“Froyen: Women and Yiddish”: 25+ Years since the Landmark Conference

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Sponsor: In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies; Yiddish Book Center; Women's Caucus

Abstract

On October 28-29, 1995, the Jewish Women’s Resource Center, National Council of Jewish Women New York Section, held a landmark conference at Hunter College and the Jewish Theological Seminary, titled, “Di froyen: Women and Yiddish, Tribute to the Past, Directions for the Future. More than 500 people from Israel, Canada, Europe, and the United States gathered to discuss women’s contributions to Yiddish art, politics, and traditions. This round table will offer a retrospective assessment of the conference, discussing the groundwork it laid for decades of scholarship, translation, and activism around Yiddish women’s cultural production and the hopes participants expressed for the futures of this work. Participants will also assess the current state of the ongoing project of “rediscovery of the past and present contributions of women in preserving and enriching Yiddish culture” and offer their current hopes, plans, and visions for “preventing future amnesia” around the Yiddish froyen-yerushe. This round table is jointly sponsored by In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies, the Yiddish Book Center, and the Women’s Caucus of the AJS.

Sandra Chiritescu (chair) brings to the discussion her perspective as a scholar of Jewish women’s first-person writing in English and Yiddish shaped by a second-wave feminist consciousness, including the work of some of those who attended the 1995 conference.

Irena Klepfisz, who was among the chief organizers of the 1995 conference and delivered its keynote speech, will discuss what went into creating a feminist conference on Yiddish open to diverse segments of the community, and how those new bonds and coalitions fared in the intervening years. She will also discuss her own writing and activism on behalf of the Yiddish language and Yiddish women’s culture.

Anita Norich, who spoke at the 1995 conference on the topic of “Women in the Yiddish Literary Canon and Classroom” will discuss her continued efforts to find and translate texts written by women in Yiddish, and how her research has expanded her own understanding of women’s roles in Yiddish literary production.

Eve Jochnowitz, who spoke at the 1995 conference on the topic of “Reading Yiddish Vegetarian Cookbooks as Women’s Literature” will bring to the discussion her scholarship on cookbooks and food writing, as well as a broader perspective on how genres not often perceived as literary (food writing among them) that are dominated by women have or have not been integrated into Yiddish literary studies, and what that means for the field of Yiddish literature.

Agnieszka Legutko, who specializes in women and gender studies and modern Yiddish literature, will offer her perspective as an inheritor of this scholarly and activist tradition, and speak to the ways that efforts stemming from the 1995 conference have shaped the current state of the field.

Sub Unit

• Gender & Sexuality Studies

Moderator

• Sandra Nora Chiritescu, Columbia University

Discussants

• Agi Legutko, Columbia University

• Eve Jochnowitz, New York University

• Sarah Biskowitz, Yiddish Book Center