Dora Askowith

Dora Askowith (August 30, 1884 - October 23, 1958) was a Lithuanian-born American college professor, author and historian. She was director of the Women’s Organization for the American Jewish Congress.

Life

Askowith received her primary education at Winthrop School, in Roxbury, Boston and attended high school at Girls' High School.^[1] She was born in Kovno. She graduated from Barnard College and Columbia University. From 1912 to 1957, she taught at Hunter College.^[2]

For a short period in the 1920s, Askowith studied at Rabbinical school, although ordination was denied to female students.^[3]

In 1891, her father, Jacob Baruch, and brother, Charles, designed one of the early versions of the Flag of Israel.^[4]^[5]

Publications

Books

The Toleration of the Jews in the Roman Empire. Part I. The Toleration of the Jews Under Julius Caesar and Augustus (1915) — Published by Columbia University
Three Outstanding Women: Mary Fels, Rebekah Kohut, Annie Nathan Meyer (1941)

Book chapters

Askowith, D. (1927). “Prolegomena: Legal Fictions or Evasions of the Law.” In Jewish Studies in Memory of Israel Abrahams. New York: Jewish Institute of Religion.
Askowith, D. (1930). “The Life and Work of Luigi Luzzatti.” In Luzzatti, L. (Ed.) God in Freedom: Studies in the Relations Between Church and State. New York: Macmillan.

Journal articles

Askowith, D. (1944). The first Zionist flag. Jewish Social Studies, 55-57.
Askowith, D. (1947). Ezekiel and St. Augustine: A comparative study. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 15(4), 224-227.
Askowith, D. (1956). The role of women in the field of higher Jewish education. Judaism, 5(2), 169.

Other

A Call to the Jewish Women of America (c. 1917) (pamphlet)
The purchase of Louisiana (1953) (unknown)

References

^ "Young Roxbury woman awarded PhD degree". The Boston Globe. Saturday, June 05, 1915. Page 7.
^ "Dora Askowith". jwa.org. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
^ Nadell, P. S. (2003). American Jewish Women's History: A Reader. pp. 177-181.
^ Reznikoff, Charles (May 1953). "From the American Scene: Boston's Jewish Community: Earlier Days". Commentary. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
^ "New State of Israel flag was designed in Boston". The Boston Globe. 18 May 1948, Tue · Pages 1-2.

External links

Jenna Weissman Joselit, A Tale of Two Flags, Confederate and Zionist, Forward, August 8, 2015

Women rabbis and Torah scholars

Timeline of women rabbis

Pre-modern
figures

Bible and Talmud	Deborah (1107–1067 BCE) Bruriah (2nd century)
Medieval and early modern era	Rashi's daughters (11th–12th century) Bat ha-Levi (12th century) Paula Dei Mansi (13th century) Miriam Shapira-Luria (14th century) Fioretta of Modena (1522–1580) Bayla Falk (16th century) Eva Bacharach (1580–1651) Asenath Barzani (1590–1670) Frehat Bat Avraham (d. 1756) Maiden of Ludmir (1805–1888)

Modern figures

Ray Frank (1861–1948)
Lily Montagu (1873–1963)
Regina Jonas (1902–1944)
Tehilla Lichtenstein (1893–1973)
Paula Ackerman (1893–1989)
Martha Neumark (1904–1981)
Avis Clamitz (1908-1991)
Helen Levinthal (1910–1989)
Sally Priesand (b. 1946)
Mimi Feigelson (b. 1963)

First ordination by denomination	Regina Jonas (Reform, 1935) Sandy Sasso (Reconstructionist, 1974) Lynn Gottlieb (Renewal, 1981) Amy Eilberg (Conservative, 1985) Tamara Kolton (Humanistic, 1999) Sara Hurwitz (Orthodox, 2009)