RBG's Brave & Brilliant Women: List 2

She is praised by rabbis in the Talmud—the book that codified Jewish oral law—and by the Roman historian Flavius Josephus, and for good reason.

The Judeans themselves were divided between two rival Jewish sects—the Sadducees, who favored keeping power in the hands of Temple priests, and the Pharisees, a smaller group of independent thinkers who argued that God could and should be worshipped even away from the Temple and outside Jerusalem.

She led campaigns for increased literacy and judicial reform, and reorganized the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court. In the process, she removed Sadducee sages from important positions in the government and the court, replacing them with Pharisees.

As queen, Salome Alexandra is also famous for bringing a brief golden age of peace and stability to the Kingdom of Judea. She was a skilled leader and one of the most effective mediators and politicians of the time.

As the centuries rolled on, women’s voices continued to be conspicuously absent from recorded history. But there were, again, exceptions. One was Gracia Mendes Nasi, who reached a level of visibility unusual for a woman—particularly a Jewish woman during the Inquisition.

The Inquisition was a centuries-long attempt by the Catholic Church to root out beliefs that it considered heresy.

This ugly and painful chapter in human affairs had a cataclysmic impact at the time and still has ripple effects today. It began on the Iberian Peninsula and no people were more affected by it than the Sephardi Jews who lived in Portugal and Spain at the end of the sixteenth century. In Lisbon, where Gracia was born, and throughout the Christian world, Jews were persecuted, driven out of their homes and countries, and murdered en masse.

Gracia was smart and well-read, and at age eighteen, she married a wealthy trader from another prominent Lisbon converso family.

Around the same time, life became even harder for Portugal’s conversos—with the onset of the Inquisition, they were persecuted despite their conversion to Catholicism.

Already one of the world’s wealthiest women, Gracia became even richer when her husband’s brother and business partner died. He not only left his half of the business to her, he also named her principal executor of the family estate, an extremely rare appointment for women of the era.

Already one of the world’s wealthiest women, Gracia became even richer when her husband’s brother and business partner died. He not only left his half of the business to her, he also named her principal executor of the family estate, an extremely rare appointment for women of the era.

She was a shrewd businesswoman, and with persecution of conversos on the rise in Antwerp as well, she wisely transferred the family’s assets to Italy, where for the first time in her life, she was able to live openly as a Jew.

There she set to work creating and supporting institutions to aid Jews who had managed to flee the Inquisition. Beloved because of her philanthropy, people began to call her Doña (Lady in Spanish) Gracia.

Anti-Semitism was spreading, and in time, the Italian city-states, too, grew hostile to Jews.

From there, she conducted business and again used her fortune to establish synagogues, yeshivas, libraries, and charities for her fellow Jewish refugees.

She donated large sums of money to rebuild Tiberias into a thriving Jewish settlement.

After centuries of relative obscurity, Gracia is once again renowned, and in 2010, Israel issued a state medal and stamp honoring the 500th anniversary of her birth.

After centuries of relative obscurity, Gracia is once again renowned, and in 2010, Israel issued a state medal and stamp honoring the 500th anniversary of her birth.

As was often the case, one of the few things both sides could agree on was their dislike of the Jews, and many anti-Jewish edicts and actions were issued.

Meanwhile, women, whether Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish, had few freedoms; their only choice in life was to run the household, bear and raise children, and, if they were affluent, manage the servants.

Her name is derived from Glück, the German translation of the Hebrew name “Mazal,” meaning “good fortune,” and Glückel was indeed fortunate to grow up in a wealthy family in Hamburg.

But she was also a savvy businesswoman. Her husband, like her parents, traded in jewelry and precious stones and made loans and managed financial transactions. Not only did he seek Glückel’s advice, but she kept the books, interviewed new business partners, and drafted agreements.

Under her control, the business flourished and she accumulated a substantial fortune, making it possible for her to arrange good marriages for her children.

Under her control, the business flourished and she accumulated a substantial fortune, making it possible for her to arrange good marriages for her children.

Glückel fended off many suitors, but once her children were grown, she remarried, which meant that her new husband controlled her property.

He wasn’t an astute businessman, and when he died, he left her penniless.

Nonetheless, Glückel’s account of her life is filled with assertions of her strong faith and her gratitude for her many blessings, and her accomplishments are remembered to this day.

We know more about her than about many of the women who came before her because by the eighteenth century newspapers and periodicals, both religious and secular, had ushered in a new age of information in Europe and America.

We know more about her than about many of the women who came before her because by the eighteenth century newspapers and periodicals, both religious and secular, had ushered in a new age of information in Europe and America.

Most articles, of course, were written by and about men, but the speeches and deeds of preeminent women were also documented.

In addition, Rebecca recorded her thoughts and observations in prolific correspondence, much of which survived her.

An avid reader and a talented writer, Rebecca chose to dedicate herself to community service.

When she was twenty, she and her mother and sisters launched a nondenominational organization to aid poor women and children.

Known as the Female Association of Philadelphia for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances, it was unique in bringing together women from different faiths and for being an entirely women-run organization.

As the organization’s secretary, Rebecca insisted that the treasurer be unmarried. This was not an arbitrary rule since at the time men controlled their wives’ assets.

Requiring the treasurer to be unmarried safeguarded the group’s funds and ensured that no husband could assert a right to manage or divert its money.

In 1819, she founded the Female Hebrew Benevolent Society to provide social services to Jewish women and children—and she led it for forty years.

She was so well known that she was the inspiration for the character Rebecca in Sir Walter Scott’s classic novel Ivanhoe. Scott’s Rebecca is the first favorable depiction of a Jew in English fiction.

He portrays her as a sympathetic young Jewish woman who is beautiful, courageous, virtuous, and noble of character, just like the real one.

He portrays her as a sympathetic young Jewish woman who is beautiful, courageous, virtuous, and noble of character, just like the real one.