The role of Jewish women is now being explored more fully-the
role of
Jewish radical women more slowly. As Irene Klepfitz tells us, "Women
will find nothing about them in men's histories or in mainstream periodicals"
(Bridges, Vol. 4, No 1, 1994). It is up to us, women within the radical
Jewish community, to fill in some of the blanks. In Canada, there are
a
growing number of biographies of radical Jewish women, and I am proud
that Outlook seeks to encourage this pursuit.
The Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) was a defining moment in contemporary Jewish history, a period of rapid social change in the life of East European Jewry. It was during this period that Jews had the opportunity to renounce the tradition-bound religious beliefs and practices of their forefathers and to remain as Jews-as secular Jews.
From this movement, socialist and Zionist ideologies emerged
and became
part of the ferment forever transforming Jewish intellectual thought.
Both the Zionist and socialist movements were very much part of the
Winnipeg Jewish scene. These movements included the communists, the
socialists, the anarchists, the Paole Zionists and the socialist-territorialists1.
Together, these groups constituted the Jewish radical movement in Winnipeg.
Each group battled for the hearts and minds of a growing segment of Jews,
especially the young. In the "old country", where these ideologies
took root, their ideas spread rapidly throughout the
shtetlach, towns and cities in the Pale of Settlement.
For women, joining a radical movement was particularly hazardous.
It must have taken a great deal of courage and an indomitable spirit to
challenge one's family and community with political and social upheaval.
Nevertheless, from 1870 -1917, thousands of young Jewish women were
inspired with the revolutionary spirit sweeping across the country. A
new
type of woman emerged, a "kersistke", a woman who studied and
prepared herself for revolutionary activities.
In socialist philosophy, terms such as "brotherhood",
"the common man",
"liberation of mankind" were at the center of revolutionary
rhetoric (as it
remains today). Many radical women have argued most vigorously that this
male-oriented language made them invisible, obscured their contribution
in the movement. As Sheila Rowbotham writes in her book Women, Resistance
and Revolution: "Women have come to revolutionary consciousness by
means of ideas, actions and organizations which have been made predominantly
by men". Of course, there were the few radical women who are pointed
to as proud evidence of the movement's egalitarian spirit-women who made
it onto the international stage-but these were the exception and not the
rule. The few that come to mind are Rosa Luxemburg, Anna Kulisicoff, Emma
Goldman, Esther Frumkin, Clara Lemlich, Bertha Papenheim and Manya Schochet,
and it was not without difficulty, as their biographies indicate. Patriarchal
traditions, so deeply ingrained and enforced, were difficult to alter
and to overcome. Yet many women came into the movement with a great deal
of hope and idealism.
Jewish radicals began to arrive in Winnipeg, as elsewhere in North America, in 1905, soon after the defeat of the 1905 Revolution and the economic downturn of that period. It was expedient for radicals, especially Jewish radical men and women, to leave their old home, as they had become convenient targets for an autocratic society undergoing rapid social and economic changes.
There is little conclusive evidence to indicate whether
Jewish radical
women were radicalized in the "old" or in the "new"
countries. A good
number seem to have come with a radical background from the "old
country"-Odessa seemed to be a hot-bed for radical activities -others
were radicalized by their work experience (mainly factory work) in Winnipeg,
while others followed their husband's lead.
Upon arrival, these women had little interaction or sympathy
with the
suffragist movement of the early twentieth century. Culture and language
are often cited as the main barriers for immigrant women who remained
on
the sidelines of this movement. While these were certainly critical
factors, there were others of equal concern. For immigrant women, class
orientation was a defining characteristic in separating women. The
suffragist movement, they argued, was a middle-class movement led by
Anglo-Saxon women with middle-class concerns. Two of the major planks
of the movement included the right to vote and property rights. Since
immigrant women had no property to safeguard, and were eking out a hand-to-mouth
existence, they were more concerned with social and community issues,
concerns that directly affected their lives. As non-citizens, the right
to vote was for them merely a dream, perhaps one to be realized in a distant
future.
There is little evidence to suggest that they spent much
time discussing
women's issues, such as theories on the institution of marriage, gender
equality and the division of labour, whether in the public or private
sector. This was not due to ignorance on their part, for they were informed
by several noted radical women who came to Winnipeg to lecture. Emma
Goldman came to Winnipeg numerous times (1907, 1926 -27, 1931); Bella
Pevsner of New York spoke in Winnipeg in 1906, as well as Goldye Myerson
(Meir) and Becky Buhay, who wrote on these issues in the Yiddish newspaper
Der Kampf. It seems that radical women were less concerned with theory
than with their immediate social and economic conditions. As for marriage
and gender relations, traditional patterns were familiar, caused less
turmoil and continued to be structured into family life.
