Women had important roles in seventeenth century Eastern Europe; they were mothers, wives, and businesswomen. They cooked meals, cleaned houses, and educated children. In addition to the domestic roles women played in society, they also played roles in the trade and commerce. Gluckel of Hameln authored one of the earliest-known Jewish memoirs detailing the rise and fall of her own fortunes (Schachter.) She had great judgment for business transactions, and when she was widowed at age 54 she took over her husband’s business to ensure her children’s future. In her memoir, Gluckel describes her marriage as a business partnership, boasting that her husband would turn only to her for business advice. Jewish women of Eastern Europe were far more influential than the commonly believed. In addition to being housewives and having the daily responsibility of cleaning the house, they were also businesswomen and religious teachers. Gluckel of Hameln’s autobiography was a powerful story that showed the importance of hard work, religion, and family to the common Jew in a Christian dominated Germany.
Gluckel of Hamlin, was not just a regular housewife, thought to be like other women in the 17th century, but she was also a business women, who showed that not only men controlled the economy. She was born in to a Jewish family in Hamburg, Germany in 1646. Due to religious persecution her family moved to Hamlin, Germany. She was betrothed at age twelve to Hayyim Hamel and was married at age 14. Gluckel gave birth to fourteen children, two of whom, a two-week old infant son and a three-year old daughter, died prematurely. Gluckel was an active partner in her husband’s business, which consisted of trading jewelry and stones and giving out loans and t...
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Hameln, Gluckel. The Memiors of Gluckel of Hameln. Trans. Marvin Lowenthal.
N.p.: Schocken Books , 1997. Print.
Schachter, Allison. "Jewish Women as Industrious Earners." The Online Jewish
Book Community . Jbooks, n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2011. interviews/index/IP_Schachter.htm>. Taitz, Emily, and Cheryl Tallan. "Entrepreneurs." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. December 4, 2011 .
Turniansky, Chava. "Glueckel of Hameln." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. September 26, 2011 .
Women were auctioned off as “merchandise” to the best suitor they could get in town. Beauty, though important, was not as important as the dowry the woman possessed, because it was the dowry the family provided that could exalt a man’s societal status to all new heights. Once married, women were expected to have son’s for their husbands in order to take over the family business. A barren woman was not an option and could have easily been rushed to the nearest convent to take her vows of a nun, for no honor could be brought otherwise. No woman could run from the societal and legal pressures placed upon them. Rather than run, some chose to accept their place, but, like Lusanna, some chose to fight the status quo for rights they believed they
James, Edward, Janet James, and Paul Boyer. Notable American Women, 1607-1950. Volume III: P-Z. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971. Print.
Gluckel of Hameln was a Jewish woman from Hamburg who lived in the seventeenth century. She wrote her lengthy memoirs in Yiddish. Her memoir is regarded to be one of the most important documents for European Jewish history written by a Jewish woman. The diary or the memoirs are addressed to her fourteen children. In 1690, Gluckel became a widow after the death of her husband and the memoirs were a therapeutic way to heal her wounded heart. The diary was used to take away her sad thoughts and to get her through her sadness. She states “I am not writing this book in order to preach to you, but, as I have already said, to drive away the melancholy that comes with the long nights …”However, in her diary she informs her children that the diary was not a book of morals but one to include them in her life experiences, memories and life. In her memoirs, Gluckel explains all what happened in her life. She also explains the way she directed the financial and personal destinies of her children, how she conducted her trade business with the intention of promoting the welfare of her family.
Although she always denied claims of having a distinct Jewish calling, being a second generation German Jewish immigrant, she has always been associated with Jewish New York. Wald has never laid claim to being a crusader for the Jewish people, and yet most of the information published about her comes from the Jewish community trying to sell her as an activist for the Jewish cause. Marjorie N. Feld gives readers a critical look into the life and work of woman dedicated to revealing the similarities of people not their differences. Lillian Wald’s story is an important one because she spent her life working towards a universal vision that would group people together and yet remembered by her difference from other progressive reformers of the time, being Jewish. In this book Feld describes Wald not as person fighting for a particular group, but a person fighting for humanity's equality.
