Collection

Bauman, Batya Papers

Span Dates: 1947 - 2006
Bulk Dates:
Volume: 5.021 linear feet (8 containers)

Description

The Batya Bauman papers consist of biographical information and documents pertaining to her early life, her feminist lecture businesses: Batya Bauman Enterprises, Batya Bauman Lecture Bureau, and Feminist Voices. Of interest are the papers related to her Jewish and lesbian feminism. Other papers related to her activism for animal welfare and Jewish involvement in that cause. Materials include writings by Bauman and others; personal and professional correspondence; articles, correspondence, pamphlets, and clippings relating to animal rights organizations (including Feminists for Animal Rights and PETA); correspondence, pamphlets, brochures related to Jewish women and transparencies of layouts for the Jewish feminist magazine, Lilith. Business records include memoranda, clippings, articles, photographs, newsletters, clippings, personal calendars (circa 1969-2000), and awards. There are also clippings, photographs, and correspondence from Bauman's time in Israel in 1950s.

Hist/Bio Note

Batya Bauman (born Bernice) was born in Brooklyn, NY, the daughter of Abraham and Gertrude Bauman. Her family moved to Rhode Island when she was an infant and she grew up in Providence, graduating from Hope High School in 1947. Bauman came up through the ranks of the Zionist Youth Movement, having been active in Young Judaea and Junior Hadassah. She is a graduate of the Institute for Youth Leaders from the Diaspora in Jerusalem, where she studied from 1951 to 1952; she returned to Israel to live on a kibbutz from 1952 to 1954. In the 1960s, Bauman served as Director of Lecture-Program Services of B'nai B'rith's Department of Adult Jewish Education in Washington, DC. She attended Fordham University later in life and was graduated summa cum laude in 1978 with a B.A. in Religious Studies. Bauman has served for fifteen years as president of Feminists for Animal Rights and Editor-in-Chief of FAR's International Newsletter. She is a longtime animal advocate and activist and an ecofeminist ethical vegetarian. Before becoming an activist in animal and ecofeminist concerns, she was active in the 1970s and 1980s in New York City's feminist and lesbian communities, having co-founded Gay Women's Alternative and Lilith, a Jewish feminist magazine, as well as having been associated with Womanbooks, one of the first and largest women's bookstores in the country. She currently lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Finding Aid

An online finding aid is available.
https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/825

Location

Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository Smith College Neilson Library 7 Neilson Drive Northampton MA 01063
https://libraries.smith.edu/special-collections/about/sophia-smith-collection-womens-history

Tags

Jewish (ethnic, Reform, Reconstructionist, Orthodox) | Feminism | Women and Religion | Author/editor