From the Shtetl to the Lecture Hall: Jewish Women and Cultural Exchange

Through life stories and social history, Luise Hirsch illustrates how Russian- and German-Jewish women pioneered in pushing German universities, including professional schools, to open their locked doors to all women students. Russian-Jewish women revamped a male tradition of learning and continued a female tradition of independent female breadwinners, combining these traits with the egalitarianism and practical bent of Russian nihilism. They, along with German-Jewish women who benefited from the class and educational interests of their parents, helped to break the misogynist glass-ceilings at German universities. Written in a lively style, this book will appeal to general as well as university audiences. — Marion Kaplan, New York University