Emmy J. Belinfante

Born in The Hague on January 11, 1875, Emmy J. Belinfante grew up in a liberal Jewish family deeply involved in publishing and journalism. She trained as a teacher, but writing drew her in a different direction, and by 1901 she was working for Het Familieblad and learning the trade across news reporting, reviews, and feature writing.

She became known as a journalist and feminist, and is often described as one of the first women in the Netherlands to write a women’s column for a daily newspaper. In that work, sometimes using the pen name “May,” she wrote in an accessible tone about women’s work, opportunity, and social position. She was also active in women’s organizations, including Dutch and international councils focused on women’s rights.

Belinfante is sometimes confused with her cousin and namesake Emmy Belinfante-Belinfante, who was a children’s author. Emmy J. Belinfante herself also published, and her life has been remembered both for her role in Dutch journalism and for its tragic end: as a Jewish woman under Nazi occupation, she was deported and murdered in Auschwitz on July 7, 1944.