Stella Heinsheimer Freiberg 1862 – 1962 A memorial in the
American Israelite newspaper remembered Stella Heinsheimer
Freiberg as a woman whose “piety was never stuffy, and revealed
itself in endless good deeds.” Two causes absorbed most of
Freiberg’s energy: helping the arts flourish in her hometown of
Cincinnati, Ohio, and furthering the growth of Reform
Judaism—and the role of women in it—in the United States and
Western Europe. Freiberg was born in Cincinnati on November 29,
1862, to Louis and Emma (Goodhart) Heinsheimer. Louis
Heinsheimer, born in Germany, was a partner in a prosperous
Cincinnati cotton brokerage firm with J.H. Goodhart, whose
daughter Emma would become his wife. The Heinsheimer family had
a long history of involvement in the institutions of Reform
Judaism. Louis Heinsheimer had been a member of the executive
board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) since
its inception in 1873. One of Stella’s older brothers, Edward,
enrolled in the first class of students at the Reform