Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/677

636 Within the past thirty years the Jewish women have done wonderful work in the various fields of charitable endeavor throughout the Union. The societies organized by them are far too great in number, even to be enumerated within the scope of this paper. Much less is it possible to give the names of the noble women who have labored so diligently in behalf of those institutions. Many of them are fortunately here to-day, and we hope will continue to labor in their noble work for many years to come.

In law and medicine some of the earliest to break down the prejudice against women in the professions, were Jewish women. On the stage are the names of Pearl Eytinge and her sister Rose, who appeared with Booth. In art you can point to Miss Katherine Cohen, the gifted pupil of St. Gaudens, who has exhibited her sculptures at the Paris Salon. In the realms of education some of the best private schools during the first half of the nineteenth century were conducted by Jewish women, like Miss Harby and Miss Moise. Since the establishment of the public school system, hundreds of Jewish women have won the admiration of the communities throughout the country for their work as teachers, while in this city the first female assistant superintendent appointed by the Board of Education is a Jewess well known to all, not only as an educator, but as a devoted worker in every department for the betterment of the Jewish community.

Quite a number of names have appeared in the realm of letters. Not to mention contemporaries, we may point to Rebekah Hyneman as a poet of no mean ability, and to Penina Moise, a gifted writer, both in prose and verse, the author of "Fancy's Sketch Book" and a contributor to various magazines. Her hymns have for many years been chanted throughout the synagogues of the South. Unfortunately few bright rays came into her life, a life which had much of misery and sorrow,