Union of Jewish Women, Lwów

Collection

Holding institution (official language):: Центральний державний історичний архів України, м. Львів

Scope and content:: This fonds contains files of the Union of Jewish Women that provide a fundamental picture of its activities. These include the union’s charter (1925), a log of minutes of meetings of its board (1925-39), a cash book (1934-38), articles published in the newspaper Chwila on issues pertaining to the Zionist movement (activities of youth organisations, a meeting held by the local Przemyśl branch of the Keren Kayemet Le Israel organisation, 1930).

The fonds also includes records on the activities of the Women’s International Zionist Organisation (WIZO): a report on activities of its Lwów branch (1930-31), information on the VII Congress in Prague (1933) and particular fragmentary documents about other organisations, among them sheets of data on the activities of Jewish scouts (including on the composition of scout organisations, etc.) in the cities of Kołomyja, Przemyśl, etc. in the latter half of the 1930s; individual letters addressed to the youth organisation Hanoar Hatsyoni in Lwów (1939); etc.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Union of Jewish Women was established in 1925 in the city of Lwów to protect the rights of Jewish women and raise their cultural level and economic status; it also took measures to provide guardianship of abandoned children and and developmentally disabled children. It operated throughout eastern Małopolska [Lesser Poland], engaging, among other things, in cultural and educational activities, organising labour workshops, providing employment assistance, maintaining shelters for Jewish women, combatting prostitution and human trafficking and organising daycare and children’s shelters. The Union of Jewish Women worked closely with the Lwów branch of the Women’s International Zionist Organisation (WIZO). Members of its board – Dina Karl, Ada Reichenstein and Betty Feuermann – were also members of the presidium of the Lwów branch of WIZO, and representatives of the Union of Jewish Women took an active part in the Eighth WIZO Congress in Tel Aviv in 1935. Like other Jewish organisations of Galicia, the Union of Jewish Women ceased operations in 1939.

Subject terms:: Financial records; Newspaper clippings; Zionism; Zionism--WIZO (Women's International Zionist Organization); Zionism--Zionist Congress; Zionism--Zionist organisations and parties; Zionism--Zionist youth movements