Jemima Jeselsohn

Jemima Jeselsohn-Rosenthaler was born in Haifa, in 1940. Her father was a lawyer and her mother a social worker, both coming to then Palestine from Germany. She grew up in Tel Aviv and went there to elementary and high schools. After a year of voluntary work with children during which she enrolled at the Bar-Ilan University, she moved in 1960 for three years to London. There she studied speech therapy and was admitted as a licentiate of the College of Speech Therapists in 1964.

Returning to Israel in 1963, she worked a speech therapist mainly for children at Tel Hashomer (today Shiba) Hospital and in the Micha organization (teachers’ organization of deaf and dumb children). 

In 1965, she married David Jeselsohn and continued to work in her profession.

In 1978, the family, which by that time had four children, moved to Zurich, Switzerland. There Jemima dedicated herself both to the family, which was enlarged by two more children, as well as to voluntary work in the Jewish community with an emphasis on education. She was for many years a member of the Advisory Board of the elementary school Noam in Zurich and Co-Founder and Educational Advisor of the Moriah Jewish Secondary School in Zurich. During her work in both schools she emphasized the importance of Hebrew as the leaching language for all Jewish disciplines. She was also involved in finding and training teachers in Jewish subjects.

In addition to educational work, Jemima was very active in social activities of the Jewish community in Zurich, including visits of sick people, looking after the well-being of single and elderly people, and supporting families of converts to Judaism. These areas of activity occupy her up to this day.