Dora Askowith (August 30, 1884 - October 23, 1958) was a Lithuanian-born American college professor, author and historian. She was director of the Women’s Organization for the American Jewish Congress.

Life

Askowith received her primary education at Winthrop School, in Roxbury, Boston and attended high school at Girls' High School.^[1] She was born in Kovno. She graduated from Barnard College and Columbia University. From 1912 to 1957, she taught at Hunter College.^[2]

For a short period in the 1920s, Askowith studied at Rabbinical school, although ordination was denied to female students.^[3]

In 1891, her father, Jacob Baruch, and brother, Charles, designed one of the early versions of the Flag of Israel.^[4][5]

Publications

Books

• The Toleration of the Jews in the Roman Empire. Part I. The Toleration of the Jews Under Julius Caesar and Augustus (1915) — Published by Columbia University
• Three Outstanding Women: Mary Fels, Rebekah Kohut, Annie Nathan Meyer (1941)

Book chapters

• Askowith, D. (1927). “Prolegomena: Legal Fictions or Evasions of the Law.” In Jewish Studies in Memory of Israel Abrahams. New York: Jewish Institute of Religion.
• Askowith, D. (1930). “The Life and Work of Luigi Luzzatti.” In Luzzatti, L. (Ed.) God in Freedom: Studies in the Relations Between Church and State. New York: Macmillan.

Journal articles

• Askowith, D. (1944). The first Zionist flag. Jewish Social Studies, 55-57.
• Askowith, D. (1947). Ezekiel and St. Augustine: A comparative study. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 15(4), 224-227.
• Askowith, D. (1956). The role of women in the field of higher Jewish education. Judaism, 5(2), 169.

Other

• A Call to the Jewish Women of America (c. 1917) (pamphlet)
• The purchase of Louisiana (1953) (unknown)