Bollywood actress Nadira was born this week in history in 1932. She grew up in Bombay (present-day Mumbai), in the city’s thriving Baghdadi Jewish community. Her breakthrough came in "Aan" (1952). From there, she became famous for her bold, glamorous “vamp” roles: buff.ly/mpoopTo

"I really want this exhibit to teach other young LGBT people about our own history" In our new podcast episode, step into the history of queer Jews in DC as we tour the Capital Jewish Museum’s exhibit, “LGBTJews in the Federal City” with curators Jonathan Edelman and Sarah Leavitt: buff.ly/fp87pqW

Women, shapes, and colors by painter Sonia Delaunay 💙 Sonia Delaunay was known for her vivid use of color and her bold, abstract patterns, breaking distinctions between the fine and applied arts as an artist, designer and printmaker. She died this week in history in 1979. buff.ly/5DpOLv6

Sitting at the nexus of her family, Rebecca Gratz wielded a level of authority rare for an unmarried, childless woman in the nineteenth century. She founded several charitable organizations including Philadelphia Orphan Society, Jewish Foster Home, and Hebrew Sunday School: buff.ly/1WaqrIV

A little Hanukkah gelt for your reading list 🕎 Enjoy 10% off your Bookshop cart with code JWA10 through Dec 15! Not only does Bookshop support independent bookshops by providing a platform for them to sell books online, 10% of your purchase supports JWA. Browse our shelves: buff.ly/vqKKniQ

How did a Jewish noblewoman become one of Ethiopia’s most powerful empresses? Empress Seble Wongel, born into Jewish nobility in the Kingdom of Beta Israel, became one of the most influential women in 16th-century Ethiopia. She died this week in history in 1567: buff.ly/Qo1wxB1

A good read (particularly before Thanksgiving...) Learning Reconciliation from My Great-Grandmother’s Poetry, by JWA Rising Voices Fellow Susannah Abel-Zucker: buff.ly/Hl8RXvE

"I tried to find Judaica that fit our space and aesthetic, and came up empty. By then, I’d been making and selling ceramic mugs for a few years, so I figured, if I couldn’t find it, I’d make it. —JWA sat down with Melissa Felderman, ceramicist and designer: buff.ly/t4zFFoX

JWA's Winter 2025 Book List has arrived 🥳 Explore titles that illuminate Judeo-Iraqi Arabic, reveal the challenges of pop icon Carole King, explore an exchange of letters between Holocaust survivors, examine antisemitism in the US, and more: buff.ly/wzdT2CT

Boston — join us for a screening of "Janis Ian: Breaking Silence," on Dec 3 at 6:30 PM at Coolidge Corner Theater. Chronicling the life of singer-songwriter Janis Ian, this screening will feature a conversation with the film’s co-writer and executive producer Pierre Hauser: buff.ly/SqJz6aa

On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we honor Charlotte Charlaque, a Jewish transgender trailblazer who lived fearlessly as one of the first women to receive gender-affirming surgery at Berlin’s Institute of Sexual Science: buff.ly/7lAs3NW

Sigd, a festival celebrated by Ethiopian Jews, begins tonight at sundown! Members of the Beta Israel community fast, read scriptures, and pray for the rebuilding of the Temple. The fast ends mid-day with a feast and dancing. 📷 Ethiopian woman celebrating Sigd. 1982.

JWA Fall Book Talks wrap up this Thursday, November 20, at 8 PM ET with Sarah Hurwitz, author of "As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us." An exploration of how antisemitism shapes Jewish identity and how Jews can reclaim tradition. Register: buff.ly/l1Ml2oK

Join us on virtually on December 4 at 8 PM ET with Marcella White Campbell or an inspiring writing workshop about anger as a creative force. This interactive workshop, designed for Jewish women and non-binary people of color, explores how we can turn anger into a force for change: buff.ly/2GJeguJ

"If my career depends upon hiding the fact that I was born a Jew, I'd rather not have one." In a Hollywood that encouraged assimilation, Carmel Myers never denied that she was Jewish. She performed in 70+ films and became known for her vamp roles in silent films and “talkies.” buff.ly/8xuv17E

This Jewish Playwright's Show Was Cancelled Because of Anti-DEI Initiatives: Zoe Senese-Grossberg's play 'Boy My Greatness,' a historical fiction piece about the boys who played Shakespeare’s women, was cancelled at the University of Central Oklahoma due to anti-DEI initiatives: buff.ly/6JxwjNt

JWA Book Talks continue Thursday, November 13, at 12 PM ET with Minna Bromberg, author of "Every Body Beloved: A Jewish Embrace of Fatness." This memoir-meets-manifesto confronts the harm of anti-fat bias, interweaving Minna's personal journey with Jewish tradition. Register: buff.ly/l1Ml2oK

"I suddenly wondered why I was trying so hard to erase the one feature that connected me to my family and culture. That thought made me pause, and I put the blow dryer down."

