Doctor Judith Lieberman, (August 14, 1904 — December 1978), was an American educator and school administrator. She served as Hebrew principal and later dean of Hebrew studies of

Shulamith School for Girls Shulamith School for Girls is a Centrist Orthodox Jewish school. It was the first Orthodox Jewish elementary school for girls in North America. The name '' Shulamith'' ( he, שולמית) is a feminine form of the Hebrew name Solomon, which loose ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, the first Jewish day school for girls in North America. Her tenure there started in 1941 and lasted over 25 years. She was the granddaughter of Rabbi

Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (20 November 1816 in Mir, Russia – 10 August 1893 in Warsaw, Poland), also known as Reb Hirsch Leib Berlin, and commonly known by the acronym Netziv, was an Orthodox rabbi, '' Rosh yeshiva'' (dean) of the Volozhin ...

, daughter of Rabbi

Meir Meir ( he, מֵאִיר) is a Jewish male given name and an occasional surname. It means "one who shines". It is often Germanized as Maier, Mayer, Mayr, Meier, Meyer, Meijer, Italianized as Miagro, or Anglicized as Mayer, Meyer, or Myer.Alfre ...

Bar-Ilan (leader of the Mizrachi), and second wife of Jewish religious scholar

Saul Lieberman Saul Lieberman (Hebrew: שאול ליברמן, May 28, 1898 – March 23, 1983), also known as Rabbi Shaul Lieberman or, among some of his students, The ''Gra"sh'' (''Gaon Rabbeinu Shaul''), was a rabbi and a Talmudic scholar. He served as Professo ...

. Lieberman spent World War I with her paternal grandmother, the unofficial administrator of the Volozhiner Yeshiva. She joined her immediate family after the war in the United States, and graduated from New York City public high school. Lieberman studied for her Bachelors degree at Hunter College and then moved to

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

under Professor Hates and Professor David S. Muzzey. She completed a PhD in

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

at the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

in 1931. In 1932, she married Saul Leiberman, who had been widowed two years earlier. She spent the remainder of the decade in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

with her husband, and then moved back to New York's

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

with him. She quickly gained a position at Shulamith, then based in Borough Park. Among her publications were '' Robert Browning and

Hebraism Hebraism �hiːbreɪz(ə)mis a lexical item, usage or trait characteristic of the Hebrew language. By successive extension it is often applied to the Jewish people, their faith, national ideology or culture. Idiomatic Hebrew Hebrew has many idiom ...

'' (1934), and an autobiographical chapter which was included in ''Thirteen Americans, Their Spiritual Autobiographies'' (1953), edited by

Louis Finkelstein Louis Finkelstein (June 14, 1895 in Cincinnati, Ohio – 29 November 1991) was a Talmud scholar, an expert in Jewish law, and a leader of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) and Conservative Judaism. Biography Louis (Eliezer) Fin ...

References

Jewish American writers 1904 births 1978 deaths Hunter College alumni Columbia University alumni 20th-century American Jews {{US-academic-bio-stub