Public lifeעדה גלר

Ada Geller

Ada Geller was a Zionist and women's rights activist, a teacher and school head, and the first woman accountant in Mandatory Palestine.

1888 to 1949First woman accountant in Mandatory PalestineWomen's rights activismHeading a Jerusalem handicrafts school

Born: 4 May 1888, Tlumach
Died: 30 March 1949, Jerusalem

Ada Geller was born in 1888 in Tlumach

Geller was born on 4 May 1888 in Tlumach, a town now in Ukraine. She went to a Polish school but learned Hebrew, and later taught it to girls and young women.

In 1911 she moved to Ottoman Palestine. She worked as a teacher and head of the Shoshana handicrafts school in Jerusalem, which offered study and job training to young women from poor backgrounds. The school was backed by a women's group led by Sarah Thon.

After the school closed in 1922, she went to the United States to study accounting and trade. She returned in 1927 and, after long talks with the British Mandate authorities, received a permit to work as an accountant. For many years she was the only woman in the field, and she became an executive of King Solomon Bank in Jerusalem.

She joined a group of academic women and was active in the Organization of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Palestine. In 1935 she led its delegation to an international women's congress in Istanbul. She died on 30 March 1949, and streets in Jerusalem and Beersheba bear her name.