The Vilna Shul on Beacon Hill is Boston’s last immigrant-era synagogue building. As such, much of its mission focuses on raising voices that need amplification. It’s only fitting that Vilna Shul hosts “The Only Woman in the Room” for Women’s History Month, highlighting the stories of trailblazing Jewish women through film screenings, live readings and more.

The event’s title is a nod to “The Only Woman in the Room: A Memoir of Japan, Human Rights, and the Arts,” the personal story of 22-year-old Beate Sirota Gordon, a Russian Jew who was the only woman to take part in the crafting of the Japanese Constitution while working abroad as a translator.

A Vilna Shul board member introduced colleagues to Gordon’s often-overlooked story. It was clear that hers was one of many.

“I thought: She can’t be the only woman in the room. Who else can we feature this way? There’s something here that’s worth building out, because there are lots of stories that never get told. What can we do to help raise those voices? That’s Vilna’s role in the community,” says Elyse Winick, Vilna Shul’s director of arts and culture.

The series, supported by The Miriam Fund at CJP, runs from March 4 to April 3. Here’s what to expect.

Discover a below-the-radar activist. In post-war Japan, Beate Sirota Gordon helped to enshrine equal rights for women in the Japanese constitution as, quite literally, the only woman in the room. On March 4, Vilna Shul hosts “The Power of Representation,” a retrospective film and conversation about her life with State Sen. Becca Rausch and Rabbi Lila Kagedan, moderated by Dr. Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women’s Archive.

Honor female Jewish superstars. What do Estée Lauder, Dona Gracia, Emma Lazarus and Ruth Bader Ginsburg have in common? They’re featured in “Wonder Women,” one of the top attractions at Tel Aviv’s ANU: Museum of the Jewish People. On March 9, visit Vilna Shul for brunch and a live-streamed virtual museum tour, plus conversation with Dr. Noa Lea Cohn, director of Jerusalem’s Miklat L’Omanut gallery, the first in a Haredi neighborhood.

Discover the hidden history of a Hollywood icon. “Ziegfeld Girl” Hedy Lamarr was more than a glamorous World War II-era actress; she was also a scientific whiz, laying the groundwork for future wireless communication. Screen “Bombshell,” a look back at her unusual Tinseltown techie life, and then enjoy a post-film talk on March 20.

Push the boundaries of passion. Poet Celia Dropkin shocked her early 1900s contemporaries with her writings on passion, sex, death and love, originally published in the Yiddish Daily Forward. On April 3, “Desires: A Musical-Literary Evening” features Yiddish theater expert Carai’d O’Brien reading Dropkin’s works while the Reisman Klezmer Band provides musical entertainment.

“This is based on a book called ‘Desires,’ which was initially published in serialized form in Yiddish in the Daily Forward. Dropkin’s writing is about love and sex and all sorts of things that people didn’t talk about, especially women, especially in Yiddish, in the 1930s,” Winick says.

The once-taboo tome was recently translated through Amherst’s Yiddish Book Center.

In addition to the special programming, CJP and JArts Community Creative Fellow Sandra Mayo showcases her exhibit, “Printed and Stitched in Time: Stories of Undaunted Women,” a fiber arts/mixed media gallery show about two Holocaust survivors, throughout the month. (Read more about Mayo’s work and inspiration here.)

Related