Background
Soneschein was born in Prostejov, Moravia in 1847 to Fannie and Hirsch Bär Fassel.
Soneschein was born in Prostejov, Moravia in 1847 to Fannie and Hirsch Bär Fassel.
lieutenant was the first English-language periodical targeted to American Jewish women. In 1880, she wrote an essay "The Pioneers" which described her society by the same name. In May 1893, she participated on Press Congress panel at the World"s Colombian Exposition in Chicago, where she spoke on "Newspaperwomen in Austria"." Here she described the need for a magazine specifically for American Jewish women.
This same congress formed the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), to which lent her support.
In April 1895, she founded and edited a new magazine called The American Jewess. She was a great admirer of Theodor Herzl and he first wrote for an American audience in her magazine.
She was sent as a delegate to the First Zionist Conference in Basel in 1897. In 1898, she sold the magazine, but stayed on as editors
The American Jewess continued to struggle financially and its last issue was published in August 1899. continued to write, but she did not stay involved in the Zionist movement or Jewish women"s activism.
Later in the year, she attended the Jewish Women"s Congress at the same Exposition, and won support from prominent middle-class Jewish women interested in literary, philanthropic, and religious questions. She urged NCJW members to fight for religious equality within their synagogues, criticized the New Woman ideal, and was one of the first journalists to champion a Palestinian homeland.
Sonneschein was a moderate liberal who was sympathetic to Zionism and believed in synagogal rights for women. From her Editor"s Desk column, Soneschein used the magazine as a platform to advocate for her political and religious views. Over time, she grew increasingly frustrated and publicly critical of NCJW, because the organization did not take up her passion for Zionism or her religious goals.
