Activism
Lesbianism
Lesbians and women’s same gender-loving has a long history in Jewish life, dating back to ancient times. Since the 1980s, particularly in the United States, Jewish lesbian thinking and activism has become a part of all facets of Jewish life.
Denise Levertov
The author of nineteen books of poetry as well as several books of essays and translations, Denise Levertov was a world-renowned poet. She was also a prominent political activist, particularly in the anti-war and environmental movements.
Marj Jackson Levin
Jacqueline Levine
Lena Levine
Emma Levine-Talmi
Politician and writer, Emma Levine-Talmi, grew up in a liberal Jewish home in Warsaw before immigrating alone to Palestine in 1924 at the age of nineteen. She was active in Kibbutz life before becoming a member of Knesset for the Mapam party. During her time in the Knesset, she engaged in social issues, including, equal rights for women.
Fanny Lewald
Fanny Lewald was a successful and respected writer in nineteenth-century Germany. She established a salon in Berlin and became tremendously productive, writing novels, essays, and articles. In her influential autobiography, she argued for the emancipation of women. Lewald believed that women’s professional work was the basis of their liberation.
Ann Lewis
Raquel Liberman
Judith Light
Lilith
Lilith’s character has evolved throughout the years. She began as a female demon common to many Middle Eastern cultures, was transformed by Medieval Jewry into Adam’s first wife, and was finally reclaimed by Jewish feminists as an icon.
Lilith Magazine
Belda Lindenbaum
Belda Lindenbaum was driven by the birth of her daughters to create new opportunities for Jewish women and girls.
Clara Lipman
Ida Lippman
Lorna Lippmann
Lorna Lippmann (1921-2004) was an Australian researcher and educator who devoted much of her life to the promotion of Aboriginal rights. She was an activist, academic researcher, author, government advisor, and community relations practitioner. Aboriginal leaders praised her pioneering contributions.
Literature Scholars in the United States
Jewish women have been among the key figures in literary scholarship in the United States in the postwar period. Those entering the profession in the 1950s faced more difficulties as women than they did as Jews. Today, Jewish women are found in all corners of the profession, from feminist and queer theory to administration, critical race studies, and beyond.
Alice Springer Fleisher Liveright
Social worker Alice Springer Fleisher Liveright devoted much of her life to working for equal rights for women and African Americans, and for social welfare for children and poor adults. Passionate in her quest for social justice, she served as president of the Juvenile Aid Society, president of the Philadelphia Conference of Social Work, and as the Pennsylvania State Secretary of Welfare.
Sadie Loewith
Rebecca Pearl Lovenstein
In 1920, Rebecca Pearl Lovenstein became the first woman lawyer allowed to practice in Virginia. She went on to create a state bar association for women.
Minnie Low
Known as the “Jane Addams of the Jews,” Minnie Low was a leader in the Jewish social service community. At a time when social work usually meant wealthy people donating to the poor, Low pushed for new kinds of aid such as vocational training and loans that made the needy self–sufficient.
Johanna Löwenherz
Johanna Löwenherz traveled widely on behalf of Germany’s socialist women’s movement, raising consciousness and lecturing on the social, economic, and legal equality of women. She became one of the most active representatives of the SDP in the Neuwied region, elected as a delegate to three regional party conferences.
Nita M. Lowey
Esther Luria
Esther Luria was a freelance journalist whose work appeared in many politically left-of-center Yiddish publications in the early twentieth-century United States. A socialist, a feminist, and a political activist, she was also an educator. She used her columns not only to advocate for the ideas in which she believed, but also to provide her mainly east European immigrant readers with a better understanding of their new environment.
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a socialist revolutionary known for her critical perspective. Born in Poland, Luxemburg had become an important figure in the world socialist movement by 1913. She argued against Lenin’s hierarchal conception of party organization, and against revisionism. Luxemburg was internationalist in orientation and unflinchingly dedicated to a radical democratic vision.
