Nina Salaman: "The Fusion of the Old Judaism with the Modern Western World"

Nina Ruth Davis Salaman (1877-1925) was a Hebrew poet, translator, and one of the first English female Jewish scholars of her generation, who was also a Zionist and social activist. She published many poems, translations of Hebrew poems mainly from the Middle Ages, and articles in books, newspapers, and journals. She was a member of the Women Zionists and of the Union of Jewish Women, instituted a Talmud Torah for girls, and participated in various non-Jewish charities such as the Women's Institute at Barley, a small village near Cambridge where she lived, Cottage Hospital at Alton and county institutions and charities in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. Yet, despite these and other notable accomplishments, Nina Salaman’s legacy has not survived beyond her lifetime. This article explores Salaman's life achievements as a female Jewish scholar and restores her place in Jewish history.