Browse this section for short profiles of some of the thousands of Jewish women found throughout jwa.org. We will be adding new profiles to this section regularly and welcome your suggestions for women to add.
As a radical activist for civil rights, feminism, and an end to the Vietnam War, Vicki Gabriner risked her life to transform the country at a time of tremendous upheaval.
Barbara Gaffin brought international attention to the desperate circumstances of Ethiopian Jews and helped whole communities flee to Israel.
Roberta Galler’s work for the Congressional Challenge marked a landmark civil rights effort, using six hundred depositions that blacks had been prevented from voting in the 1964 congressional election as evidence that the election was unconstitutional.
A champion in two very different fields, Loren Galler-Rabinowitz took home the bronze medal for ice dancing in 2004, then competed in the 2011 Miss America Pageant as Miss Massachusetts.
Mamie Goldsmith Gamoran chose to combat assimilation in America by writing children’s books on Jewish history and holidays that encouraged children to feel proud of their dual identities as Jews and Americans.
Annabelle Gamson’s performances of Isadora Duncan’s choreography were remarkable both in their own right and for the fact that Gamson performed them in her forties, at an age when most dancers chose to retire.
At a time when ideas about childrearing were mainly shaped by philosophers like Plato or Rousseau with little actual research on child development, Bird Stein Gans cofounded and led the Society for the Study of Child Nature to better educate parents.
A firm believer in the importance of government regulations in protecting citizens, Helene Gans advocated for minimum wage laws, consumer protection, and relief for victims of WWII.
Roz Garber evaded the KGB to bring hope to refuseniks in the USSR.
Evelyn Garfiel’s Jewish scholarship on topics like the prayer book and the Hebrew language helped make Jewish study accessible to the broader public.
Gats served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the US Marine Corps.
Through her writing, Ruth Glazer Gay captured an engaging view of the Jewish community, both past and present.
A brilliant mathematician who did groundbreaking work in Europe, Hilda Geiringer was stalled in her professional career after immigrating to the US, where her gender and her age became serious liabilities.
Elizabeth Rozetta Geleerd’s work on extreme psychological conditions like amnesia and schizophrenia led to new methods for treating seriously disturbed children and adolescents.
As one of the first women rabbis, Laura Geller pushed for women’s greater inclusion in both Jewish liturgy and Jewish leadership.
A seasoned social worker and executive director of Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans, Deena Gerber helped residents put their lives back together in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Regal and soft-spoken, Berta Gersten graced the Yiddish stage for decades, playing a wide range of leading roles to great critical acclaim.
Temima Gezari made a lasting impact on Jewish education through her vivid artwork and illustrations of children’s books as well as her many years of teaching pedagogy.
A passionate dancer, Marika Gidali used the more theatrical elements of dance to communicate the history and current struggles of her adopted homeland, Brazil.
Miriam Gideon took inspiration for her compositions from great poetry and Jewish prayers, earning acclaim as the second woman inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1976.
A “Blue Dog” (conservative) Democrat with a gift for cultivating friendships and alliances on both sides of the aisle, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords fought to recover from a 2011 shooting and became a gun control activist.
Ruth Gikow’s figurative paintings and murals offered her a means to comment on society and urban life.
After a highly successful decade as the lead on Little House on the Prairie, Melissa Gilbert defied the odds for child actors by becoming a Hollywood power-broker as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 2001–2005.
The daughter of Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Susan Brandeis Gilbert became one of the first women attorneys to argue a case before the Supreme Court.
Arguing that men and women can have equal rights and still have fundamentally different perspectives, Carol Gilligan founded “difference feminism” and transformed the field of psychology.
How to cite this page
Jewish Women's Archive. "Profiles." (Viewed on November 28, 2015) <http://jwa.org/people/toc/G>.