Julienne Bloch (11 August 1833 – 12 November 1868) was a French educator and writer. She was one of the earliest published Jewish women writers in France.

Biography

Bloch was the eldest daughter of Simon Bloch (1810–1879), founder and editor of the journal ''L'univers israélite''. She received a teaching license at the age of sixteen, and devoted herself to

Jewish education Jewish education ( he, חינוך, ''Chinuch'') is the transmission of the tenets, principles, and religious laws of Judaism. Known as the "people of the book", Jews value education, and the value of education is strongly embedded in Jewish cu ...

. For two years, when she was about twenty-five years of age, she directed the institution for young girls at Lyons, founded by the local Jewish community. Afterwards she co-directed the establishment of her sister Pauline Pereira in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. From June 1854 to August 1861, Bloch published a series of articles in her father's paper under the title "Lettres d'une Parisienne." These articles provided complex analyses of French society, the role of

women in Judaism The role of women in Judaism is determined by the Hebrew Bible, the Oral Law (the corpus of rabbinic literature), by custom, and by cultural factors. Although the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature mention various female role models, religio ...

, and the dangers of

Jewish assimilation Jewish assimilation ( he, התבוללות, ''hitbolelut'') refers either to the gradual cultural assimilation and social integration of Jews in their surrounding culture or to an ideological program in the age of emancipation promoting confor ...

. In a series of letters to

Eugène de Mirecourt Charles Jean-Baptiste Jacquot (19 November 1812 – 13 February 1880), who wrote under the pen name Eugène de Mirecourt, was a French writer and journalist. The main critic of Alexandre Dumas, he contributed novels, short stories and biogra ...

, she criticized the writer's negative descriptions of well-known Jews. She died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

on 12 November 1868, at the age of 35.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloch, Julienne 1833 births 1868 deaths 19th-century French educators 19th-century women educators Alsatian Jews 19th-century French Jews Heads of schools in France Jewish educators Jewish women writers People from Bas-Rhin Tuberculosis deaths in France 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis