At an ear­ly age, Gitel ques­tions the expect­ed roles of women in soci­ety and in Judaism. Born in Belorus­sia and brought to the US in 1911 as a child, she leads a life con­strained by her reli­gious Jew­ish par­ents. For­bid­den from going to col­lege and pushed into find­ing a hus­band, she mar­ries Shmuel, an Ortho­dox Jew­ish phar­ma­cist whose left-wing pol­i­tics she admires. They plan to work togeth­er in a neigh­bor­hood phar­ma­cy in Chica­go — but when the Great Depres­sion hits and their bank clos­es, their hopes are shat­tered. 

The years that fol­low leave them con­stant­ly in finan­cial dis­tress. And when a mas­sive stroke leaves Shmuel dis­abled, Gitel is chal­lenged to com­bine car­ing for him, being the bread­win­ner at a time when women face salary dis­crim­i­na­tion, and being present for their daugh­ter. 

Offer­ing an illu­mi­nat­ing look at Jew­ish immi­grant life in ear­ly-1900s Amer­i­ca, Gitel’s Free­dom is a com­pelling tale of women’s resource­ful­ness and resilience in the face of lim­it­ing and often oppres­sive expectations.