About Cynthia
After graduating from the University of Rochester and receiving her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles (where she was a Chancellor’s Intern Fellow), Cynthia Gensheimer analyzed tax policy for the Congressional Budget Office and taught economics part-time at Vassar College for five years. She first became interested in the history of American Jewish philanthropy while serving as vice president of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City.
Today, she studies Jewish women who lived in small towns, focusing on their education, their benevolent work, and their roles as leaders within the Jewish community and beyond. Articles that she co-authored appeared recently in the American Jewish Archives Journal and American Jewish History, and she was awarded the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Fellowship from the American Jewish Archives in 2015–16.
Gensheimer currently lives in Denver, Colorado, where she serves on the board of the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society.
Publications
Review of Dvora Hacohen, To Repair a Broken World: The Life of Henrietta Szold. AJS Review 46, no. 2 (November 2022): 434–36.
“Clara Landsberg, the Hamilton Sisters, and Their Experiences at Hull House.” Chicago Jewish History 46, no. 4 (Fall 2022): 14–21. Discusses Clara Landsberg’s religious conversion in light of her romantic relationship with Margaret Hamilton.
“A Tale of Many Cultures: Clara Landsberg’s Experiences at Hull House with Eastern European Jewish Immigrants and White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Social Workers.” Chicago Jewish History 46, no. 3 (Summer 2022): 14–21. Reposted at The Jane Addams Papers Project and The Jewish Pluralist.
"Quincy's Jewish Families Helped Shape the City." Chicago Jewish History 45, no. 2 (Spring 2021): 11–12.
"Meet Dr. Cynthia F. Gensheimer." Chicago Jewish History 45, no. 2 (Spring 2021): 13, 19.
“Inching Toward Women’s Equality: Tentative Steps in Three Small Jewish Communities.” With David A. Frolick. American Jewish Archives Journal 72, nos. 1 & 2 (2020): 1–55.
“‘No Better Education’: Helen Solomon at Wellesley College, 1901–1902.” With Kathryn Hellerstein. American Jewish History 104, nos. 2 & 3 (April/July 2020): 397–422.
“The Levy Family and Ongoing Ties Between Branches in Hechingen and Quincy, Illinois,” Gedenkstätten-Rundschau, Special Issue (June 2020): 26–33.
“Heimat and Home: Mobility Among Jews in Quincy, Illinois.” With Anton Hieke. American Jewish History 102, no. 2 (2018).
“Annie Jonas Wells: Jewish Daughter, Episcopal Wife, Independent Intellectual.” American Jewish History 98, no. 3 (July 2014): 83–125.
“A Jewish Family Divided.” Heritage: The Magazine of the American Jewish Historical Society (Winter 2012).
Events
“Combating Antisemitism: Early Efforts at Barnard College.” Brawls, Sickbeds, and Barnard: The Annual Norman E. Alexander Celebration of Collections, Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University, December 5, 2024.
“The First 100 Years: UR and the Rochester Jewish Community.” University of Rochester, November 2, 2023.
“The Lives of Our Educated Ancestors: Jews at American Colleges at the Turn of the 20th Century.” With Dan A. Oren and Karen Franklin. JewishGen, June 8, 2022.
“Kansas Jews at Wellesley College.” Kansas City Wellesley Club, November 19, 2023.
“College Archives: Overlooked Treasure Chests for Jewish Genealogists.” Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado, April 16, 2023.
“‘Loyal Daughters’: Two Jewish Students at Wellesley College.” With Kathryn Hellerstein. Wellesley Jewish Alumnae Club, June 6, 2021.
“The Inextricable Link between Religion and Benevolence in the Nineteenth Century.” University of Denver, April 15, 2019.
“Denver’s Early Jewish College Women: From Gefilte Fish to Suffrage, Sisterhood, and Social Work.” Nineteenth Annual John C. Livingston Memorial Lecture, Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society and Center for Judaic Studies, University of Denver, January 20, 2019.
“A Slice of Jewish Life in 1890s Keokuk.” Keokuk Public Library, August 23, 2018.
“Intriguing Nineteenth-Century Stories of Jewish Immigration to Colorado.” Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado, May 25, 2018.
“From Feathers to Furnishings: Contributions of Jewish Entrepreneurs in Nineteenth-Century Quincy, Illinois.” Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County, November 6, 2016.
Testimonials
“In 2019, Dr. Cynthia Gensheimer presented the annual Livingston Memorial Lecture in American Jewish History, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society at the University of Denver. It is not often that a scholar is able to share her deep research in a manner that is so accessible to the public as well. Dr. Gensheimer’s talk, “Denver’s Early Jewish College Women: From Gefilte Fish to Suffrage, Sisterhood & Social Work” showcased her high level of scholarship in a deeply engaging manner. The audience was enthralled both by the stories of these remarkable women and Gensheimer’s ability to put their experiences into a broader context that enabled her to help illuminate the diverse experiences of American Jewish women. She is a master storyteller, who relies on the use of often overlooked primary sources to reveal new, important information that expands our knowledge of the lives of everyday women who contributed so much to family and community.”
“When Cynthia Gensheimer spoke at Vassar Temple the conference room was filled to capacity. The audience was captivated by her lively, knowledgeable, and enjoyable lecture.”
“Cynthia Gensheimer has done extensive archival research on Jewish American history with a focus on Jewish life in Midwestern frontier towns, Jewish women’s charitable organizations, and the experiences of the first Jewish women at the Seven Sisters schools. She is a very engaging speaker and my students at Smith have immensely enjoyed learning from her about what life was like 100 years ago for Jewish students at Smith, Wellesley, and other women’s colleges.”
Contact Cynthia
