Background

Rachel Josefowitz Siegel was born on August 13, 1924, in Berlin, Germany, of Ashkenazi Lithuanian background. She was the daughter of Zachar and Frieda (Shur) Josefowitz. In 1930, as anti-Semitism rose in Germany, the family fled to Switzerland, where Rachel and her four siblings attended school.

Education

Never having attended high school, Rachel was admitted to Simmons College, where she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1944. She received her Master's Degree in Social Work from Syracuse University only in 1973.

Career

Siegel started her career by volunteering as a tutor in the Ithaca school system and serving on the boards of several social service agencies. She then made a 25-years break, raising two sons and a daughter. Only then, Siegel started her professional career, returning to graduate school and graduating from Syracuse University.

At first, she served as a staff social worker at Tompkins County Mental Health Clinic, Ithaca, New York, from 1973 to 1976. A founding member and consultant to the Ithaca, New York Task Force for Battered Women (now called Advocacy Center), she supported not only the clients of the agency but its staff as well. She also volunteered at Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service as a support group leader and a Board member and led a bereavement group at Hospicare.

Since 1976, Siegel had worked as a psychotherapist in private practice. She also held the position of a facilitator at Tompkins County Displaced Homemakers Center from 1993 until her retirement.

Achievements

• During her long career as a psychotherapist, Siegel has written numerous publications on Jewish women and on ageing and active retirement, as well as on feminist therapy. She was the co-editor of Women Changing Therapy: New Assessments, Values, and Strategies in Feminist Therapy (1983), Jewish Women in Therapy: Seen but Not Heard (1991), and Jewish Mothers Tell Their Stories: Acts of Love and Courage (2000), as well as writing a personal memoir My Songs of Then and Now (2012). Siegel also conducted seminars and workshops on a variety of women's issues, especially ageing, Jewish women, and sexuality.
  
  A 1995 issue of the journal Women in Therapy was dedicated to Ms Siegel on the occasion of her 70th birthday.

Works

More photos

• book

  • My Songs of Now and Then

    (Praise for My Songs of Now and Then touches on important ...)

    2012
  • Jewish Mothers Tell Their Stories

    (Jewish Mothers Tell Their Stories: Acts of Love and Coura...)

    2000
  • Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women

    (Jewish women of all ages and backgrounds come together in...)

    1997
  • Women Changing Therapy

    (A thoughtful and thought-provoking anthology that focuses...)

    1983
  • Jewish Women in Therapy

    (Here is the first volume ever to focus on the issues of J...)

    1991

Views

Rachel Siegel was a feminist.

Membership

Siegel was a member of the National Women’s Studies Association, Association for Women in Psychology, National Association of Social Workers, National Women’s Political Caucus, National Civil Liberties Union, National Organization for Women, League of Women Voters and Hadassah.

Connections

Siegel married Benjamin M. Siegel, who died on March 22, 1990, in 1944. The couple gave a birth to 3 children, Charles Ellis, Hyam Barry and Ruth Vivian.

Father:

Zachar Josefowitz

Mother:

Frieda (Shur) Josefowitz

husband:

Benjamin M. Siegel

Son:

Charles Ellis Siegel

Son:

Hyam Barry Siegel

Daughter:

Ruth Vivian Siegel

Sister:

Rose Josefowitz Choron

Brother:

David Josefowitz

Brother:

Samuel Josefowitz

Sister:

Fenia Josefowitz Oren