Minna of Worms (died in May 1096) was a Jewish businesswoman and martyr, killed by antisemitic Christians. [1] [2] She was an influential Jewish person, being a significant moneylender with clients and friends among the Christian nobility. Minna was one of the most famous victims of the 1096 Worms massacre which occurred during the First Crusade. [3] She was murdered after refusing to convert to Christianity. [4] [5]
Theobald V of Blois, also known as Theobald the Good, was Count of Blois from 1151 to 1191.
Esther Brandeau is notable in the history of the Jews in Canada as the first Jew to set foot in the country, travelling from France to New France.
Madama Europa was the nickname of Europa Rossi, an opera singer, the first Jewish opera singer to achieve widespread fame outside of the Jewish community.
The Worms massacre was the murder of at least 800 to 1000 Jews from Worms, Holy Roman Empire, at the hands of crusaders under Count Emicho in May 1096.
Simon, son of Boethus was a Jewish High priest in the 1st century BCE and father-in-law of Herod the Great. According to Josephus, he was also known by the name Cantheras. His family is believed to have been connected to the school of the Boethusians, and a family whose origins are from Alexandria in Egypt.
Sara de Sancto Aegidio was a French physician.
Ima Shalom is one of the few women who are named and quoted in the Talmud. She was the wife of Eliezer ben Hurcanus, a prominent Mishnaic sage, and the sister of Rabban Gamaliel II of Yavneh, the first person to lead the Sanhedrin as Nasi after the fall of the Second Temple, which occurred in 70 CE.
Sarah of Yemen is noted as one of the small number of female composters of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry known from the sixth century CE. It is possible that she was Jewish, in which case she is one of only three attested female medieval Jewish poets.
Pulcelina of Blois was a Jewish woman, mistress and/or moneylender to the count Theobald V of Blois. Pulcelina was also a victim of antisemitic hatred.
Paula Dei Mansi was a Jewish scribe and Torah scholar. She is thought to be the earliest known female Jewish scribe. Dei Mansi was the daughter of Abraham Anau of Verona and belonged to a family of scribes that their roots to Rabbi Nathan ben Jehiel of Rome (1035-1110), author of a noted Jewish legal work. Evidence of Dei Mansi’s skill extends beyond that of scribe to that of a Torah scholar. Dei Mansi contributed to her father's biblical commentary, adding her own explanations in the commentary, in addition to translating the work from Hebrew into Italian. Dei Mansi also transcribed a Hebrew prayer book and added her own explanations as commentary to the prayers. A third work, a collection of laws, is known to have been transcribed by Dei Mansi who wrote the work at the request of a relative.
Rachel Aberlin or Rachel ha-Ashkenaziah, was a Jewish mystic. She is described in the Sefer ha-Ḥezyonot by Hayyim Vital. She was an influential figure of the early Sabbateanism and a spiritual leader of women.
Bat ha-Levi (12th-century), was an Iraqi Jewish scholar. She gave lessons to male students and had a remarkable position for a Jewish woman in 12th-century Iraq.
Mibtahiah , was a Jewish businesswoman and banker. She belonged to the first Jewish women of which there is any information outside of the Bible, as well as the first of Jewish businesswomen. She is well-documented from the Ancient Aramaic papyrus collections from Elephantine in Egypt, known as the Mond-Cecil papyri in the Cairo Museum and the Bodleian papyri, which is also named the Mibtahiah archive after her.
Roizl bas Yosef Fishels of Krakow was a Polish Jewish printer and teacher.
Virdimura was a Sicilian Jewish doctor, the first woman officially certified to practice medicine in Sicily.
Belia of Winchester was an English-Jewish businesswoman and moneylender.
Reynette of Koblenz was a German-Jewish moneylender in Koblenz.
The Daughter of Joseph of Baghdad was a Jewish mystic active in Baghdad in c.1121. She was the daughter of "Joseph, the son of the physician". The only source of information about her comes from a letter, written for a recipient living in the Egyptian city of Fustat soon after the events it describes. The story of the daughter was written on the back of a deed.
Bayla Falk was a woman of Talmudic learning. She was born in Lemberg about the middle of the sixteenth century, and died at an advanced age at Jerusalem.
Ellus bas Mordecai was a Jewish woman from Slutsk, then part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In a time when female translators of Jewish religious texts were rare, she translated two works from Hebrew into Yiddish, which were published in 1704.