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In the wake of Adolf Hitler’s terrifying ascent to power in 1933 Germany, Florence Mendheim, a New York City librarian, went undercover as a spy, infiltrating the Nazi-associated “Friends of New Germany” club and reporting to the American Jewish Congress. 

Reflecting on her career for BBC Radio, Yasmin Levy has remarked that she is “embarking on a 500 years old musical journey, taking Ladino to Andalusia and mixing it with flamenco, the style that still bears the musical memories of the old Moorish and Jewish-Spanish world with the sound of the Arab world. In a way it is a ‘musical reconciliation’ of history.” 

On December 8, 1987, Yelena Khanga, a Russian journalist who has played a significant role in Russian journalism and written about her experiences as a Black Jewish woman in Russia, arrived in the United States as a member of the Soviet Press Corps to cover the historic Reagan-Gorbachev Summit in Washington, D.C. 

On May 24, 1993, Roberta Achtenberg became the first openly gay person confirmed by the United States Senate for a major political post when she was voted in by a 58-31 margin.  Achtenberg’s appointment to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development marked a historic turning point in American LGBTQ history.

Zipporah Michelbacher Cohen was an American civic leader who was heavily involved in charitable organizations in Virginia. From working as a nurse to serving on the boards of numerous Jewish women’s associations, Cohen spent over sixty years helping the less fortunate.

Barrister and solicitor Ethel Benjamin was best known for being the first female lawyer in New Zealand and the first woman to appear in court as counsel in the British Empire. Benjamin’s struggle against gender discrimination and her pioneering role in the legal world helped clear the way for female lawyers.

In January 1996, Rabbi Cynthia Culpeper stood before her congregation in Montgomery, AL, and announced that she had contracted AIDS, becoming the first pulpit rabbi to disclose an AIDS diagnosis. 

Poet Yonit Namaan was born in Yehud, Israel, in 1975 to Yemenite parents. On June 25, 2018, she was featured in the episode “Spleen and Failure” of the web series A Tale of Five Poets, which offers a close look into the lives and minds of five prominent Israeli poets.