The Woman in the Room

A Jewish Life Through 100 Years of History

Naomi B. Levine, Sofia Groopman

• Publisher: She Writes Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN:
  9781647427030
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Law Biographies

Born into a poor, immigrant family, Naomi B. Levine grew up in the Bronx and on Manhattan’s storied Lower East Side in an era when women were not encouraged to have lives of their own. Nevertheless, she managed to raise herself to prominence as a leader of Jewish affairs, champion of civil rights, and expert fundraiser.

Poignant, direct, and inflected with Yiddishkeit, The Woman in the Room is the story of how Levine went from living in a crowded tenement with a shared bathroom to penning an amicus brief that was crucial in Brown v. Board of Education, assuming the Executive Directorship of the American Jewish Congress, and saving NYU from bankruptcy with the first billion-dollar capital campaign for a university.

A lover of history, Levine describes not just her life but also articulates how the major historical events of the time emboldened her to take social and political positions that were in many circles unacceptable. She was an activist and a feminist before those concepts became part of our everyday parlance. The Woman in the Room not only illuminates the decades Levine lived but furnishes future generations with the strength and courage to face the challenges before them. 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Dedication
• A Special Thank You to Leonard Stern
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter One. The Child is the Father of the Man
• Chapter Two. My Education in the Era of Roosevelt
• Chapter Three. AJC Beginnings, or an Unlucky Elevator Ride Turns Lucky
• Chapter Four. Camp Greylock
• Chapter Five. A Decade of Progress and Turmoil
• Chapter Six. From AJC to NYU
• Chapter Seven. A Personal Tsunami
• Chapter Eight. I Knew It Was Almost Over
• Chapter Nine. With the Terrible Donald Trump, I Have Not Been Able to Sleep
• Epilogue
• A Note on The Woman in the Room
• Notes
• About the Author
• Selected Titles from She Writes Press