Pioneers, Teachers, and Mothers in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume 36:1

Pioneers, Teachers, and Mothers: Ultra-Orthodox Women Among She’erit Hapletah

The article charts the lives and activities of Haredi (ultra-orthodox) female Holocaust survivors among the She’erit Hapletah in Germany in 1945-1948. Analyzing different ways in which they attempted to reconstruct a Haredi “women’s society”, which was to be a foundation for the new Haredi society in the post-Holocaust Jewish world, it discusses three focal points of their activity during the years in question: activity in Hachshara Kibbutzim, the establishment of ultra-orthodox girls’ educational institutions, and the formation of families. By examining these spheres the article attempts to track the rehabilitation of Haredi women survivors in the early post-war period and their reintegration into the society that they attempted to reestablish after the Holocaust.