mstance in connection with their activity should be
pointed out, because it goes to prove the soundness of judgment, the
penetration, and expansiveness characteristic of Jews. While the
movement for woman's complete emancipation has counted not a single
Jewess among its promoters, its more legitimate successor, the movement
to establish woman's right and ability to earn a livelihood in any
branch of human endeavor--a right and ability denied only by prejudice,
or stupidity--was headed and zealously supported by Jewesses, an
assertion which can readily be proved by such names as Lina Morgenstern,
known to the public also as an advocate of moderate religious reforms,
Jenny Hirsch, Henriette Goldschmidt, and a number of writers on subjects
of general and Jewish interest, such as Rachel Meyer, Elise Levi
(Henle), Ulla Frank-Wolff, Johanna Goldschmidt, Caroline Deutsch, in
Germany; Rebekah Eugenie Foa, Julianna and Pauline Bloch, in France;
Estelle and Maria Hertzveld, in Holland, and Emma Lazarus, in America.

One other name should be recorded. Fanny Neuda, the writer of "Hours of
Devotion," and a number of juvenile stories, has a double claim upon our
recognition, inasmuch as she is an authoress of the Jewish race who has
addressed her writings exclusively to Jewish women.

We have followed Jewish women from the days of their first flight into
the realm of song through a period of two thousand years up to modern
times, when our record would seem to come to a natural conclusion. But I
deem it proper to bring to your attention a set of circumstances which
would be called phenomenal, were it not, as we all know, that the
greatest of all wonders is that true wonders are so common.

It is a well-known fact, spread by literary journals, that the
Rothschild family, conspicuous for financial ability, has produced a
goodly number of authoresses. But it is less well known, and much more
noteworthy, that many of the excellent women of this family have devoted
their literary gifts and attainments to the service of Judaism. The
palaces of the Rothschilds, the richest family in the world, harbor many
a warm heart, whose pulsations are quickened by the thought of Israel's
history and poetic heritage. Wealth has not abated a jot of their
enthusiasm and loyal love for the faith. The first of the house of
Rothschild to make a name for herself as an authoress was Lady
Charlotte Rothschild, in London, one of the noblest women of our time,
w