Obj. ID: 35469
Jewish printed books  Refuot ha-Nefesh, Amsterdam, 1788

This text was prepared by William Gross:

This is one of a group of small pamphlets published by different institutions in the cities of Europe, particularly Amsterdam, are the type of material that tends to be very ephemeral. So, such booklets are rare. This one presents the laws and prayers concerning burial, by Chevra Kadisha of Den Haag. The small booklet was printed in Amsterdam by the firm of Proops, as there was no Hebrew printing press at this time in the city where it was used.
During the nineteenth century (and sometimes even earlier), when the Jewish world center of print moved to Eastern Europe, and the social place and function of women improved, there were 24 women active in Hebrew printing and publishing, 17 of whom were in Eastern Europe. A substantial number of printing houses came to be run by widows, the most famous of whom was the Widow (Dvoyre) Romm, who exerted substantial control over the great Lithuanian publishing house from 1860 until her death in 1903. In at least one case, a major Hebrew press, in Lwów, was founded and run from 1788 to 1805 by a woman, Yudis Rosanes, who came from the Żółkiew line of Uri Fayvesh ha-Levi.