Women

The list of achievements of Jewish women in Scotland is impressive. Kosher hotelier Sophie Geneen (the 'Mother of Glasgow'), artists Hilda Goldwag and Hannah Frank, author Dorrith Sim, actor Ida Schuster, Scottish Communist Party activist Sadie Span and her trades unionist sister Bessie Bond, ground-breaking female freemason and major philanthropist Pearl Merrens' And Scottish Jewish women's organisations such as WIZO and the Strathclyde Group of the League of Jewish Women have often rivalled other larger UK communities in their activism and energy. For example, in 1937 ' under the leadership of the redoubtable Maude Joseph ' the Women's branch of the Glasgow B'nai B'rith organised and curated the UK's first ever Jewish Book Week.