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Jael Silliman

women pioneers

Jewish women were well-educated and played important roles in their families and in the community. Many were professionals and were highly trained in numerous fields. They competed in sports and were active in political affairs. Hannah Sen, a lawyer, rose to be a prominent nationalist and one of the leaders of the Indpendence Struggle. With her sister, Regina Guha, they blazed a trail for Indian women into legal profession. Women such as Ramah Luddy, Ramah Musleah organized and run Jewish schools and other social institutions and rose to prominence as community leaders. Tabitha Solomon was the first woman dentist in India.

Hannah Sen and Regina Guha Legacy

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Tabitha Solomon

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Regina Guha

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Hannah Sen

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Ramah Musleah

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Ramah Luddy

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Rachel Duek Cohen

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Other Women Pioneers

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Tabitha Solomon

Tabitha was among the first women in India to qualify as a dentist. Born in 1901 she qualified in 1928. She assisted Dr. R. Ahmed with the Calcutta Dental Journal and started a dental clinic in the Chittarnjan Seva Sadan Hospital and served in the Dufferin Hospital. She served in both these institutions in an honorary capacity. She served on several Jewish community committees including WIZO, welfare, Calcutta Jewish Association as also a multicultural Calcutta Women’s Committee.

Regina Guha

Regina Guha applied to be a pleader at the Calcutta Bar in 1915. Her application went to the High Court of Calcutta where a four-judge bench had to determine whether “persons” admitted as “pleaders” included women. The Chief Justice and four other judges refused her enrolment on the grounds that they had “no escape from the position that the Legislature in this country never contemplated the admission of women to the rank of Legal Practitioners. (In Regina Guha (1916) 21 CWN 74 the Calcutta High Court”) Her bid was followed in 1922 in Sudhangshu Bala Hazara (1922) ILR 1 Patna 104, where the Patna High Court held that women otherwise qualified were not entitled to be enrolled as Vakil or Pleader.
The Allahabad High Court took the lead by enrolling Miss, Cornelia Sorabji as the first Indian lady Vakil of Allahabad High Court on August 24, 1921 by a decision of the English Committee of the Court (as the Administrative Committee was then called), consisting of Chief Justice Sir Grim Wood Meers. To remove the doubts Legal Practitioners (Women) Act, 1923 declared that notwithstanding the Letters Patent of any High Court no woman shall be disqualified to be enrolled as legal practitioners. Thus Regina Guha played a pioneering law for women in the law in India. Regina was Principal of the Jewish girls School. She died very young ending a brilliant and inspiring career.

Hannah Sen

Hannah Sen (1894–l957), the daughter of a Baghdadi mother and a prominent Hindu lawyer who converted to Judaism, made her mark in a wider arena. She graduated with a law degree but chose education as her profession. Starting out as a teacher in the Jewish Girls’ School in Calcutta, she became the first Indian principal of the New High School for Girls in Bombay in l922. While earning her Teacher’s Diploma from the University of London, Hannah Sen was closely associated with some of the leading British women’s organizations. She gave many speeches, including one in front of a large number of British Members of Parliament, on the conditions and problems of Indian women. In l932 she was asked to return to India to help found the Lady Irwin College of Home Science in New Delhi, of which she served as principal until l947. Under her leadership, this college was heavily involved in the Indian nationalist movement—something with which most Baghdadi women, like their male counterparts, did not identify. Sen later worked with the Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation, focusing on women and children who were displaced as a result of the partition of the sub-continent. She continued her interest in social affairs by representing India at international conferences of non-governmental organizations, UNESCO, and the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Hannah Sen remained close to the Jewish community and contributed to the building of the synagogue in New Delhi.

Ramah Musleah

Ramah Musleah was a teacher in the Jewish Girls’ School for many decades. She was the head of the kindergarten for over 50 years. She dedicated herself to community service, and was active in many Jewish associations, like the Jewish Women’s League, till she died at the age of 93, in Calcutta.

 

Ramah Luddy

Abraham Ezra Rahamim Luddy (1872 – 1935) married Mozelle Cohen (1872 – 1935) and they had four children of which Ramah was the eldest. She finished school in Calcutta and went to college in England and returned with a Master’s degree in Education. She became the principal of the Jewish Girls’ School from 1929 – 1963. She was responsible for making the Jewish Girls’ School a premier educational institution.

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RACHEL DUEK COHEN:

She was the first lady doctor in the Jewish community. Many followed in her footsteps. She enrolled in Calcutta Medical College in 1892 for L.M.S. and M.B courses and received a Government Scholarship of Rs. 20. She was attached to the Jewish Baby Welcome Clinic started by the Jewish Women’s League and worked for poor and destitute children. She emigrated to the UK in the 1930s.

STELLA BENJAMIN:

She received her Master’s degree from Calcutta University, taught at the Jewish Girls’ School and joined the Bengal Chamber of Commerce. She was the first woman to hold an executive position there. She emigrated to England in the 1950’s.

RACHEL ASHKENAZI:

She was the first woman lawyer in the community to practice in the High Court. She pleaded for Muslim women in Purdah.