The changed role of Jewish immigrant women in the USA from 1840 to World War I - Different images of Jewish women in their old countries and their new country

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: none ('fine paper'), University of Potsdam (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Jewish-American Hisory, language: English, abstract: During the course Jewish-American History and Life from the 1840ies to World War I at the University of Potsdam we only touched the field of Jewish women, especially those who immigrated to the United States of America. As far as we have come it is clear that Judaism is in its tenor patriarchal; that is the role of male persons is particularly strong. Women seem to play only a minor role. But is it really that easy to determine the role of Jewish men and women? And, in how far do Jewish women in Germany and East Europe differ from each other? Did the image of Jewish women change at all after immigrating to the United States of America? A lot of questions remained unanswered. So, this paper is an attempt to deal with some of them. The focus lies on the description of the image of Jewish mothers in East Europe, in Germany and after immigrating to the States. First of all overall features of Jewish women are explained. Afterwards, the situation in the new country is examined. One main point is the closer look at the life of Rebecca Gratz. She is introduced to show one life story of a Jewish woman in detail and to deal with the question if there is such a thing like a typical Jewish woman life...