The authors of “Chutzpah Girls: 100 Tales of Daring Jewish Women” started with the goal of finding stories with the power to inspire.
Tami Schlossberg Pruwer and Julie Silverstein, a San Francisco native who attended Brandeis School of S.F. back when she was Julie Bernstein, ended up finding so many courageous women and girls that they couldn’t fit them all into their new book. And they continue to hear about even more such “chutzpah girls.”
“Ever since the book has been published, the stories just keep pouring in,” Pruwer said.
From Miriam, the Biblical prophetess, and Bruria, the only female scholar in the Babylonian Talmud, to Chana Leviev, the Bukharian Jewish activist who resisted Soviet oppression, and Gal Gadot, the Israel actress and modern-day “Wonder Woman,” the stories are both for girls and for anyone who wants to amplify the voices of women.
“When it was hard to be a Jew and hard to be a woman, ‘Chutzpah Girls’ dared to speak when silenced, pressed forward when stopped, and made their mark when others wanted them erased,” the authors, who both live in Israel, write in the book’s introduction.
Each one-page story is illustrated by colorful, original art by a Jewish woman artist.
Pruwer and Silverstein spoke with J. after the book’s Nov. 25 release. The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
J.: What made you want to write this book? What sparked the idea?
Pruwer: When my first daughter was born, we got all these books for kids about remarkable women throughout history. I loved reading them to her, but I really felt like I wanted to bond with her over stories of women in our own heritage. I started researching while on maternity leave and I came across so many incredible stories of Jewish women, some more well known and iconic ones but also some stories that had never been told.
I decided that as soon as my daughter would be in daycare, I would devote myself full time to researching and writing and looking for a publisher. Then somehow, magically, the day that my daughter started daycare, I got an email from Julie Silverstein, who I had never heard of before, but who had had the exact same vision.
Silverstein: All I can say is that there was probably some magic involved. It really feels like fate.
Julie, what drew you to the project?
S: My son had a bar mitzvah and, about a year or so later, my daughter had a bat mitzvah. They both did identical things to prepare and to demonstrate their entry into Jewish adulthood. My son largely received holy books; my daughter mostly got jewelry and handbags. Two children who had spent many, many months of hard work to prepare for this major lifecycle event were treated in very different ways. The project started with wanting … to celebrate the achievements of Jewish women and to rectify a historical bias.
There are so many ways to be a chutzpah girl. Some of the women are warriors; they used the power of the sword. Others were legal activists. They were historians. They were chefs; they used the power of the fork, so to speak. There’s just such a wide range of women who stood up and who made a difference with the tools that they had.
How did you decide which women to include in the book?
P: We really wanted to select women whose contributions and activism were led by their Jewish values. And, of course, we wanted it to be as diverse as possible — historically, geographically, in terms of field, ethnic background — to make sure that there is representation for people to feel seen across the Jewish world.
Of course, there’s so many more stories that are untold.
Ever since the book has been published, the stories just keep pouring in. People keep sending us stories of their favorite chutzpah girls or women that they believe should be included. And they’re all incredible.
I hate to ask you, but I’m going to. Which is your favorite chutzpah girl?
S: I’m really drawn to the story of Glückel of Hameln, a Yiddish diarist who lived in Germany. She wrote a series of diaries about her life that are considered to be historically significant today, and she did it with 14 children at home. There were always dishes in the sink. There were children that needed to be fed. There were so many needs that pulled her away, but she took the time to do something that was important to her.
P: I have so much appreciation for Eliza Davis, who was a mother of 10, originally from the Caribbean. She moves to the U.K. with her husband, and they buy Charles Dickens’ home. She loves reading his books until she comes across the character of Fagin the Jew in “Oliver Twist” and is just so incredibly offended by the portrayal. She picks up a pen and writes [Dickens] a letter, and she manages to convince him and to change his mind and [he] actually edits the character in future editions.
Tell me about the art, which is a big part of “Chutzpah Girls.”
S: These 100 women were real people with challenges, and we wanted to depict them with texture. We decided to have Jewish women depicting Jewish women. We reached out to Jewish female artists from all around the world and ultimately selected 12 of them.
Some of the artists live in Israel, as we do, and were living in the north and were displaced by the events of Oct. 7, so they were working on the art while they were out of their homes and couch surfing.
What do you want young women to take away from this book?
S: That there were Jewish women throughout history who met challenges very much like the ones that they are encountering today, as Jews; that they know that they’re not alone in these struggles; that they can find, amongst their heritage, heroines to look up to, to learn from and to give them strength.
P: I think the most moving feedback that we’ve received is that when people come across the book, they don’t just purchase one copy. They write to us and they say, “I’ve purchased this for all of my daughters and nieces and my friends, I want every woman to have this.”