Joan Israel

Biographical/Background Information

  • Born in New York
  • Grew up in a Christian neighborhood in Queens, NY
  • Not observant growing up

Education

  • Went to City College in New York, studied Psychology
  • Got a degree from Rochester College
  • Graduate school: Columbia University, Smith College of Social Work
  • Thesis at Smith was on childcare plans for the children of institutionalized psychotic women

Career

  • Second-year placement at Eloise (mental hospital in Detroit, now Wayne County General Hospital)
  • Worked for Jewish Family Services
  • Private Practice

Issues/Activism

  • Childcare (especially for children of institutionalized psychotic women
  • Treatment of mentally ill women and their children
  • Treatment/portrayal of women by the media
  • Aging and menopause
  • Childcare
  • Loans and Credit to women
  • Director of Operation Friendship
  • Michigan Media Committee (founder)
  • Began and headed NOW’s childcare committee
  • Currently active in WAND (Women’s Actions for New Directions) and the Peace Movement

Quotes

  • “I knew I was Jewish because everybody else was Christian.”
  • “If you could survive Eloise, you could survive anywhere…I must say I hated it when I came here [to Detroit], I thought I had fallen off a cliff.”
  • “I was always given the impression from my parents that I could do anything I wanted to do.”
  • “NOW just grabbed me, I thought this was my heritage in a way.”
  • “As women we need to accept ourselves”
  • Millie Jeffrey: “You can win battles but there’s always the struggle.”
  • “The road ahead is always bumpy, but sometimes it’s smooth and I think women today have more choices, a lot of choices.”

Definition of Feminism: [The belief that] Men and women should be seen as equal and provided equal opportunities.

Joan Israel – Interview Summary
Interview conducted on 5 January 2008

  • Born in New York.
  • Grew up in a Christian neighborhood in Queens, NY. Was the only Jewish student in her class. “I knew I was Jewish because everybody else was Christian.”
  • Not observant growing up.
  • Parents were very involved with community life, especially political issues.
  • Has two sisters, one older, one younger.
  • Went to City College in NY at the same time as returning WWII veterans—at this time City College didn’t accept “girls,” you had to be an engineering student or and education student. Once enrolled she majored in Psychology.
  • Married and moved to Rochester, NY. Graduated from the University of Rochester.
  • Wanted to be an anthropologist but at this time (1952) she couldn’t imagine doing that and performing her other roles (wife, future mother, homemaker).
  • Accepted to Columbia University for graduate school.
  • Attended Smith School of Social Work.
  • Came to MI for her second-year placement and worked at Eloise Asylum (one of the largest in the country, now Wayne County General Hospital). “If you could survive Eloise, you could survive anywhere…I must say I hated it when I came here [to Detroit], I thought I had fallen off a cliff.”
  • “I was always given the impression from my parents that I could do anything I wanted to do.”
  • Served as the Director of Operation Friendship.
  • Went to the first Michigan NOW meeting at the Scarab Club in Detroit. “A bunch of us went, sort of as a joke.”
  • Had done her thesis at Smith on childcare plans for institutionalized psychotic women and this led her to volunteer to head NOW’s childcare committee. From 1969-1970 she wrote legislation and ran conferences.
  • Served as the second president of Michigan NOW.
  • Also interested in the treatment of women by the media.
  • Formed the Michigan Media Committee which ran programs on advertising (“What’s Wrong with Wrinkles?”), conferences, ran a consciousness-raising program for the staff of ABC.
  • Major NOW issues during the early years: choice, employment, relationships.
  • “NOW just grabbed me, I thought this was my heritage in a way.”
  • Helped found the Detroit Women’s Forum.
  • Worked for Jewish Family Services before going into private practice.
  • Met Betty Friedan at Betty Kurtzman’s (mother of Susan Kurtzman, also interviewed) house before she published “The Feminine Mystique.” Freidan was going around the country talking to women about her ideas.
  • Founded the Wayne County Childcare Coordinating Committee.
  • Was a feminist voice on a program called “Free for All” for 7 or 8 years.
  • Definition of Feminism: “[The belief that] Men and women should be seen as equal and provided equal opportunities.”
  • Co-wrote two books on aging and menopause – Looking Ahead: A Woman’s Guide to the Problems and Joys of Growing Older; Surviving the Change.
  • “As women we need to accept ourselves”
  • Ran a three-day conference at the University of Michigan on Women and Aging. Susan Sontag flew in from Paris to give the keynote speech.
  • “My parents couldn’t have been prouder.”
  • Currently active in the Peace Movement.
  • Millie Jeffrey: “You can win battles but there’s always the struggle.”
  • Other issues: loans, discrimination, credit. Before feminism, to get a mortgage, if you were using the woman’s income, she had to take a pregnancy test.
  • Stopped being active in NOW in 1977 and moved on to WAND (Women’s Actions for New Directions).
  • Has an archive of her papers and personal documents at the Walter P. Reuther Library in Detroit.
  • “The road ahead is always bumpy, but sometimes it’s smooth and I think women today have more choices, a lot of choices.”

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