Ada Maimon
Country:
Moldova
Company:
Government
One of the "spiritual mothers" of Jewish feminism ni Israel, Ada Maimon served in a number of roles, including founding the women's labor organization, Moezet Ha-Poa lot, and serving in the first Knesset. Her public activity, togetherwith her role as historian of thefeminist movement in Israel, was part of a long, determined struggle on behalf of Jewish women in Israeli society and, even more, in the Jewish religion. In each of her many positions, she viewed her role as being a religious and spiritual one. In the Knesset, this attitude led her to oppose every law that granted perquisites and high salariesto public servants and to forgo most of her salary.
From 1930 to 1933 Maimon served as a member of the Histadrut's executive committee, resigning over disagreementswith Ben-Gurion and the Histadrut leaders. She also used this time to foster the "work in another corner" ofwhich she dreamed: the establishment ofawomen's training farm near Nes Ziyyonah. During her term as secretary of the Moezet ha-Poalot, shehad had the idea of settingup a farm that would train about two hundred women agricultural workers every two years and gradually this came to fruition. In 1926 the Jewish National Fund bought the land and gave it to the women workers under her leadership, and she met Selma Margaret Margolis, the director of WIZO in Romania, who took upon herself the fundraising required to establish the village.