"Judaism shaped the way that I teach and think about science." JWA sits down with Merav Opher, a professor in the Astronomy department at Boston University: buff.ly/HCAO6jy

"As I move through D.C., I know something is true: I will need oranges, and the gun in the produce aisle will not make me feel safer shopping for them." JWA's Pomegranate Writing Fellowship for Jewish Women of Color has published its first piece by 2025 fellow Rachel Faulkner: buff.ly/CzLl89S

Delphine Horvilleur is one of 5 women rabbis in France and a leader of the Liberal Jewish Movement of France. She has written 10 books, notably "Living With Our Dead" (2021), and relates Judaism with sexuality, feminism, and politics. She was born #ThisWeekInHistory in 1974: buff.ly/j5ltxBk

November is Mizrahi Heritage Month! Explore JWA's resources in our encyclopedia, with articles like: 🔹 Mizrahi Feminism in Israel, 🔹 Sephardi and Mizrahi Women in the United States, 🔹 Morocco: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, ...and many more! Learn something new: buff.ly/LegL0tl

JWA Book Talks continue Thursday, November 6, at 8 PM ET with Esther Chehebar, author of "Sisters of Fortune." Three sisters chase love and grapple with the growing pains of young womanhood as they seek their place within and beyond their Syrian Jewish Brooklyn community. Register: buff.ly/l1Ml2oK

Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice is Jewish goth excellence. 🕯️🖤 Happy Halloween! 📷 Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice, 1988.

Speaking of costumes and performance this week, queer surrealist photographer Claude Cahun was born #ThisWeekInHistory in 1894. Cahun lived their life in a spirit of rebellion and defiance, defying conventional ideals of beauty and femininity with their shaven head and male attire: buff.ly/bvnx7j1

Are you watching the new season of Nobody Wants This? "Viewers must watch the first half with the same patience required to endure Season 1, but ultimately are in for a reward of deeper engagement with Judaism," writes Zia Saylor in her review of Season 2:

In our podcast new episode, trauma therapist Merav Roth describes how some of the Israeli hostages coped in captivity, what she's hearing from Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, and what long-term recovery from trauma can look like:

JWA Book Talks return on Thursday, October 30! Join us at 8 PM ET with Jane Eisner, author of "Carole King: She Made the Earth Move." Drawing on interviews, historical, and contemporary sources, Jane Eisner explores the life of iconic singer-songwriter Carole King. Register: buff.ly/bTUNxa6

Discovered while working as a telephone operator, Ruby Myers - also known as Sulochana - was an Indian actress from the Baghdadi Jewish community. #ThisWeekInHistory in 1974, she won the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, Indian cinema’s most prestigious lifetime achievement award: buff.ly/MCPVEaa

Diva, Yiddish folksinger, and citizen of the world, Isa Kremer lived life in a global arena despite conflicts: the Russian Revolution, the Ottoman Empire, anti-Semitism in Europe, and dictatorship in Argentina. She was born #ThisWeekInHistory in 1887. buff.ly/fR4SWR2

Born in Vienna, Hilde Holger founded the New School for Movement Art at 16, creating Jewish and political dances before fleeing WWII to Bombay. She also pioneered dance education for people with Down Syndrome. She was born #ThisWeekInHistory in 1905: buff.ly/lTSsTIJ

JWA sat down with playwright and JWA contributing writer @sarahjaeleiber.bsky.social to discuss her upcoming play, PLEASE LAUGH: buff.ly/VNrgL2n Her first full-length play, PLEASE LAUGH, will open at The Tank NYC on Oct. 24, with additional shows on Oct. 25 and 30.

It's not too late for a little Halloween inspired merch 👀 Rep Theda Bara, the original femme fatale vamp, this spooky season at buff.ly/DjCHrmE.

