In This Election Year, The Shofar Recalls The Names Of Jewish Women Who Participated in the Women’s Suffrage Movement

On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibited any citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. Today, a century later, The Shofar looks back at a sampling of the Jewish women who dedicated their lives to women’s suffrage in America and around the world.

  • Gertrude Weil helped found the Goldsboro Equal Suffrage Association in 1914, and served as its first president. By 1917, she was an officer in the North Carolina Equal Suffrage League, becoming president in 1919.
  • The Jewish League for Woman Suffrage (JLWS), founded Nov. 3, 1912 by Laura and Leonard Franklin, was the only Jewish women’s organization in the world devoted exclusively to obtaining Jewish suffrage for women.
  • Henrietta Franklin served as president of the British National Union of Women Suffrage Societies in 1916 and 1917. She was one of a small but powerful group of Jewish women who participated in the British suffrage movement.
  • Mary Belle Grossman’s involvement in Cleveland’s suffrage movement launched her public career as a political activist. She later served as a judge, leading the Cleveland Press in 1947 to describe her as a “militant feminist who has been bad news to wife beaters, gamblers, and persons charged with morals offenses.”
  • Rosika Schwimmer was a leader in the international pacifist and feminist movements. She was recruited by leaders of the American suffrage movement and the president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance to organize the campaign for women’s suffrage in America.
  • Belle Winestine was selected by members of the State Headquarters for Woman Suffrage in Wisconsin as the student representative to address a joint session of the state legislature. In 1914, she helped launch the women’s suffrage movement in Montana.
  • Maud Nathan, born into a distinguished old New York Sephardic family, worked for women’s suffrage, an issue that caused a rift in her relations with her family.
  • Anita Pollitzer was arrested as a Silent Sentinel after picketing the Woodrow Wilson White House. In August 1920, it is believed that Pollitzer used considerable charm to convince legislator Harry T. Burn of Tennessee to cast the deciding vote for the 19th amendment.
  • Rosa Manus was a leading feminist before WWII, active in the Dutch branch of the International Women’s Suffrage Alliance. In 1935, she was the driving force behind the establishment of the International Archives for the Women’s Movement, which aimed to promote the women’s movement and collect and preserve the cultural heritage of women.
  • Rosalie Whitney joined the Brooklyn Woman’s Suffrage Party in 1917. She was the New York congressional chair in the Woman’s Federal Equality Association and a speaker on behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association at the House of Representatives suffrage amendment hearing in 1918.
  • Bertha Solomon was one of the first women’s rights activists in South Africa. After years of active campaigning for voting rights for women, the South African Suffrage Movement achieved a partial victory with passage of the Women’s Suffrage Act of 1930. However, the act enfranchised white women only.