#JewishPrivilege is trending. I'm not telling my family story but how about a THREAD of Scottish Jewish women & their achievements? 1st, zoologist & geneticist Charlotte Auerbach wrote 90 scientific papers & was a fellow @news_RSE. Anti-apartheit, pro CND. Legend. /1

Born in Vienna Prof Annie Altshul fled fascism & came to Scotland where she transformed post-war mental health nursing practice. She also wrote about her own depression & how the Scottish landscape helped her overcome it. So brave. /2

Rose Klasko Kerrigan knew being divisive is the path to change. She was sacked from her factory job at 14 for speaking against WWI. Later she scandalized Glasgow’s only birth control clinic by seeking contraception cos tho she was married, she wasn't ready to have kids. Shero. /3

Ruth Adler, lawyer, massive feminist & human rights campaigner who set up Amnesty International's 1st Scottish office. She counselled me through various traumas including being 11 and discovering what the Holocaust was (that happens to Jewish kids & it can be a huge trauma.) /4

Edith Simon, first published at the age of 10 in a Berlin newspaper she went on to write several books but really, she was an artist. She lived in Edinburgh & threw great parties. John Bellany described her work as having 'fearless vigour'. I love that! /5

Hannah Frank was the youngest Glasgow girl and worked as an artist and a sculptor. She loved creating pieces that featured women. Her economy of line was legendary. Such. Foremothers. /6

Leah Leneman was a vegan cookery writer (before it was a fashionable thing to be) and also wrote about women's history in Scotland. She was a huge Elsie Inglis fan. /7

All these women were either refugees or the daughters of refugees. #Jewishprivilege in action right there. All of them lost relations during WWII in concentration camps. Scotland was their home & when you come from a refugee background you don't take that word lightly. /8

Thanks for reading this Jewish/Scottish foremothers thread. Obviously these women are some of the 1200 women I memorialised in Where are the Women. Interested in more amazing grannies from Scotland's diverse communities? Walk this way : https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationid=55960f63-3bd9-48e7-a2c9-aa6200d4f55c

Quick BONUS: My great grandmother, Catherine Vinestock who brought her family from Russia to London to Scotland. She wouldn't let her 13 kids speak anything but English, because she wanted them to fit in. She opened a fruit and veg shop on Morningside Rd. I'm so proud of her. /10

I learned writing this book that we have amazing female heritage. Scotland's women have been extraordinary for centuries - we just don't adequately honour & remember their achievements. Writing these threads goes, I hope, a little way towards remedying that. #mondaythoughts