Never a Native by Alice Shalvi

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he memoir of Alice Shalvi, a pioneer in advancing the status of women in Israel and in religious girls’ education. Well known as a public speaker and a social activist, Shalvi’s contribution to Jewish education, to Israeli culture and to Jewish feminism has been widely recognized.

Born in Germany in 1926 to Orthodox parents, Shalvi grew up in London and studied English at Cambridge, before moving to Jerusalem in 1949 where she went on to pursue a PhD at Hebrew University, eventually teaching English Literature. In 1950, Shalvi met and married her husband, Moshe Shelkowitz (later Shalvi), who died in 2013. One of Shalvi’s greatest accomplishments was the establishment of the Pelech School which she headed from 1975 to 1990. This experimental/ progressive religious high school for girls in Jerusalem has become a model for women’s Orthodox education across the country.