Page 29 - Jewish News_may2021

ISRAEL & THE JEWISH WORLD May 2021 29

New museum to showcase the women

who helped build Israel

By Abigail Klein Leichman, israel21c.org, March 7, 2021
ow many “she-roes” of Israel plished what I could not accomplish in social, agricultural and business fabric. the most important female Israeli art-
can you name? the past six or seven years.” History and art ists of the early 20 century, to contem-
th
HMaybe you’d start with Gol- Nitzan gained help of the Haifa “Our museum will be on women in porary painter Haya Graetz Ran.
da Meir, Israel’s first and only female Foundation in raising funds for the history and women in the arts,” Nitzan “Women in Israel contributed
prime minister. Or the tragic and cou- project, and she was given the rights explains. greatly to the establishment of the
rageous spy Sarah Aaronsohn and to a former private-school building in “The section on history commem- state, contributed to the construction
paratrooper Hannah Senesh. which the collections will be housed. orates the role of important women of the infrastructure of settlement, ed-
The list would include physician Brig. Gen. Gila Kalifi-Amir, for- who have not been properly acknowl- ucation, defense, law, government, so-
Vera Weizmann, the first First Lady mer Women’s Affairs Advisor to the edged.” Women like Hannah Maisel, ciety, culture, cinema and theater. But
of Israel, who helped establish Chaim IDF Chief of Staff, agreed to chair the who emigrated to Palestine in 1909 with although they left their mark, they did
Sheba Medical Center, now the largest museum. The board was joined by fel- a doctorate in agriculture and founded not receive proper recognition and re-
hospital in the Middle East; and sec- low Haifa residents Nadim Sheiban, the region’s first agricultural training spect in building society,” Nitzan says.
ond First Lady Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi, director of the Museum of Islamic Art; institute for women. And women like “The purpose of the museum is to
who taught Jerusalem women how to and Prof. Aliza Shenhar, formerly a Rachel Roos Hertz (Harel), a Dutch raise their profile and to reshape the
grow vegetables, milk cows and make deputy mayor, ambassador to Russia Resistance fighter who moved to Israel narrative of the critical role of women
cheese so their husbands could go out and first female rector of an Israeli uni- in 1950 after winning the U.S. Medal as full partners in leadership and public
and build the state. versity. of Freedom and UK King’s Medal for space design over the past century.”
These and many other women who “There are currently about 45 Courage in the Cause of Freedom, and Nitzan invites anyone to contribute
HANDLER, 46, who had a “2 tier” played – and continue to play — im- women’s museums in the world, the became active in the Women’s Interna- stories or items relating to Israeli Jew-
nd
talk show, appears in the series. Also portant roles in the history and culture most famous of which are the Wom- tional Zionist Organization (WIZO) – ish, Arab, Druze or Christian women,
appearing is LORNE MICHAELS, of Israel will be immortalized later this en’s Rights Park in Seneca Falls, New itself founded by Rebecca Sieff (Ziv) and even artists, poets and leaders from
76, the creator of Saturday Night Live year when the Israeli Women Museum York, and the Women’s Art Museum in from the Marks family of Marks & the Holocaust era who did not manage
and the producer of Late Night, now opens in Haifa. Washington,” she says. Spencer, and whose name graces Ziv to get to Israel. She can be reached
hosted by Seth Meyers (who isn’t Jew- The museum will showcase at least “The fundamental challenge in es- Medical Center in Safed. through the museum’s Facebook page
ish, but his wife is, and he was married 100 noteworthy but not necessarily tablishing a museum is not only in rais- Some of the inspiration for this or by email.
by a rabbi). well-known women, from architects to ing resources, but in creating a diverse section comes from Prof. Margalit Shi- Donations for the project are being
On March 31, the Forward, the lawyers to choreographers, says found- and significant human and ideological lo’s Women Building a Nation, a book funneled through the Haifa Founda-
famous Jewish newspaper, ran a back- er Yael Nitzan. infrastructure. The Israeli Women Mu- published this year in Israel. tion.
ground piece on Joel Greenberg, who is A curator, art historian and TV seum must be a magnet of significance “In the art section, we will spot- Abigail Klein Leichman is a writer and
now infamous in Florida. The bottom producer, Nitzan has overcome many to the whole, or at least to large sec- light women whose work was not associate editor at ISRAEL21c. Prior
line: He isn’t Jewish, as most assume. roadblocks and setbacks in realizing tions of, the population in Israel.” considered important, as well as very to moving to Israel in 2007, she was
His father is Jewish, but he was raised her dream of opening Israel’s first mu- Though Israel reportedly has the important female artists of today a specialty writer and copy editor at
in his mother’s Christian faith and is, seum dedicated to women. “It was a world’s highest ratio of museums per whose work is rarely shown in muse- a major daily newspaper in New Jer-
or was, a member of a local church. struggle,” she admits. “Now with coro- person, this will be the first one ded- ums,” says Nitzan. sey and has freelanced for a variety
Google this article title for more: “Dis- na, the world has everyone sitting and icated to the mostly unsung females Artists to be included run the gam- of newspapers and periodicals since
graced tax collector Greenberg poses listening, and in three months I accom- responsible for weaving together its ut from Ziona (Siona) Tagger, one of 1984.
as Jewish.”

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