Earlier this week, as I prepared to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began last night at sundown, I decided that honoring the contributions of Jewish women to feminism would make for a fitting essay. Immediately obvious to me was the enormous influence Jewish women had on the "Second Wave" of feminism.

Many people with a only passing knowledge of feminism practically equate it with Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan. Of course, these women are probably the most famous Second Wave feminists, and both happened to be Jewish. The Second Wave is full of other Jewish women, such as Susan Sontag, Alix Kates Shulman, Susan Brownmiller, Shulamith Firestone, Judy Chicago, etc., etc. Interestingly, many of these women first became turned onto activism as part of the Civil Rights Movement.

While I had no problem finding information about Jewish Second Wave or even Third Wave feminists (although finding blog posts about them not written by right-wing ranters, raving anti-Semites, or lurid white supremacists was disappointingly difficult – if you have something lucid to say about these women, please blog about it and post your links in the comments!!!), I realized that as the First Wave of feminism is traditionally defined, it leaves out pretty much any women leaders who were not white, upper middle class, and Christian. The suffrage movement is of course critical to the rights that women have today, and I would never denigrate the amazing work done by the early feminist pioneers and the painful punishment often meted out to them. (If you haven't seen the HBO movie Iron Jawed Angels, put it on your Netflix list ASAP.) But, just as the mainstream, middle-class, white, heterosexual-led Second Wave feminist movement is rightly criticized for its exclusiveness, my exploration of Jewish feminist leaders led me to re-think how I look at the First Wave of feminism.

If we think about feminism as promoting human rights, it is fair to say that a number of prominent Jewish (as well as African-American) women were paving the way for future generations in the late 1800s and early 1900s when they agitated for abolition and worker's rights. Danya Ruttenberg, a Third Wave Jewish feminist activist writer and rabbinical student who blogs at Jerusalem Syndrome, pointed me to a number of early Jewish feminists who existed outside of the conventional First Wave movement. How I ever could have forgotten Emma Goldman, a personal hero of mine while I sought alternative role models when I was in high school? Kim from Emergiblog honored Lillian Wald, nurse, feminist, founding member of the NAACP. Thanks to Danya, I learned about Hannah Greenebaum Solomon, child welfare advocate and founder of the progressive National Council of Jewish Women. Suddenly, I remembered Rose Schneiderman, a labor organizer and advocate of worker education for both men and women who was the subject of my college thesis. These women may have worked outside of the traditional feminist framework of the era, but the work they did benefited people of all stripes to this day.

It takes many people from all walks of life to create and enrich a vibrant feminist movement. On this first day of the Jewish year 5768, I am proud to be counted as one of a long line of Jewish women who want to make the world a better place for everyone.

To learn more about Jewish feminists, check out the wonderful online exhibit Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution from the Jewish Women's Archive (JWA). The site features dozens of Jewish feminist activists from the late 1800s to today, many of whom also sought/seek to work in partnership with others to address biases against low-income women, women of color, and/or non-heterosexual women. The JWA also has a thoughtful group blog, Jewesses with Attitude.

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Suzanne proudly self-identifies as "Jewish white trash" much to the horror of her parents and blogs at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants