A Circus Scion, a ‘Pretzel Lady,’ and Other Jewish Women To Watch
By Jane Eisner December 14, 2010
A week ago, I had had the opportunity to question 10 Jewish women, in public, about their lives, their leadership roles and their family secrets. It was an all-female minyan, on stage at a Washington D.C. hotel, for a good cause — Jewish Women International’s annual conference highlighting 10 Women to Watch.
It was a fascinating line-up, including CNN’s senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash, environmentalist Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, Judaic scholar Arna Poupko Fisher, the U.S. Ambassador to the United National Commission on the Status of Women Meryl Frank, and Kim Oster-Holstein, a.k.a. the pretzel lady, a founder of Kim and Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels. (Samples were offered everywhere, to great reviews.)
I was struck by one thing in particular: Two women who had assumed a leadership role in their family’s business. Dominique Schurman, for instance, the CEO of Schurman Retail Group, which owns 430 stores selling stationary, greeting cards, and other forms of what they call “personal expression.” She started working for her father answering phones; now she runs the place.
And Nicole Feld, executive vice president of Feld Entertainment, a producer of entertainment events including Disney on Ice and — here’s a surprise — Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which her grandfather bought in 1967. (The circus is owned by a Jewish family?)
Both these women credited their families with inspiring their career choices, and supporting them. Quite a change from the days when only the sons inherited the family farm.
More about all of the honorees can be found here: At a time when it seems the glass ceiling is practically falling down on women in Jewish communal life, how refreshing it is to see these women achieve so much in the world.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
