The Jewish-American woman in American literature

American Jewess

The Jewish-American Woman at the Close of the Nineteenth Century: Perspectives of the American Jewess

The end of the nineteenth century was a time of massive change for American Jewry, and for the United States as a whole. Large numbers of immigrants settling largely in metropolitan areas -- especially New York City -- rapidly changed the size and needs of many immigrant communities. Although the Jewish community in America was already somewhat established by the final decade of the twentieth century, it saw a forty-percent increase in size with the addition nearly half-a-million new Jewish immigrants arriving between 1890 and the dawn of the twentieth century (Sarna and Golden pars. 1-2). This of course had an impact on the way that American Jews perceived themselves and the new arrivals, in ways that were sometimes predictable and at other times seemingly unrelated.

There were, of course, many other influences on the self-perception and overall concerns and viewpoints of American Jews, and when it came to Jewish-American women, these changes were well recorded by the magazine the American Jewess. Founded by Rosa Sonneschein in 1895 and releasing mostly monthly issues until 1899, this magazine was as much a feminist organ as it was a Jewish, capturing the essence of a tumultuous and impassioned time from a very singular perspective. By examining select issues from the seven volumes and four-and-a-half years of the American Jewess' publication, the changing self-perceptions and concerns of Jewish-American women at the close of the nineteenth century can be readily tracked and observed, touching on larger patterns of national change (JWA).

Rosa Sonneschein

Long before moving to Chicago and divorcing her husband (or rather, allowing him to legally divorce her after a mutually agreed-upon separation), Rosa Sonneschein was already a well-established figure in Jewish and broader intellectual/literary circles (Rothstein par. 1; 5). As the rebetzin, or rabbi's wife, Sonneschein had an automatic prominence in the two congregations her husband served, but she increased this through her own very vocal pursuit of her own ideological goals, including a fervent belief in Zionism and the need for women to take a greater role in the shaping and practice of Judaism both religiously and culturally (Rothstein). This led to tensions in her marriage, as she and her husband disagreed on many points, and the couple finally publicly acknowledged their private woes with an 1891 separation, whereupon Rosa moved out of St. Louis to Chicago.

In 1895, she founded the American Jewess, finding it an excellent method for disseminating her views and raising the call to action to other Jewish-American women. Her critiques of the roles of women in Judaism marked the first time an American Jewish woman had so forcefully, consistently, and eloquently attacked the issue of gender inequality in religion, making her a very controversial and in many circles a very well-respected individual (Jewish Women's Archive). Continuing financial difficulties forced her to sell the expanded operation -- the magazine now had offices in New York, as well -- though Sonneschein remained the editor of the American Jewess until the publication of its final issue in 1899, tracing a brief but brilliant arc of change and commentary.

The First Year

The very first issue of the American Jewess, published in April of 1895, largely sets the tone of the content for the rest of the magazine's run. There is something in this issue for almost everyone, from a charming if rather insipid poem entitled "If I Knew" to a story by the well-known author Kate Chopin to a report on the National Council of Jewish Women (a favorite subject of commentary by Sonneschein and her magazine) and even an article devoted to popular science and medicine. There is even a ghost story that makes up the entirety of the issue's "juvenile department." There is, in short, a representation of a wide range of interests and concerns, both those specifically related to the situation of Jewish-American women and to more general concerns of feminism and even the (mostly) non-political aspects of life and culture, such as music and the arts and the sciences.

By the fourth issue of the American Jewess, published in July of 1895, certain features of the magazine's content had discernibly begun to solidify. The "juvenile's department" is not to be found in this issue, and though the magazine still covers a wide range of topics, there is a definite focus in all but one or two articles on feminism in general and the state of Jewish women and Jewish theology more specifically. It is this last count that shows a major changing trend beginning to occur; the first issue was largely non-theological, or at least non-doctrinal, whereas this issue has several articles that explore the nature of women in the Jewish religion, and other facets of Jewish theology in general. The American Jewess already appears to be growing more pointed as its confidence increases.

By October of 1895, when the first issue of the second volume and the seventh issue altogether was released, this very singular focus of the magazine on topics specifically related to overall feminist movements and the Jewish feminist movement in particular was well entrenched. Even the historical/medical article in the issue, which as in previous issues is written by a Dr. Julius Wise, is titled "Cosmetics and Perfumes Among the Ancient Jews," bringing a decidedly Jewish-feminist bent to this area of scholarly exploration of the distant past. A notable exception is a piece entitled "A Visit to Longfellow's Home," which recounts the author's experience visiting the home of the renowned American poet and adds a purely literary element to the magazine, but other than this momentary lapse there is hardly a word in this issue that is not directly targeted towards the magazine's focus.

This focus, as the title of the magazine implies, is largely on the issues that women and Jews -- and especially Jewish women -- were facing and thinking about during 1895. The first issue did not define a clear niche or intent for the magazine, despite it's descriptive title, but the content and the image of the American Jewess quickly coalesced as its first year of publication went by. In the solidifying and narrowing of the magazine's scope, Sonneschein can be seen at work both trying to reflect the prevailing spirit and mentalities of Jewish-American women while at the same time trying to set the tone and the tenor of ongoing debates regarding feminism in general and Jewish feminism in particular. At a time of rising immigration, the American Jewess was stressing the unity of certain classifications and the need for their acceptance, and this was a message the magazine continued to propagate.