Upon arrival in North America, radical Jewish women were immediately swept
into the various Jewish radical organizations that were formed or were
in formation in Winnipeg. The Arbeiter Ring (Workmen's Circle) in Winnipeg
was founded in 1907 and for a period of ten years incorporated the three
streams of radical thought of that period--the anarchists had their own
branch, as did the Zionist "socialist-territorialists" and the
internationalists (revolutionaries of various tendencies). Two radical
Yiddish schools were established. In 1914, the Labour Zionists founded
the Peretz School. The Arbeiter Ring Shule came into existence in 1921,
organized by the "internationalists" of various tendencies (communists,
socialists, etc.)
Very early on, it became apparent that radical men sharing power with
radical women did not occur easily or willingly. As Rowbotham points out:
"Many revolutionary men were not able to cast off a deep contempt
for women when they became socialists." Why was there a need, for
example, to separate into men and women's branches, or into a Muter Farein
(Mother's Auxiliary)? This is never explained or discussed. Women seemed
to accept this division. Traditional patterns, so deeply rooted, were
to continue for decades. Women were rarely in top executive positions
in any of these organizations, or in the shules, during this time frame.
In the home, radical women fulfilled traditional roles as
wives, mothers,
homemakers and nurturers. While most women worked at low-paid factory
jobs before marriage, there was tacit agreement that women would stay
at home after marriage and children. Husbands were very forceful in asserting
their "perceived" duties as the breadwinner, responsible for
an economically viable household. Though women had a certain degree of
autonomy in the home, it was their ultimate dependency upon the male breadwinner
that made all women subordinate in the marriage relationship.
And when some women, out of necessity, were forced into the workforce,
many husbands felt ashamed. In some of the oral interviews with pioneer
women, many, in retrospect, regretted lost opportunities and the decisions
made for them by society or husbands, decisions that were often
life-altering. Not only were choices limited at that time, but choices
that
were available were taken out of women's hands.
At home, women faced the same difficulties as all immigrant
women-new
language, new customs, new environment, etc. However, Jewish radical women
were never passive homemakers. In important instances, they were able
to overcome some of the old traditional patterns of the home. They began
by transforming the traditional home, modernizing and secularizing Jewish
family life. They did away with many of the religious rituals and practices
that they had grown up with, overcame many of the superstitions and fears
that had been carried over through many centuries. This was often a slow,
painful and dramatic process, and frequently disrupted relationships among
extended families. Perhaps one dramatic example best illustrates the psychological
mindset needed to make but one change-changing from a kosher to a non-kosher
home.
As a conscious decision, radical women in the home were
intent upon
conveying their socialist philosophy to their children. Parents nurtured
their children by example. Children were seldom separated from their
parents. In this way, they learned of their parent's philosophy and
idealism, of their political and social concerns. They were taken to
demonstrations, to meetings and to all kinds of organizational events.
As a
result, children were involved in the dynamics of the community. For many
children of radical parents, this early introduction was to continue as
their life-long guidepost.
These attitudes initially inculcated in the home were strengthened
and
re-enforced in the Yiddish radical shules. In a conversation with his
mother Esther Miller (a former teacher at the Sholem Aleichem School),
Morris Miller asks (as an adult): "Mame, iz es geven noitik altz
a kind fun
acht-nine yor alt tzu lernen vegen Lenin un Marx?" (Mother, was it
necessary for a child of eight or nine to learn about Lenin and Marx?)
To
which his mother replied "S'hot dir geshat?" (Did it do you
any harm?)
(ThePen, May 1995, Issue 10). Mindful of their own educational
inadequacies, parents were determined that their children would get the
finest education available to them. For many working-class families,
choices were limited but sacrifices were gladly made, and the results
are
self-evident.
For radical women, self-education was also of critical importance. Reading, writing, literature and history were necessary tools in a movement based on ideas and political action. Many immigrants and many women attended "night school" classes offered by the city. These classes provided a means for immigrants to adapt to their new environment, to learn a new language, new customs and to become formed into new social patterns-in other words, to become "Canadianized".
Radical women devoted a great deal of energy and time to
the promotion of the radical shule for the education of their children,
and also to advance
their own education. The Muter Farein, as part of the shules, became an
important venue for them. As President of the Sholem Aleichem Muter Farein,
Gitel Simkin wrote: (my translation) "The Muter Farein always thought
of the self-education and development of their members. The financial
work of the Shule did not entirely satisfy the women. We organized classes
elementary and higher classes Šlayenkraizen (reading circles) and
lectures on literary, political and other themes." (Sholem Aleichem
School Twenty-Five Years Jubilee Book, 1921-1946). Early on, for example,
the Arbeiter Ring developed intensive study classes in anthropology, history,
and political economy.
