Preserving the past, shaping the future

Brandeis Stories

Preserving the past, shaping the future

By Julian Cardillo '14
Photography by Gaelen Morse
September 8, 2025

Gabriella Chiquiar-Rabinovich '27 spent the summer uncovering the histories of accomplished, yet often overlooked, figures in Jewish history.

The Brookline, Massachusetts native interned at the Jewish Women's Archive (JWA), a Boston-based nonprofit dedicated to documenting and sharing the stories of Jewish women and gender-expansive people.

Chiquiar-Rabinovich, a double major in English and Near Eastern and Judaic studies, said the role was a professional proving ground as well as a natural extension of her academic passions.

"I'm very interested in the history and role of Jewish women and gender-expansive people," Chiquiar-Rabinovich said. "My majors push me to study these questions from different angles, and that's only deepened my interest in the topic. At JWA, my work helped me see how those questions play out in real time."

Her days at the JWA were varied and fast-paced, even though she mostly worked remotely. Chiquiar-Rabinovich managed the organization's social media, drafting TikTok scripts and helping make the archive's content more engaging for younger audiences. She also contributed as a content strategist and archivist, expanding the digital encyclopedia of key Jewish figures and applying her Hebrew skills when needed.

Her internship at JWA followed a research internship with the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) in summer 2024. She stayed on as a student assistant making connections that eventually led her to JWA.

In fact, it was at HBI that Chiquiar-Rabinovich began exploring a research question that continues to shape her academic journey: how infertility is depicted in the Hebrew Bible.

"I realized there were no examples of male infertility at all," said Chiquiar-Rabinovich. "Infertility was always framed as a woman's problem, and whenever a woman was introduced as infertile, by the end of her story she was cured.

"It was being used as a narrative device to say something about these figures, but when we think about these dynamics and how they develop into our current perceptions and the way we practice our faith, it can have really serious implications for how we understand gender and fertility today."

The project left her with pressing questions.

"As an Orthodox Jew who believes these texts are divine and holy, how do we reckon with what we might call the negative impacts these narratives may have had on our world?"

That lens helped inform her work at JWA and continues to guide her as she considers pursuing a PhD or joining the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership program at Brandeis to earn a master's degree and engage more deeply with Jewish nonprofits.

"I've interacted with texts differently through my research, but thinking about Jewish tradition - so all-encompassing and with such a long history - and how it intersects with modern Jewish women has definitely informed my work," she said.

Brandeis undergraduates who undertake unpaid internships in such fields as social justice, Jewish service, politics, public service and more may pursue a World of Work fellowship, a competitive grant that helps reduce financial obstacles, offered through the Hiatt Career Center.