National Council of Jewish Women - History

History

According to the NCJW website, NCJW was organized following the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where Jewish women were brought together under the leadership of Hannah Greenebaum Solomon to “shape the destinies” of American lives. Rebuffed by the Jewish men at the parliament from playing a substantive role, the assembled women sought to form an organization that would strengthen women’s connection to Judaism and build on that identity to pursue a wide-ranging social justice agenda. That agenda included advocating women’s and children’s rights, assisting Jewish immigrants, and advancing social welfare, as well as defending Jews and Judaism, advancing Jewish identity, and incorporating Jewish values in its work. According to Faith Rogow, author of Gone to Another Meeting: The National Council of Jewish Women (1893-1993), the “NCJW was the offspring of the economic and social success achieved by German Jewish immigrants in the United States. As this community of German Jews matured and stabilized, it faced the same challenge to gender role definitions that had accompanied the Jacksonian Democracy a half century earlier." (Rogow 1995:2)

At its beginning, NCJW focused on educating Jewish women who had lost a sense of identity with Judaism and on helping Jewish immigrants become self sustaining in their new land. Activities included promoting education and employment for women through adult study circles, vocational training, school health programs, and free community health dispensaries. NCJW was part of the broader effort of middle and upper class women to assist those less well off, working closely with the settlement movement epitomized by Jane Addams' Hull House in Chicago. Their work helped create the modern profession of social work. NCJW also began a campaign for social legislation to address low-income housing, child labor, public health, food and drug regulations, and civil rights. In 1908 NCJW argued for a federal anti-lynching law. NCJW also became involved in efforts to promote world peace.

During World War I, NCJW raised funds for war relief in Europe and Russia and helped achieve passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. As the Depression began, NCJW became involved in government programs to provide relief and help the unemployed find jobs, while continuing its legislative efforts for social legislation. During the 1940s, NCJW called for an end to segregation and racial discrimination. World War II found NCJW engaged in rescuing Jewish children from Germany and working to reunite thousands of displaced persons with family members, as well as a broad range of other relief efforts.

After the war, NCJW fought to preserve civil liberties during the McCarthy era and helped develop the innovative Meals on Wheels program for the elderly and pioneered the Senior Service Corps to help seniors lead productive lives as volunteers. The organization joined the emerging civil rights movement and participated fully in the drive to enact and promote the 1960s’ anti-poverty and civil rights programs. NCJW renewed its commitment to women’s rights as the revitalized women’s movement took shape in the 1960s and 1970s. Focusing its energies on the fate of women and children, NCJW sought child care programs and family-friendly policies that would benefit children and working mothers, and championed reproductive rights. In 1970s, NCJW officially published a series of documents: Windows on Day Care, the first nationwide survey of day care facilities and services; Children Without Justice, a study of the US Justice Department’s work with foster children; and Innocent Victims, a comprehensive manual on child abuse detection and prevention.