went. Every new place was measured against the Holy Land. She enthusiastically promoted Zionism to everyone she met, serving as a self-appointed ambassador, tirelessly encouraging others to visit and witness firsthand the remarkable developments occurring in the spirit of the Zionist vision. Yet despite her deep love for the land she had chosen, each time she left she grew more distant from the Land of Israel and its people, and whenever she eventually returned, her sense of alienation only deepened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Return from India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During her trip to the United States in 1921, amidst a busy itinerary\u2014including a conversation with Thomas Edison at his laboratories\u2014Flaum attended a lecture that profoundly changed her life. The celebrated Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore <\/a>gave a talk in New York, and Flaum felt she was witnessing something prophetic: \u201cThe impression was immense… Tagore did not deliver a speech. He conversed. He educated,\u201d she wrote (p. 139). This moment of connection, akin to love at first sight, eventually inspired her journey to India: \u201cThus it came to pass that the new world [America] later brought me to one of the most ancient [India].\u201d Even after returning to Mandatory Palestine, her bond with Tagore continued to shape her life, and she passionately worked to spread his legacy throughout the country.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Flaum and Tagore in their only known joint photograph, featured on the cover of Prof. Nurit Govrin’s book about Flaum, The Forgotten Traveler<\/a><\/em> [Hebrew]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

She spent two years in India, meeting Tagore, Gandhi, and other influential figures who shaped her life profoundly. Yet, the relationship was not one-sided: a lifelong correspondence developed between the eccentric, humble traveler and the renowned poet. These letters reveal “the same feelings of closeness and mutual respect, along with something subtle and deeply personal between the lines, carefully hidden,” writes Govrin. Flaum\u2019s letters to Tagore remain preserved in his archive in India. In his last letter to Flaum, written on his 80th birthday just two months before his death, Tagore thanked her for her birthday greetings and for the gift she had sent\u2014\u201cYour sweet token of remembrance,\u201d he wrote, \u201ctouched me deeply in my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Flaum, India meant Tagore, and Tagore meant India. Later in life, she wrote her second and final book about him and delivered lectures on India and Tagore across Mandatory Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly one-third of her memoir is dedicated to this period, forming the very heart of the book. It almost seems as if everything else serves as preparation or as a reflection influenced by this central chapter of her life. “It was my destiny to penetrate India’s wounded heart, to understand its sufferings, to become its friend, almost its daughter\u2014as though India had become my second homeland,” she wrote (p. 245).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long before young Israelis began traveling to India and the East after their army service\u2014immersing themselves in its unique culture, returning home enamored, dressed in colorful clothes and filled with vivid memories\u2014there was someone who had already paved the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The End of Her Wanderings<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After fifteen fascinating yet lonely years, Flaum returned to the Land of Israel. She resumed her educational career and published several translations and articles, which were eventually forgotten. Her memoir, Wandering Daughter of Israel: Memories, Travels and Meetings<\/em>, was published in Jerusalem in 1935 by the “L. Mayer” bookstore, receiving virtually no attention from the local press, apart from a brief mention in Hed HaGan<\/em>, the internal professional journal of the Kindergarten Teachers’ Association. The memoir included twenty illustrations by Flaum herself, revealing yet another hidden talent, as well as twenty-two photographs of notable figures she had encountered during her travels. Her second book<\/a>, devoted to Tagore and published in 1946, similarly faded into obscurity.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The title page of Flaum’s second book – Rabindranath Tagore<\/a><\/em> [Hebrew], Shanti Press, 1946, Jerusalem<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

After Israel’s War of Independence, Flaum described her condition in stark terms: “I suffered from heart disease and diabetes.” During this difficult period, she hardly wrote at all, as her deteriorating health prevented her from embarking on the journeys she loved so deeply. These final years were undoubtedly challenging; she relied on the generosity of friends to maintain her dignity, and was hospitalized several times due to illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schlomit F. Flaum passed away in 1963 at the age of seventy, at Jerusalem\u2019s Shaare Zedek Hospital. Very few remembered her, and those who did recalled mainly her unusual style of dress, which often drew attention.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Schlomit Flaum\u2019s book Wandering Daughter of Israel: Memories, Travels and Meetings<\/a><\/em>, published by the “L. Mayer” bookstore, Jerusalem, 1935<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Reading Flaum\u2019s memoir today\u2014reissued in 2019<\/a>, more than eighty years after its original publication\u2014reveals several striking qualities. First and foremost is the pioneering spirit evident on every page, which partly explains why her book was largely ignored upon release, unlike other travel memoirs of the same period. Not only was it authored by a woman at a time when such writing was rare, but Flaum boldly placed herself at the heart of the narrative, which, as Govrin notes, is “written in the voice of someone who is proud of her own accomplishments.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another remarkable feature is Flaum\u2019s meticulous effort to establish herself as a credible author. She carefully wove factual accounts and letters into her narrative, adopting the approach of an astute journalist capable of entering any home\u2014no matter how wealthy or prominent\u2014and establishing meaningful connections with people who intrigued her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above all, however, Flaum\u2019s story is uniquely personal, capturing the journey of a woman who lived a strikingly unconventional life for her era. Hers is a story told not with regret, but pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was a queen abroad, yet a beggar at home,\u201d writes Govrin. Indeed, Flaum brilliantly succeeded in making the wider world her true home, finding abroad what she lacked in her own country: “recognition, appreciation, friendship, and a sense of purpose.” Flaum longed to influence others and be valued, and though she never fully realized these dreams in public life, she remained proud of her ambitions, her tireless efforts to achieve them, and the life she chose\u2014a life devoted to exploration, discovery, and dedication to others. It is this legacy by which she deserves to be remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the preparation of this article, we made use of Nurit Govrin\u2019s book,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Forgotten Traveler: Shlomith F. Flaum: Her Life and Work <\/em>[Hebrew]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Schlomit Flaum left behind no family, no one to preserve her memory. Yet she did leave something extraordinary\u2014a groundbreaking book, the first Hebrew-language travelogue written by a woman from the Land of Israel, during an era when women rarely ventured beyond their homes. 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