Helen Jacobus Apte (1886–1946)

Helen Jacobus Apte was the daughter of Jewish-American immigrants and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. The Heart of A Wife: The Diary of A Southern Jewish Woman was written as her personal journal. In it, she offered her honest opinions on sex, marriage, children, religion, and major world events of the day. The diary was discovered by her grandson Marcus D. Rosenbaum, an NPR editor and producer, 50 years after her death. He edited and published the diary along with some essays of his own. It provides a valuable resource for
understanding the lives of Southern Jewish women, wives, and mothers during the first half of the 20th century.