Women were not permitted to practice law in Maryland until 1902, when Etta Haynie Maddox was sworn into the Maryland Bar. From then through 1919, only six additional women, all Gentiles, became members of the Maryland Bar. The 1920s brought a sea change, with 35 women admitted to the Maryland Bar, 17 of whom were Jewish. Grace Rebecca Gerber became the first Jewish woman admitted to the Maryland Bar, in April 1920 – four months before women gained the right to vote and the first year the University of Maryland School of Law (UMD) accepted women students.

The Jewish women admitted to the Maryland Bar in the 1920s were trailblazers who fought for women’s rights and changed the practice of law in Maryland. Jeanette Rosner Wolman and Rose Zetzer marched with the suffragettes when they were girls. In 1927, when the Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA) refused to admit them, Grace Gerber, Jennie Plotkin Deckelman, Helen Sherry, Jeanette Rosner Wolman, Goldie Rose Miller, and Rose Zetzer formed the Women Lawyers’ Association of Maryland. That organization lives on today as the Women’s Bar Association of Maryland. In 1946, after being denied admission for 20 years, Rose Zetzer became the first female member of the MSBA, and in 1957, when the Bar Association of Baltimore City finally voted to admit women and African American lawyers, Jeanette Wolman became its first female member.

Many of these women volunteered for the National Women’s Party, advocated for the ERA, and became members of the League of Women Voters. They helped to change Maryland law so women could serve on juries (which did not happen until 1947) and to change divorce laws to make them fairer for women. Many were active in organizations such as Hadassah, B’nai Brith, Jewish Family and Children’s Bureau, the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organization of Maryland, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, Jewish Big Brother and Sister, Beth Tfiloh, and Baltimore Hebrew Association. Here are brief summaries of the lives of 6 of the most active early Jewish female lawyers in Maryland:

Grace Rebecca Gerber grew up in Hagerstown. Her parents were Russian immigrants, and she was born in South America, on their trip to the United States. After graduating first in her class from Western Maryland (now McDaniel) College, she was rejected by the UMD due to her gender. She received her law degree from Valparaiso Law School in Indiana, where she again was first in her class. As the first female lawyer in Hagerstown, she initially performed pro bono services to introduce herself to potential clients. Ultimately, she developed a busy law practice in that town. She moved her family to Baltimore City by 1940 and retired in 1945.

Jennie Plotkin Deckelman was born in Russia and grew up in Prince George’s County. Also denied admission to UMD, she received her law degree from Washington College of Law in the District of Columbia. After graduating and becoming a member of the Maryland Bar in 1921, Jennie worked as a trial lawyer in Baltimore City, focusing mainly on family law. She practiced law until 1935 and died in 1983.

Ida “Helen” Kurland Sherry was born in Lithuania and emigrated with her family in 1904. She grew up in Baltimore and enrolled in UMD in 1920, as a member of the first class of women accepted to the school. At that time, she was young, married, and the mother of a small baby. After being admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1923, she established her own practice in the Equitable Building downtown. On November 14, 1928, she became the first female attorney barred in Maryland to argue a case in the Maryland Court of Appeals (now the Supreme Court of Maryland). She handled domestic, criminal, and civil cases. She became a member of the District of Columbia and California Bars and practiced in both. She died in 1985.

Jeannette Rosner Wolman, a second-generation American, was born in New York City, grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and moved to Baltimore in 1920. In 1924, she graduated from UMD and was admitted to the Maryland Bar. A congregant of Baltimore Hebrew and a social worker for the Jewish Children’s Bureau, Jeanette practiced law with her husband until October 1978. She was the first female member of the Bar Association of Baltimore City and the first chairperson of the Maryland Commission on the Status of Women. She died in 1999 at the age of 96.

Goldie Rose Miller was born in Russia and emigrated to the United States at the age of seven. She graduated from UMD in 1925 and practiced law with her brother Harrison Miller. Goldie was a trial lawyer, handling mostly criminal cases. She practiced law continuously for four decades until her death in 1966.

Rose S. Zetzer grew up in Baltimore and trained as a stenographer. She graduated from UMD in 1925. After being denied jobs with many law firms, she opened her own practice in the Equitable Building. In 1940, she formed Maryland’s first all-women law firm: Zetzer, Carton, Friedler, and Parke. Rose practiced domestic law, with most of her clients being men. In 1946, she became the first female member of the MSBA. She continued to practice law for decades and died in 1998.

These early female Jewish members of the Maryland Bar fought discrimination, overcame significant barriers, were resilient, and persevered. They paved the way for future generations of women lawyers, advocated for many causes, and made lasting contributions to the legal field and their communities. As a group, they deserve admission to the Baltimore Jewish Hall of Fame.

The following is a complete list of the Early Jewish Female Members of the Maryland Bar, with dates of admission and with married names (if not married at the time of admission) in parentheses: