HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

San Antonio Section, National Council of Jewish Women

San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Marker Inscription

On May 13, 1907, the San Antonio Section of the National Council of Jewish Women was organized in the Menger Hotel. Anna Hertzberg was elected president by the 15 charter members. The council immediately became active in the development of social services in the city, establishing a night school to provide English instruction to adult immigrants and organizing projects to address such concerns as literacy and public health. In the 1930s, members established a neonatal and well baby clinic. They set up a day care center for working mothers in support of the 1940s war effort and developed the Lighthouse for the Blind during that time, as well. The council continues its work, assessing the needs of the community and creating or assisting agencies to assume council-initiated projects as self-sustaining interests. (2000)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

On May 13, 1907, fifteen charter members organized the San Antonio Section of the National Council of Jewish Women in the Menger Hotel, electing Anna Hertzberg president. The council quickly launched social services—a night school teaching English to adult immigrants, literacy and public-health projects, a well-baby clinic in the 1930s, wartime day care, and the Lighthouse for the Blind. It continued adapting its programs to the city's needs for generations.

Why it matters

It shows Jewish women building the early social-welfare infrastructure of an American city, from immigrant education to public health.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

San Antonio in 1907 was a bustling, diverse city, and among its residents was a well-established Jewish community with deep roots in Texas. The early twentieth century was also a moment of enormous immigration into the United States, and cities everywhere were absorbing newcomers who needed to learn English, find work, and navigate an unfamiliar country.

This was the Progressive era, when Americans increasingly believed that organized, voluntary effort could solve social problems that government had not yet taken up. Much of that effort came from women. Barred from formal political power and still years from the vote, women built clubs, councils, and charitable organizations that became the backbone of early social welfare in American cities.

Jewish women were part of this movement through the National Council of Jewish Women, founded in the 1890s to unite Jewish women in religious, educational, and charitable work. When a group of them gathered in San Antonio, they were tapping into a national network devoted to service — and stepping into the practical work of building a city's social safety net before any such thing was taken for granted.

People & events

On May 13, 1907, the San Antonio Section of the National Council of Jewish Women was organized at the Menger Hotel — a fitting birthplace, as the Menger was one of the city's grand and historic gathering places. Fifteen charter members founded the section, and they elected Anna Hertzberg as their president.

They wasted no time. The council immediately became active in developing social services across the city, and its programs read like a running response to whatever the community most needed. It established a night school to teach English to adult immigrants — a direct, practical gift to newcomers trying to build a life. It organized projects tackling literacy and public health, the everyday concerns of a growing urban population.

The work only deepened with the decades. In the 1930s, members established a neonatal and well-baby clinic, caring for the city's youngest and most vulnerable. During the 1940s, in support of the war effort, they set up a day care center for working mothers, and in that same period they developed the Lighthouse for the Blind. Again and again, the council identified a need and built the institution to meet it — often handing off its projects to become self-sustaining agencies of their own.

Its place in the American story

The San Antonio Section's story shows, in miniature, how much of America's early social-welfare infrastructure was built by women's volunteer organizations. Long before the modern welfare state, it was councils and clubs like this one that ran the night schools, the clinics, and the child-care centers a growing society needed.

It also illustrates the vital role of Jewish women in American civic life. Motivated by a tradition that prizes charity and communal responsibility, the National Council of Jewish Women became a powerful force for social reform across the country, and its local sections poured that energy into their own cities. San Antonio's chapter turned that ideal into English classes, well-baby care, and services for the blind.

There is a distinctly American pattern in the council's method: assess a need, create an organization to meet it, then let that project mature into an independent, self-sustaining agency. This is how many enduring institutions in American cities were born — not from the top down, but from committed volunteers, frequently women, who saw a gap and quietly filled it.

If you visit

This marker sits in a city rich with history, and its setting invites you to think about beginnings. The story starts at the Menger Hotel, one of San Antonio's most storied buildings near the heart of downtown; picturing fifteen women meeting there in 1907 to launch a lifetime of service adds a human layer to a famous old landmark.

As you read the marker, let the sheer range of the council's work sink in — from teaching English to immigrant adults, to caring for newborns, to serving the blind. Each line represents a real institution that touched real lives. This is not a monument to a single dramatic event but to steady, patient, decades-long service, which is its own kind of remarkable.

Fold this stop into a walk through San Antonio's downtown history and you gain a perspective often left out of the usual tour: the quiet, organized work of women who helped build the social fabric of the city. It is a reminder that a community's greatness lies not only in its battles and monuments but in who cared for its most vulnerable.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

Plan your visit

Nearby

Make a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.

Museums & culture

Attractions

Food & drink

Places to stay

Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · Anna Hertzberg

Themes & tags

Women's HistoryImmigrationLandmark

Nearby & related markers

Lydia Mendoza

San Antonio, TX

Born in Houston, Lydia Mendoza became one of the earliest and most beloved voices of the Texas-Mexico borderlands. Her 1934 recording of "Mal Hombre" launched a sixty-year career built on her powerful voice and her mastery of the twelve-string guitar. Known as "La Alondra de la Frontera," she performed at President Carter's inauguration and earned the National Medal of Arts before a stroke ended her career in 1988.

Women's HistoryImmigration

Pan American Round Table

San Antonio, TX

Florence Terry Griswold, a Texan raised along the Mexican border who aided refugees of Mexico's 1910 revolution, gathered 21 friends at San Antonio's historic Menger Hotel on October 16, 1916, to found the Pan American Round Table. The organization united women across the Western Hemisphere in a shared pursuit of understanding and friendship. By 1989 it had grown to 166 tables in sixteen countries, funding libraries and scholarships.

Women's History

John Hermann Kampmann

San Antonio, TX

Trained as an architect in Cologne and schooled in the building trades, John Hermann Kampmann fled the revolutionary upheavals of 1848 in central Europe and reached San Antonio that May, one of the German immigrants who reshaped the young Texas city. He rose from stonemason to leading contractor, leaving his mark on the Menger Hotel, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, the German-English School, and much else. Commissioned a Confederate captain in the Civil War, he recruited and equipped volunteers and managed army supplies before returning to his enterprises, ultimately buying the Menger Hotel he had helped build.

ImmigrationIndustry & Invention

Adina de Zavala

San Antonio, TX

Granddaughter of Republic of Texas vice-president Lorenzo de Zavala, Adina de Zavala grew up steeped in stories of the Texas past and made its preservation her life's work. She helped save landmarks including the Alamo, the Spanish Governor's Palace, and San Antonio's missions, and in 1889 formed the De Zavala Daughters, who erected some of Texas's first historical markers. In 1908, convinced the Alamo's long barracks held the mission's original walls, she barricaded herself inside for three days and nights to stop their demolition.

Women's History