“One Apron…One handkerchief…2 brass Candlesticks”: America’s Jewish Women, the Early Years

Sadie B. Feldman Family Lecture

Speaker: Pamela Nadell, American University

Recorded on Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 7:00pm

FREE

Join us as we celebrate Mother’s Day and take a closer look into the life of Mendes’ A-Mazing mother, Judith Cohen. Pamela Nadell of American University will be exploring what it meant to be a Jewish woman and mother during the 18th and 19th centuries. In this lecture, as we learn more about the first Jewish women to make homes in America, we will also discover the wider world of Judith Cohen’s son, “The A-Mazing Mendes Cohen.”

Pamela S. Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History and is Chair of the Department of History and Director of the Jewish Studies Program. Her books include Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination, 1889-1985 (Beacon Press, 1998), which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Her new book, co-edited with AU Professor Kate Haulman, is Making Women’s Histories: Beyond National Perspectives (New York University Press, 2013). Her consulting work for museums includes the Library of Congress and the new National Museum of American Jewish History on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall.