Includes abstract.This dissertation sets out to demonstrate how a group doubly situated on the margins, as Jewish and female, helped to build the larger community of South African Jewry and contributed to the wider South African society. The investigation is rooted in the transformation wrought in Jewish communities worldwide in the nineteenth and twentieth century through emancipation, assimilation, immigration, acculturation, and Zionism. The discussion is divided into three sections, of which the first two constitute a description of the normative experience of Jewish women, the majority of whom were first and second generation immigrants from eastern Europe. Entitled "Setting up house", the first section opens with their migration, their establishment of immigrant neighbourhoods, and the perpetuation of their close knit communities through bonds of marriage. Entitled "Beyond hearth and home", the second section explores how the period, 1880- 1939, that witnessed dramatic changes in women's status worldwide - through education, the workplace and the attainment of the vote - resonated among South African Jewish women. It will show that while pursuing a career beyond marriage was exceptional, participation on the Jewish communal scene, whether in the welfare societies or in the Zionist movement was normative, and by the end of the period women had wrested control of their organisations from the men. In contrast to the normative experiences described in the first two sections, the third section, "Varieties of integration: case studies of extraordinary women", that is divided between the fields of "Politics" and "Culture", compares and contrasts the lives of women, who by virtue of education, career, lifestyle, political or cultural orientation, did not conform to the norm. These female iconoclasts accentuate what is considered to be normative in the South African Jewish community, whether it be the traditional family, the identification with the English language community, or passive conformity to the existing racial status quo. The dissertation will show that these idealistic and driven women were frequently the most far sighted, and their contributions to the political and cultural life of South Africa in retrospect, take on much greater significance
