Snitow, Virginia Levitt

Virginia Snitow (1911-2000)

A long-time teacher, activist, and philanthropist, Virginia Snitow was born in Brooklyn on April 9, 1911 to Louis Levitt (1874 - 1960) and Tillie (Toba) (Rosenberg) Levitt (1892(?) - 1959). As honored by the National Women's Division of American Jewish Congress Virginia Snitow held strongly to the "essential truths of human dignity, racial justice and peace…" These beliefs were strengthened through her education at Girls' High School in Brooklyn, her undergraduate education at Hunter College and her post graduate study at Columbia University and then fully developed as a New York City teacher of English at Wadleigh Public High School for Girls in Harlem through the 1930s and early 1940s.

It was at Wadleigh that Snitow saw how the poverty that her students lived in interfered with their schoolwork and contributed to their poor academic performance. This experience provided the material for her classic essay, "I Teach Negro Girls." This article dealt compassionately with the obstacles faced by these children in achieving academic success. Originally published in the New Republic in 1942, it was also reprinted in the Negro Digest to critical acclaim. Written in 1958 "The Mushroom Cloud" described the dangers of nuclear energy. A prolific writer, Snitow was also published in Ship and Sailing, Family Circle, Western Political Quarterly and Jewish Currents . This collection includes copies of these articles, as well as many unpublished articles assembled as "I Remember Letters," "Confrontations of a Quiet Woman," "Biography of Juarez" and "People and Places" and poetry assembled as "Poems and Sayings."

After a brief marriage to Harold Clemenko, in 1935 Virginia Levitt married Charles Snitow, an attorney who developed the national and then international Tradeshow business. They had two children, Ann Barr Snitow, born May 8, 1943 and Alan Mark Snitow born February 4, 1948.

A frequent traveler, Virginia and Charles Snitow purchased a winter home on the island of Grenada. It was here she was to do a great deal of writing, including many of her "I Remember Letters" and her "Grenada Diaries."

Along with Leonard & Jean Boudin, Margaret Mead, William Scott and a number of artists and writers, Snitow founded the progressive Downtown Community School in New York City. Son Alan quoted his father as saying "many years later that the fact that a small group of women could create a school from scratch [was what] inspired him to start his own business."

First through the Scarsdale - White Plains Chapter, and then through the Westchester County Division and National organization, Snitow rose through the ranks of the American Jewish Congress (AJC) for two decades. In 1958 - 1959 Snitow organized and directed a study group called the Wednesday Morning Discussion Group. This program became a prototype for the AJC, used for new member outreach. The published articles are part of this collection.

Always politically active Snitow attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami as an elected delegate for New York State.

Through her years in the AJC Women's Division, Snitow was an outspoken opponent on issues of racial inequality, parochial school aid, the war in Vietnam and nuclear power. But her passion was one of equal rights for women, both in the United States and in Israel. She was elected President of the AJC Women's Division in March 1964. On her retirement from the Women's division in March 1971 Snitow received "A Woman of Our Time Award."

Although she lost the fight, Snitow fought against elimination of the Women's Division, which was founded by Louise Waterman Wise in 1932, into the AJC. In 1982 the division became fully merged into the American Jewish Congress.

Her most significant contribution to helping women in Israel was the founding of US / Israel Women to Women in 1978. After seeing a news item about the closing of a women's shelter due to lack of funds, Snitow raised the money and formed this organization that supported a rape crisis center, women's studies courses, a health hotline, leadership development programs, battered women's shelters, antidiscrimination lawsuits, a lecture series and pregnancy advisory services. Their motto was "Women Must Help Women."

Virginia Snitow passed away at her home in Scarsdale on October 16, 2000. After her death "The Virginia Levitt Snitow Lecture Series" was established by Women to Women in Haifa and Tel Aviv Universities.