In this interview, Judith Weiss, undergraduate class of 1944, discusses her decision to attend Pembroke College and describes her roles as assistant editor on the Pembroke Record and Brun Mael, and her participation at the Brown News Bureau. She also mentions her involvement in the National Youth Organization, the Neighborhood Youth Corps, and her positions at the Providence Journal, Hartford Courant, and the Newark Daily Newsletter. She describes her family's financial constraints that required her to work all throughout college as well as the effect of World War II on the greater community and her enlistment in the Women's Army Corps. She fondly recalls Dean Margaret Shove Morris and professors Israel James Kapstein and Ralph Blanchard. Cohen also shares reminiscences of Bessie Rudd, Magel Wilder, and Mary Louise Record.
Notes:
Class year: 1944
Biographical note: Judith Weiss was born on November 10, 1923 and grew up in Rhode Island. She graduated from Hope High School in January 1940 and then from Pembroke College in October 1943 on the accelerated program with her A.B. in English. After graduation, Cohen worked for a newspaper for servicewomen during World War II and then enlisted in the Women's Army Corps. She went on to receive an A.M. in political science from Brown University on the GI bill. She worked as Assistant Director of the Blackstone Valley Community Action Program, Director of Administrative Departments at the Jewish Community Centers, and then worked for the Census Bureau. She married Aaron Cohen, a Brown University graduate, and had three children. She died in November 17, 1997 at the age of 74. More about Cohen's experience during World War II can be found in "Coming to Terms with the Holocaust ... and Prejudice at Home," an oral history conducted by South Kingstown High School Student Jason Gelles.
This collection contains oral history interviews with alumnae of Brown University, which admitted its first women students in 1891. The Women's College at Brown was renamed Pembroke College in 1928, and in 1971, Pembroke College merged with the Men's College …
