From its founding in 1901 through the second half of the twentieth 
century, the Fort Worth section of the National Council of Jewish 
Women fostered the integration of its members into the social and 
cultural fabric of the greater community. Along the way, it 
championed important social causes, including an Americanization 
school for immigrants and literacy initiatives. But by 1999, facing 
declining membership and—according to some—decreased 
relevance to the lives of Jewish women, the Council's national and 
local leaders found themselves confronting the end of the group's 
existence.

    Hollace Ava Weiner has mined the records of this organization at 
both the local and national levels, interviewed surviving members, 
and examined Fort Worth newspapers and other local historical 
documents. Her lively and careful study reveals that the Fort Worth 
Council of Jewish Women was, in fact, so successful that it prepared 
the way for its own obsolescence. By century's end, the members 
and the times had changed more rapidly than the Council.

    While Jewish "Junior League" focuses on a particular 
organization in a particular city, it simultaneously serves as a case 
study for the exploration of important themes of women's and Jewish 
history throughout the twentieth century.

_________________________________________________________

HOLLACE AVA WEINER, a former writer for the Fort Worth Star-
Telegram, is also the author of Jewish Stars in Texas: Rabbis and 
Their Work, now available in paperback from Texas A&M University 
Press. A native of Washington, D.C., she resides in Fort Worth.



What people are saying about this book

"In Hollace Weiner's capable hands, the history of the 'rise and 
demise' of the Fort Worth Council of Jewish Women becomes a 
cautionary tale that anyone interested in women's organizations 
should read and ponder. A refreshing and untraditional institutional 
history, Jewish 'Junior League' makes a major league contribution 
to Jewish women's studies."—Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. & 
Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis 
University

" . . . well written, well documented, and a contribution to the field of 
Texas women's social history."—Nancy Baker Jones

" . . . an important contribution to the field of women's and 
southwestern studies . . . could do a great deal to help us understand 
change within a specific population, one that has worked to retain a 
unique identity while integrating with, and contributing generously to, 
the larger community."—Elizabeth York Enstam, author of Women 
and the Creation of Urban Life


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