The January, 1896 edition of the American Jewess appears to take a step back in the fervency and consistency with which the magazine's emerging voice is put to the task of advancing the cause of women in American society and in Judaism, however. Though many articles still address related topics, including some theological concepts, there is also evidence of an attempt to garner wider appeal with such entries as an untitled poem of Longfellow's and the telling of a legend from the Seneca tribe of Native Americans. In many ways, these can be seen as moments of diversion and interruption from the still-very-prominent main focus of the magazine, meant to be entertaining respites form the serious matters discussed, such as Goethe's thoughts on marriage and the workings of women's group and other areas of social activism in the publication's home city of Chicago.

The issue that appeared in April of the same year shows evidence of this reverse trend continuing, as more literary elements are included in the magazine than in some of the later issues from 1895. These literary topics, however, are often used as side-doors into an examination or at the very least an observation of Jewish-, feminist-, and/or Jewish-feminist goings-on in society. A largely innocuous article about the model for a decades-old illustration becomes a subtle examination of Jews in the publishing industry, and a character piece about a prominent American Jewess, and discussions of art invariably note Jewish contributions to the field. Other pieces, however, retain a broader and purely entertaining perspective, though they never fail to educate along the way, as well.

In September of 1896, the final issue of the second volume of the American Jewess was published, and the trend of highly focused articles that provided in-depth explorations of theological and political issues related to Judaism and feminism interspersed with high-brow but unrelated articles on art, music, and science continued. All in all, the offerings of this issue of the American Jewess, along with the other issues published during 1896, present a picture of the Jewish-American woman -- and to some degree simply Jews and even simply Americans altogether -- as a group pf individuals with certainly their own tastes, but with a developing desire to become a full part of the broader Western European-American culture of which they were now a part, while at the same time retaining a strong sense fo and commitment to their own separate culture and heritage.

1897-1898

1896 saw the expansion of the American Jewess with the opening of a New York office, though the content of the magazine appeared largely unchanged at the beginning of 1897. The January issue of the publication contains many articles that were themed similarly to the previous issues of the magazine, though there is a decidedly more practical nature to many of the articles included in the issue. "Household hints" and similar sections had been regular appearances in the magazine since its inception, but this issue contains articles on creating happiness in the home and on the history of the shoe -- with a definite feminist-Jewish perspective. While still engaging in abstract, intellectual and scholarly pursuits, the content of the magazine is also shifting towards direct daily usefulness.

The issues began to shorten noticeably as 1897 progressed, and as the number of articles depleted the ratio of directly targeted articles in relation to those with a less focused and broader cultural/artistic/scientific/literary perspective seems to have decreased. For every article with a title like "The New Woman," there is one simply delivering the news of the local music scene. A growing number of articles, however, attempt to bridge this gap; the September 1897 issue also contains articles regarding London and Paris fashions, as well as "The summer Girl" and "fascinating Women," which blend popular culture with the grander political aims of the magazine. This could be taken as a sign that the central message of the publication and Sonneschein's intent in founding the magazine were beginning to wear thin with the reading public; these articles reinforce the central ideas without completely ignoring the entertainment and diversionary aims of the readers.

The dawn of a new year, however, seems to have also heralded another transition in the content of the magazine, however subtle; each article in the January issue of 1898 is directly related, in one way or another, to the social, cultural, and political position of being a woman and/or a Jew in contemporary society. Though some of these articles are as apparently frivolous as more fashion reviews and a discussion of point lace -- which ends up being a remarkable treatise o economy and feminism, in a somewhat surprising fashion -- all eventually relate to the needs and concerns of women, and especially of Jewish women. There is a sense that energies and purposes have been refocused, and the continued reduction in the size of each issue is countered by an increasing fervency and consistency in its tone.

Later on in the year, following Sonneschein's sale of the magazine in an attempt to keep the enterprise afloat, the issues again became longer, no doubt because of the additional capital and new ownership/management that the American Jewess was under, but the fervency and consistency of the magazine's articles did not alter a whit, no doubt because of Sonneschein's continued editorship. A new topic did rise to prominence during the year, however; the September 1898 issue of the magazine contains several opening articles devoted to the subject of Zionism -- "Zionism," "A Vision of Israel," United Israel," and "hearken to the Call" all appear in the first dozen pages of substantial material in the issue, and the other articles are equally focused on relevant and current political issues for the Jewish people in general and Jewish feminists in particular. The self-awareness of the group and the growing sense of cohesion with the global Jewish community is evident in the tenor of these articles.

1899: The End, and an Overview

There were only three issues of the American Jewess published in 1899, in January, May, and August, and the articles contained therein seem to reflect the haphazard and resistant dying breaths of the short-lived but high-impact publication. The January issue contains a great number of articles that are relevant to Judaism in both theology and history, with a much greater emphasis on the latter, and though there are several articles dealing with feminist and Jewish-feminist issues these have definitely taken a back seat to wider Jewish concerns. In this, there can possibly be seen a reflection of the growing Jewish population, many of whom were immigrants less attuned to the gender politics of the New World.