In 1919, the Muter Farein of the I.L. Peretz shule is credited
with
organizing the first Jewish kindergarten in North America. One can
appreciate the difficulty this entailed when we learn that this was
instituted without the approval of the male Board of Directors. This
venture was to open a new chapter in modern Jewish education. As the first
kindergarten children reached school entering age, these women took another
giant leap forward by organizing a "day school", again a first.
The day school was based on the principle of a complete education for
the child within a Yiddish environment, and offered a half-day for English
subjects and a half-day for Yiddish. Inevitably, this engendered a principled
debate within the larger Jewish radical movement, with the more left-wing
arguing that a "day-school" would "ghettoize" the
Jewish child. As a result, the more radical Arbeiter Ring Shule remained
an evening school.
The layenkraiz was another means for women's education. They met once
a week in the afternoon at one of their homes. As a sisterhood, the
layenkraiz provided women with an outlet that gave them a measure of
control of their own education, a venue where they chose their own reading
materials. They also discussed issues of national or international issues,
as well as concerns common to women. Of great importance, the layenkraiz
gave these women an opportunity to maintain their ties to Yiddish, the
mame-loshn (mother-tongue). The language of women, of "mames",
Yiddish was belittled as "jargon", the language of the uneducated
and of the home. It was, to a large extent, the radical Yiddish movement
that helped adapt and transform Yiddish into a literary language, a language
for the Jewish masses-women and men.
In the political sphere, Manitoba women gained the right
to vote in 1916,
the first province in Canada to achieve this right. While political
involvement was particularly difficult for all immigrant women, for radical
Jewish immigrant women the process was obviously compounded. However,
one young Jewish immigrant woman had the courage to withstand the pressures
within her own as well as in the larger community and to enter the political
arena. Shortly after the defeat of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, a
defining moment in Winnipeg and Canadian history, Rose Cherniak Alcin
was the first Jewish woman to run for public office in Canada. She ran
as a candidate for the Labour Party in Winnipeg's North End, an area known
for its radical politics and the home of the immigrant working-class.
Alcin was Jewish, an immigrant, a socialist and a woman. If all this was
not enough of a handicap, she ran against the well-known Conservative,
Max Steinkopf, also a Jew and a member of the Committee of 1000, the committee
opposed to the General Strike. The election was heated and vitriolic.
In an ad in the Israelite Press, Steinkopf described Alcin as an "adamant
little woman", a "darling little wife" who did not possess
the "intelligence, knowledge and ability to become a school trustee."
Similar letters, some from Jews, appeared in both the Yiddish and English
papers.
Alcin won the election and it was common knowledge that
Steinkopf was
handed a defeat because of his anti-labour position. Alcin served as
trustee for only two years, but remained very active in Yiddish socialist
circles until her death in1964. ("Rose Cherniak Alcin (Elkin), 1882
-1964-Radical and school trustee", in Extraordinary Ordinary Women.)
This foray into the political arena did not easily entice other radical
Jewish women to follow suit. Their political activities were mainly focused
on canvassing, distributing leaflets, fundraising, mailing, all the
behind-the-scenes activities necessary to oil the political machine.
After the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the promise of a Jewish homeland,
Zionism became an exciting possibility for world Jewry. As a result, Labour
Zionists in Winnipeg became more readily integrated into the Jewish community
and eventually provided the community with strong, progressive leadership.
However, radical Jewish women among the Labour Zionists generally remained
in the background. The more radical wings, anarchists and international
socialists, continued to remain on the fringes of society. Women, amongst
them, carried on activities as mentioned above, and of a more international
nature-Aid to Spain, Aid to Soviet Russia, and more recently The Voice
of Women, Congress of Canadian Women, etc.
In addition to the debates engendered by the promise of
a national
homeland, the 1917 Russian Revolution further divided the radical Jewish
community. Each segment went its own way, never to unite again.
In conclusion, while it appears to be an anomaly, Jewish radical women
in
Winnipeg were both traditional and radical. Perhaps it was not possible
for
one generation to completely alter patterns set into tradition over the
centuries. Social change, as we know, is a slow process, and what begins
in one generation may take several generations to achieve. Jewish radical
women did not succeed in all their battles. However, it was these pioneers,
these radical Jewish women in Winnipeg, who began the process in our city.
They found the courage and strength to take these first critical strides
in the home, in education and in politics. They led the way, thereby making
it easier for others to follow. Today, while further strides have been
made,
the struggle to achieve a more just and humane society has yet to be
completed. Hopefully, the struggle will continue with the children, the
daughters and the grandchildren of these courageous women.
1 Socialist Territorialists were socialist Zionists seeking
a homeland, but
unlike the Poale Zionists, not necessarily in "Eretz Israel."