Drawn from her surviving love letters and court records, The Burgermeister's Daughter is an engaging examination of the politics of sexuality, gender and family in the 16th century, and a supreme testament to the grit and perseverance of a woman who challenged the inequalities of this distant age. The story, in Steven Ozment's meticulous and experienced hands, goes well beyond the litigious Anna to encompass much else about the 16th century, including the nature of sexual morality, the social individuality of men and women, the jockeying for power between the upwardly striving bourgeoisie and the downward sliding nobility, and the aftereffect of the reformation on private life. Steven Ozment's understanding of the Medieval German society and its effects on its citizens is amazing. Steven Ozment brings a medieval drama to life in this extensively researched and absorbing account of the 30-year lawsuit between Anna Buschler and her family. Anna's father was the Burgermeister (mayor) of the German town of Schwabisch Hall. He banished his daughter from the family home in 1525 after he read letters that proved her sexual connection with two men. Anna responded by suing her father. Anna Buschler looked predestined to a comfortable and serene life, not one of constant personal and legal conflict. Born into an eminent and respectable family, self-confident and high-spirited in her youth, and a woman of acknowledged beauty, she had a standing as the beauty of her hometown, and as something of a free soul. In an era when women were presumed to be disciplined and loyal, Anna proved to be neither. Defying 16th-century social mores, she was the constant subject of defamation because of her indecent dress and flirtatious behavior. When her we...
What was the predominant image of women and women’s place in medieval society? Actual historical events, such as the scandal and subsequent litigation revolving around Anna Buschler which Steven Ozment detail’s in the Burgermeisters Daughter, suggests something off a compromise between these two literary extremes. It is easy to say that life in the sixteenth century was surely no utopia for women but at least they had some rights.
I chose to write about Jewish-Americans after my mother, who was raised Christian, chose to identify herself as Jewish. In my reading I examined Jewish culture and how it is in American society. I looked at how Jewish-American culture has become a prominent component of American society. I looked at the historical forces that have shaped Jewish-American experience in the United States. I looked at demographics of where most Jewish-Americans live. I examined how Jewish-Americans have contributed to our culturally pluralistic society in the United States.
Wisse, Ruth R. "Sutzkever, Avrom." YIVO. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.
By using dogs, the Nazi soldiers reinforced their ideas that Jewish women were sexual deviants and were part of a sub human race. To the victims, this kind of violence was especially degrading as the officers would laugh and taunt them while the dogs were biting them among other things. This is just another example of how women’s experiences of violence were gendered, in that, the sexual violence was specifically enacted against them in this way due to the Nazi rhetoric surrounding Jewish women and how acts of violence against them are meant to demean their femininity.
The movement for female right is one of the important social issue and it is ongoing reaction against the traditional male definition of woman. In most civilizations there was very unequal treatment between women and men with the expectation being that women should simply stay in the house and let the men support them. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, and Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, are two well-known plays that give rise to discussions over male-female relationships. In both stories, they illustrate the similar perspectives on how men repress women in their marriages; men consider that women should obey them and their respective on their wives is oppressed showing the problems in two marriages that described in two plays. Therefore, in this essay, I will compare two similar but contrast stories; A Doll's House and Trifles, focusing on how they describe the problems in marriage related to women as victims of suppressed right.
Trible has three main focuses in her article that include, “the inferiority, subordination and abuse of women in ancient Israel”, “the counter literature that is itself a critique of patriarchy”, and “the stories of terror about woman” (Trible). Each one sums a different oppression that women in the Bible faced. These ideas suggest that the overall purpose of her article is to identify that while women were viewed as a “helper” to men, God viewed them as much more (Trible).
“We are left without any guide or compass, nothing to base our actions on, or blame them on. Since all actions are free choices we cannot escape our personal responsibility for everything we do and its consequences.” (Walter). The highly respected Bathory family sprung from the Hun Gutkeled Clan which held power throughout east central Europe. By the mid-16th century their power rose to its peak but died out ultimately by the year 1658. Many well-known kings, princes, members of judiciary, and holders of ministerial and civil posts were born into the legendary Bathory family. Among these infamous family members Erzsebet also known as Elizabeth Bathory was born in 1560. It is said that in order to preserve her loveliness and youthfulness she butchered approximately six hundred young ladies. Although Ms. Bathory’s actions were very disgraceful, she is the epitome of the negative effect that beauty and youth has upon society.
Hunt, Margaret R. The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and Family in England, 1680-1780. London: University of California Press, 1996
In the late 16th century England experienced poverty, starvation, increase in population, inequality amongst women and men, and lack of opportunity in the work force. During this time England was torn between two religions, Catholicism and Protestantism. England’s economy was primarily agricultural, workers were tied to their land. Due to the social inequality of the 16th century, women were limited to their rights and men were superior. Women worked in the clothing industry and men worked primarily on the farm. Due to the economic hardships in England, men and women migrated to London for a better life. The nation was under the rule of Queen Elizabeth, who surpassed the restrictions placed on women. This paper explores the shortcomings and hardships experienced in Elizabethan England.
The "Autobiography". Abrams 1601 - 1604. Mulock, Dinah. Maria. A Woman's Thoughts About Women.