Description:Southern Jewish women often played leading roles in local and state efforts to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, whose centennial we celebrate in 2020. They were both Southern Ladies and New Women, fitting in to their societies as they challenged the southern conservative consensus. Women's vote impacted their lives not only in civil society but also in the synagogue.

Leonard Rogoff holds a doctorate from the University of North Carolina, where he directed the English Writing Laboratory. He was an associate professor at North Carolina Central University and taught a Southern Jewish History course at Duke. Former president of the Southern Jewish Historical Society and recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award, he has contributed to numerous journals and anthologies. He now serves as historian and president of the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina. He conceived and served as research historian of the multimedia project: Down Home Jewish Life in North Carolina. His books include Homelands: Southern Jewish Identity in Durham and Chapel Hill North Carolina and Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina. His latest book, Gertrude Weil: A Jewish Progressive in the New South, won the 2017 North Carolina Historical and Literary Association’s annual award for nonfiction.