Clara Bagelman of the famed Yiddish singers The Barry Sisters was born #OnThisDay in 1920. With her sister Minnie, the duo represented the integration of Jewish immigrants’ into their new lives in the US: buff.ly/crQUO9Z

'It is a Jewish tradition to bury the placenta beneath the entryway to the home as a means to deter the evil eye from entering. It was believed that if the mother stepped over the buried afterbirth several times, the holiness of the placenta would re-enter her body." buff.ly/WJUMfdi

JWA Book Talks: 🔸 Oct 30—Jane Eisner, Carole King: She Made the Earth Move 🔸 Nov 6—Esther Chehebar, Sisters of Fortune 🔸 Nov 13—Minna Bromberg, Every Body Beloved: A Jewish Embrace of Fatness 🔸 Nov 20—Sarah Hurwitz, As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us

Simchat Torah celebrates the conclusion of the annual cycle of Torah readings, and marks the beginning of a new cycle. The holiday starts tonight! 📷 People gathered around an open Torah being read during Simchat Torah as others hold a tallit aloft over the children and Torah. Photo by Bill Aron.

A poem by Lea Goldberg that speaks to the joy, grief, and hope of this moment.

Jewish lesbian tennis player Helen Hull Jacobs played her way into the International Tennis Hall of Fame ♥️ Winner of numerous championship victories, Jacobs was a force to be reckoned with on the tennis court in the 1920s-30s. Read more in our new encyclopedia entry: buff.ly/gk7hYi4

"I knew that my dream would be to write about sex. I could be someone to help answer those questions that my younger self was afraid to ask, and show women that there’s nothing shameful about being sexual." JWA sat down with Mia Sherin to discuss embracing her sexuality: buff.ly/MjgwQKb

Two years after October 7, JWA's podcast speaks with family members of Vivian Silver and Hayim Katsman, Israeli peace activists who were murdered that day. Hayim’s mother Hannah Wacholder Katsman and Vivian’s son Yonatan Zeigen share how they are carrying on their legacies. Listen: buff.ly/iw5clZK

Sukkot begins tonight 🌿✨ A festival of harvest and memory, marking the Israelites’ desert wanderings and the season’s abundance. 📷 The Benguiat family, late nineteenth century Smyrna (now Izmir), Ottoman Empire, late 19th century. The Jewish Museum.

At the height of WWII, Elaine Buchman Yoneda became the only Jewish woman on record to be imprisoned in an American concentration camp. In our new podcast episode, tracyslater.bsky.social describes how anti-immigrant policies tore families apart and how those forces are reemerging: buff.ly/zMgBVOI

We are links in a long chain of tradition 💙 You’re looking at a woman praying on Yom Kippur in 1496 Italy — a detail from Maraviglia’s Prayer Book, scribed by Yo’el ben Shim’on Feibush. Yom Kippur begins at sundown tonight. G'mar chatima tovah.

"I don’t see 'fantasy' as an escape from reality, but as a way into a deeper experience of what is most real." L.A.-based painter Hannah Lupton Reinhard explores Jewish femininity through vibrant colors studded with Swarovski crystals: buff.ly/2LQxtoT

Jewish New Year and Shabbat card, 1899. Two men are sitting and reading from a book, a woman is standing with a covered plate in her hand and a boy is beside her. At the bottom of the postcard is an inscription: Shabbat night kiddush, for a new year. Shabbat shalom!

JWA's Online History Course "Belles and Butches: Jewish Women in the American South" continues Sep 25 at 8 PM. Join us w/ Marcie Cohen Ferris for The Edible Jewish South. Explore food as language and cuisine shaped by privilege and deprivation. Register: buff.ly/wczFfcJ

Yemenite Jews observing Tashlich in Tel Aviv, 1926. Tashlich is a symbolic ritual of the High Holidays. The Hebrew word means “to cast off.” By a body of water, people release crumbs or small pieces of bread as a gesture of letting go, renewal, and beginning the year unburdened. 📷 Shimon Korbman

This illustation appeared on the cover of suffrage activist Selina Solomons’ 1912 book "How We Won the Vote in California." In 5786, may we carry forward the commitment of Solomons and other Jewish women to protecting democracy and bringing a more just world into being. Shana tova! ⭐

"The trees are more than landscaping. They are my neighbors, my deep-rooted friends. But our neighborhood, like our climate, is changing." On JWA's blog, Lisa Trank considers environmentalism and Rosh Hashanah: