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Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women's Activism, 1890-1940
Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace explores the social and political activism of American Jewish women from approximately 1890 to the beginnings of World War II.
Written in an engaging style, the book demonstrates that no history of the birth control, suffrage, or peace movements in the United States is complete without analyzing the impact of Jewish women's presence. The volume is based on years of extensive primary source research in more than a dozen archives and among hundreds of primary sources, many of which have previously never been seen. Voluminous personal papers and institutional records paint a vivid picture of a world in which both middle-class and working-class American Jewish women were consistently and publicly engaged in all the major issues of their day and worked closely with their non-Jewish counterparts on behalf of activist causes.
This extraordinarily well-researched volume makes a unique contribution to the study of modern women's history, modern Jewish history, and the history of American social movements.
Written in an engaging style, the book demonstrates that no history of the birth control, suffrage, or peace movements in the United States is complete without analyzing the impact of Jewish women's presence. The volume is based on years of extensive primary source research in more than a dozen archives and among hundreds of primary sources, many of which have previously never been seen. Voluminous personal papers and institutional records paint a vivid picture of a world in which both middle-class and working-class American Jewish women were consistently and publicly engaged in all the major issues of their day and worked closely with their non-Jewish counterparts on behalf of activist causes.
This extraordinarily well-researched volume makes a unique contribution to the study of modern women's history, modern Jewish history, and the history of American social movements.
301 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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About the author
Melissa R. Klapper
6 books19 followersMelissa R. Klapper is Professor of History and Director of Women's & Gender Studies at Rowan University.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 2, 2020
Jewish women saw no contradiction in their work as women activists. They used their jewish identity and heritage as precedence. Love those insights from Klapper. Heard her speak at the MSU Women's Empowerment Conference in November and she was excellent.
May 27, 2016
About the intersections of Jewishness, feminism and political/social activism and how all three aspects can simultaneously complicate and support each other, this book was in danger of drying up like a passover matzoh. Klapper avoids that by tellng some of the personal stories of individuals. The book begins at the height of the great wave of immigration and goes to just before the US enters World War II. First Wave feminism, progressive era... I love these stern looking women in the big fancy hats, navigating a terrain where everyone believes there are essential differences between the genders.
Of the three movements examined here, suffrage, contraception legalization, and the peace movement, it is the last one that interested me most. Some could say that's because I'm a man and "peace" is the least explicitly feminist of the three, but also this is the movement I am least familiar with. I had no idea that it was so huge, that WILPF had so many members, that the biggest chapters had huge Jewish memberships or that they faced so much antisemitism. I was also fascinated by how the whole thing collapsed in the face of the Nazi threat and how organizations like WILPF failed to see that this threat was especially dangerous for so many of their members. The biggest shocker for me was that the CCAR (Central Conference of American Rabbis... the Reform rabbis) in 1935 seriously considered issuing a statement that Jews should not be soldiers. Imagine if Reform Judaism had gone all conscientious objector ... wow. I also didn't know that the CCAR was at one time against Zionism. I would also like to learn more about the Industrial Workers of the World Birth Control Clinic, apparently I could find more in an archive where the papers of Cheri Appel are kept.
Three cheers for those old time Jewish sheros!
Of the three movements examined here, suffrage, contraception legalization, and the peace movement, it is the last one that interested me most. Some could say that's because I'm a man and "peace" is the least explicitly feminist of the three, but also this is the movement I am least familiar with. I had no idea that it was so huge, that WILPF had so many members, that the biggest chapters had huge Jewish memberships or that they faced so much antisemitism. I was also fascinated by how the whole thing collapsed in the face of the Nazi threat and how organizations like WILPF failed to see that this threat was especially dangerous for so many of their members. The biggest shocker for me was that the CCAR (Central Conference of American Rabbis... the Reform rabbis) in 1935 seriously considered issuing a statement that Jews should not be soldiers. Imagine if Reform Judaism had gone all conscientious objector ... wow. I also didn't know that the CCAR was at one time against Zionism. I would also like to learn more about the Industrial Workers of the World Birth Control Clinic, apparently I could find more in an archive where the papers of Cheri Appel are kept.
Three cheers for those old time Jewish sheros!
July 13, 2024
Incredibly well researched and well written book. I highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews