#12 Jewish Chronicle Appeal 1920
To choose an object that would sum up the impact of Jewish women for Women’s History Month seemed like a daunting task. However, I then came across a perfect object; a Jewish Chronicle Appeal from the Federation of Women Zionists from 1920. It represents both the JC’s past and a significant women’s movement within the Jewish Community.
The Federation of Women Zionists created this particular appeal in 1920 to ask women to raise funds to assist “the rebuilding of our Ancient Home in Palestine”. The advert shows a Jewish woman in a field pointing to the horizon calling out to all Jewish women and girls. The imagery used of a woman in biblical dress was not new to the Zionist movement at the time. The medal for the First Zionist Congress in 1897 portrayed a biblical scene featuring a female figure, pointing the way to the Promised Land for wandering Jewish families.
Women, although used in campaigns as the picture of Zionism, were always presented as passive figures, not as active in the Zionist movement itself but mainly used for visual purposes. Even though in Theodore Herzl’s Old New Land (1902), he bases the political structure of the new Israeli society on universal suffrage, to be a Zionist in the late 19th century was seen as a manly endeavour. Only 12 of the 250 assembly delegates in the first congress were women.
However, this changed with the establishment of the Federation of Women Zionists in 1918, founded by Rebecca Sieff. During the First World War Rebecca Sieff joined the Manchester Daughters of Zion through which she raised money for Polish Jewish Relief. In 1917, Sieff and other women created a Ladies’ Committee branch of the English Zionist Federation. She was then granted permission by the EZF to establish a separate women’s group to incorporate all ladies fringe groups across Britain. In 1920, inspired by her first trip to Palestine, she, and the Federation of Women Zionists, called a conference of women from Europe, the United States and South Africa. In this conference, the delegates agreed to “form the Women’s International Zionist Organisation to promote the welfare of women and children in Palestine and to carry out specific works in the reconstruction of Palestine”.
Advertisements such as this one that appeared in the JC encouraged women to donate to help fund agricultural programmes, care for women and children in Palestine. They not only represent the ideals that were held by the Zionist movement at the time, but also tell a vital story of women getting involved in politics and using their voices to champion causes that were close to their hearts. Jewish women taking an active role in self-determination.