Rahel Straus

Rahel Straus (born Goitein, 1880 to 1963) was one of the first women trained as a medical doctor in Germany. Born in Karlsruhe to an Orthodox family, she was valedictorian of the first class of the first girls classical high school in Germany in 1899 and then became the first woman to matriculate at the University of Heidelberg, moving from philosophy into medicine despite open discouragement from some of the faculty, including the dean. She passed her state medical examinations in 1905 and took her doctorate in medicine in 1908. For twenty-five years she kept a private practice in Munich, mainly for women and children, while raising five children. She was also active in feminist and Zionist organizations, emigrated to Palestine in 1932, practised briefly in Jerusalem until 1940, and later founded a training institute for disabled children that is still known as Beit Rahel Straus.