How Jewish Women Shaped Civic Life in Small-Town America

As Women’s History Month draws to a close, it is worth remembering a dimension of Jewish life that has too often gone overlooked: the central role women played in sustaining both Jewish communal life and wider civic society in small towns across the United States. From organizing flood relief to sewing clothing for soldiers, Jewish women’s groups were often the heartbeat of their communities—spiritual, charitable, and social.

In towns like Zanesville, Ohio, Jewish women mobilized not just for their own congregations, but for the broader public. In 1874, the Ladies’ Benevolent Society raised $47 to support victims of a deadly yellow fever epidemic in Shreveport, Louisiana. Decades later, during the devastating 1913 Muskingum River flood—one of the worst in Ohio history—they opened their synagogue to the homeless and served three meals a day to hundreds of displaced residents. At the time, nearly 30 percent of the city’s population was left without shelter. For weeks, these women led an extraordinary relief effort that earned them a special mention in a commemorative volume documenting acts of heroism during the flood. One of the women at the center of this ecosystem was Beulah Levi, a tireless civic actor who later volunteered over 2,400 hours with the Red Cross during World War I and served on the local food committee of the Council of National Defense.

These acts of service weren’t isolated events; by 1913 they were part of a sustained tradition of Jewish women taking leading roles in interfaith and civic engagement in Muskingum County for over forty years. This tradition continued into the 21st century, ending only in 2017 with the closure of Muskingum County’s last synagogue.

To the west in Mansfield, Ohio, a Jewish Ladies’ Aid Society founded in the late 19th century supported causes as wide-ranging as hurricane relief and war bond drives. By the 1920s, it had evolved into the Temple Emanuel Sisterhood, a backbone of religious education and social programming. Mansfield continues to be home to a small Jewish community. 

Salem, Ohio’s branch of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), though possibly the smallest in the country, had an outsized impact. Its 13 members supported local causes like the Heart Fund and Community Chest, sent aid abroad to war-torn Europe and schools in the emerging state of Israel, and hosted interfaith programs such as Brotherhood Week. Among them was Goldie Schwartz, who moved to Salem in 1916 and eventually became NCJW president while also serving on the boards of the local hospital association, Salvation Army, and Chamber of Commerce.

To the north in Ashtabula, Ohio, the Sisterhood helped establish Sunday and Hebrew schools and raised funds for everything from flood relief in Czechoslovakia to scholarships at The Ohio State University. Its efforts were deeply interconnected with national Jewish organizations, showing how even the smallest congregations participated in broader networks of care.

Lima, Ohio’s Sisterhood hosted major social events like the Thanksgiving Dance while supporting local children’s needs through a school shoe fund. Lena Blattner, born in Baden, Germany, was a prominent figure here—active in Hadassah, the Lima City Hospital Auxiliary, and public health initiatives like the local tuberculosis association.

Outside Canton, in Massillon, Ohio, the Jewish Sisterhood furnished hospital rooms and donated an incubator unit, all while continuing to aid global relief efforts. The group, which had evolved from an earlier women’s club, represented the Jewish community in interfaith civic spaces and organized clothing drives for children in Israel and low-income families in town.

In New Philadelphia, Ohio, the Jewish Center Sisterhood balanced fundraising for the local Jewish Center with supporting organizations like the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and the United Jewish Appeal. Their work included religious education, nursery school programming, and even interfaith holiday displays—like a Star of David placed alongside a Christmas tree in a local park in 1965. Sarah Rapport, an immigrant from Liverpool, England, served as Sisterhood president and took over her family’s business after her husband’s passing—an embodiment of both private resilience and public leadership.

The women of Piqua, Ohio, organized under the Council of Jewish Women and later the Ladies’ Aid Society, ran “Thimble Socials” to produce items for local charities. They fundraised for a new synagogue, which still exists today, purchased Jewish books for the public library, and supported international causes, including disaster relief in Greece and assistance for European orphans. Fannie Louis, one of the Sisterhood’s early leaders, served as secretary and later president, and also led the local Red Cross and city women’s federation. A later leader, Libbie Murstein, who was born in Poland, helped run her family’s furniture store and hosted a Rosh Hashanah dinner for nearly 30 years in her husband’s memory.

Portsmouth, Ohio’s Jewish women were especially early trailblazers. As early as 1863, they supported both their congregation and non-Jewish institutions like a local widows’ and orphans’ home. Through the wars of the 20th century, they remained active in the Red Cross and civic organizations like the Girl Scouts and Mercy Hospital Guild.

These organizations reflected an ethos of Jewish women as builders, connectors, and caregivers in their towns. Through fundraising, volunteerism, teaching, and sacrifice, they extended the reach of Jewish values into the broader world. Their legacies are still felt in the communities they supported, and in the interfaith relationships they nurtured.

In honoring these women, we recover a fuller picture of American Jewish life—one that has too often gone unspoken. For over 175 years in small towns across many regions of the United States, Jewish women worked alongside women of other faiths to promote values of justice, education, and compassion. These efforts unfolded even in remote corners of the country—places where many now assume Judaism never existed.