On this day, 1888, Rachel Kagan-Cohen was born in Odessa, Ukraine. A Zionist politician and social activist, she helped to shape women’s rights in the new state of Israel and is widely known for being one of the two women to sign the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence (Golda Meir being the other). In 1913, she married Zionist physician Dr. Noah Cohen. He left for Ottoman-occupied Palestine a year later, but due to the outbreak of World War I, Kagan-Cohen was forced to stay behind with their infant son. They finally joined him in 1919. In 1921, Kagan-Cohen and her family moved to Jerusalem, where she soon became active in the Histadrut Nashim Ivriot (HNI) Hebrew Women’s Organization,which preceded the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) Israel Federation. With the help of her sister-in-law, Dr. Helena S. Kagan, Kagan-Cohen established Tipat Halav, a series of infant welfare stations that are still in operation today. Kagan-Cohen served in the Provisional Government and was elected to the First Knesset. As chairperson of WIZO, she became the only representative of a women’s party elected to the Knesset in the history of Israel. In March 1951, she submitted the Family and Women’s Equality Bill, which, in part, endeavored to ensure women’s property rights. This bill became the foundation of the 1973 Law of Common Property. Rachel was later elected to the Fifth Knesset as a representative of the Liberal Party. Her political career was defined by the fight for women’s rights and a passion for social welfare, as she lobbied for minimum sentences for wife-beaters, women’s rights in divorce, women’s right to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, and the protection of disadvantaged children and the elderly.Throughout her nineties, Rachel remained active in WIZO and continued to champion women’s rights and other social initiatives. Throughout her life, she received recognition throughout Israel, receiving the Mother of the Year award in 1969. She would also be one of the first women to be elected as the Freeman of the city of Haifa, and she was presented with an honorary degree by the Hebrew University.