Barth, Helene (née Baer)

Helene Barth (née Baer) was born in 1891 in Halberstadt, Germany and died in 1982 in Jerusalem. Her brother, Fritz Itzhak Baer, was a historian and an expert in medieval Spanish Jewish history at the Hebrew University. Helene was an active Zionist, teacher and social pedagogical expert. Between 1911 and 1924, she worked as a teacher for the Jewish community of Berlin and in other posts. Helene was also an artist and a painter, having studied with Adolf Schmidt and Hermann Struck in Germany and later with Yaakov Steinhardt and Mordechai Ardon. She immigrated to Palestine in 1924, where she headed the Mizrachi movement teacher seminary. She was connected with the philosopher and historian Gershom Scholem and with the philosopher and educator Ernst Simon, whom she followed to Haifa in order to work at a secondary boarding school which was headed by Dr. Biram. After 1948, she headed the Department for Special Education at the Ministry for Education. In 1978, she was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for good citizenship. She continued to paint throughout her life and had her work exhibited at the Israel Museum.