While White, Protestant leadership often dominated the American suffrage movement, Jewish women played a crucial yet overlooked role in the battle for the vote. Their activism was deeply tied to questions of Jewish belonging in the United States, as suffrage became a means of asserting civic participation and communal responsibility. Although many Jewish women's organizations hesitated to fully back suffrage until later in the movement, prominent figures such as Maud Nathan, Hannah Solomon, and Gertrude Weil demonstrated how Jewish identity and activism intersected. Beyond these well-known figures, countless Jewish women across the country engaged in suffrage activism, using their voices to shape the future of American democracy and the evolving place of Jews within it.
Left,
Hanah Solomon, Black and white portrait photograph of Hannah G. Solomon, undated. Retrieved from Solomon Family Collection. MS-749, Box 12, Folder 5. American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Middle
Gertrude Weil, Gertrude Weil circa 1896, Courtesy of the North Carolina State Archives.
Right
Maud Nathan, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. "Mrs. Maud (Frederick) Nathan." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 30, 2026. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/9be0cf10-c5dc-012f-8dfd-58d385a7bc34
