Three Outstanding Women: Mary Fels, Rebekah Kohut, Annie Nathan Meyer.
[Judaica]. Askowith, Dora. Three Outstanding Women: Mary Fels, Rebekah Kohut, Annie Nathan Meyer. With a forward by Fannie Hurst. New York: Bloch Publishing, 1941.
Slim 8vo.; green cloth.
First edition of biographical essays by another “outstanding” woman. A presentation copy, inscribed to a prominent professor of Judaic Studies at Columbia: To Professor Salo Barovy my esteemed teacher and friend. From the author Dora Askowith / New York, N.Y., Oct. 18, 1941. With Barovy’s ownership stamp below.
Askowith herself was an educator and historian who received her A. B. from Barnard College and her A.M. and Ph.D. from Columbia. After teaching history in high school for a time, she was given a position as a professor at Hunter College where she made her name as an author while winning fellowships for her research. Three Outstanding Women represents an early attempt to revise history to correctly include women: “Women throughout the ages have graced the annals of history, in every walk of life, while myriads, unheralded, have in their own quiet way, turned many a tide along civilization’s onward sway” (p. vii). Askowith’s profiles herald three American Jewish women who, in diverse areas, contributed to that progress.
Mary Fels’s first leadership role was in partnership with her husband, a successful entrepreneur in the soap business who went on to advocate land and tax reform. After her husband’s death, Fels continued to work for social causes like prison reform and support of the arts. She set up a foundation to promote awareness of the history and mission of Israel and for the non-political settlement of Palestine. In addition to writing a few books, Fels was briefly the editor of a magazine.
Rebekah Kohut was also involved in social work. The daughter and wife of prominent American rabbis, she supported her step-children after their father’s death by lecturing on Jewish subjects and teaching English to immigrants. Kohut’s sphere of action widened once she founded the Kohut School for Girls which became a model for combining religious and secular education. While continuing her educational activities, her concern for the working conditions of young women led to her involvement and leadership in numerous organizations and eventually to a place on New York State unemployment commissions. Kohut was president of the World Congress of Jewish Women in 1942 (after Askowith’s book was written) and went on to write four books herself.
Another prominent woman in education was Annie Nathan Meyer, a Daughter of the American Revolution. As a young woman, she studied privately to take the Columbia University exams since the University didn’t allow women at lectures. In response to her exclusion, in 1888 she convinced the University trustees to allow a school for women to be founded—Barnard College. From then on, she was on the school’s board of trustees, being honored with a drama library in her name for her seventieth birthday. Meyer was a playwright as well as the author of articles and books on women and other issues. She lectured widely on art and education and was involved with Herbert Hoover’s administration and with the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
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