Irena Klepfisz

Irena Klepfisz (born April 17, 1941) is a Jewish Lesbian author, academic and activist.

Early life

Klepfisz was born in the Warsaw Ghetto on April 17, 1941 and was 2 years old during the "varshever geto oyfshtand", (the Warsaw ghetto uprising). [Klepfisz author bio: Chametzky, Jules. "Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology", 2001, W. W. Norton & CompanyISBN 0393048098, p1081] Her father, a member of "der algemeynernyidisher arbeter bund", (the Jewish Labour Bund), was killed on the second day of uprising. [Peterson, Nancy J., 2001University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 0812235940, pp113-114] [Klepfisz, Irena. "Secular Jewish Identity: Yidishkayt in America", "The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology", "Sinister Wisdom" Issue 29/30, p31]

Klepfisz escaped with her mother to the Polish countryside where they survived the Second World War by hiding and concealing their Jewish identities, aided by Polish peasants. [Irena Klepfisz Biography, Chametzky, Jules. "Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology"2001, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0393048098, p1081] After the war, the remaining family moved briefly to Lodz, Poland before going to Sweden in 1946. Irena and her mother moved to the United States in 1949. [Klepfisz author bio, "The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology", "Sinister Wisdom" Issue 29/30, p324]

Education

She attended City College of New York, and studied with distinguished Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich, a founder of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. [Klepfisz, Irena. "Secular Jewish Identity: Yidishkayt in America", "The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology", p37] Klepfisz graduated CCNY with honors in English and Yiddish. [Klepfisz, Irena. "Secular Jewish Identity: Yidishkayt in America", "The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology", p38]

In 1963 she attended the University of Chicago to do graduate work in English Literature. [Klepfisz, Irena. "Secular Jewish Identity: Yidishkayt in America", "The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology", p39] Irena Klepfisz received a Ph.D. in English in 1970. [Klepfisz author bio, "The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology", "Sinister Wisdom" Issue 29/30, p324]

Yiddishist

Today Klepfisz is respected as a Yiddishist, but her _yi. מאַמע־לשון ("mame-loshn", literally "mother tongue") was Polish; as a child she also learned Swedish. She began to learn Yiddish in Lodz in elementary school after the Second World War. She learned English after emigrating to the United States. In "The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology", which she co-edited with Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, Klepfisz describes the experience, up to age 16 or 17, of having "no language in which I was completely rooted. [Klepfisz, Irena. "Secular Jewish Identity: Yidishkayt in America", "The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology", p39]

Irena is well-known for her translations of Yiddish poets Kadya Molodowsky, and Fradl Shtok ["Irena Klepfisz Biography" Chametzky, Jules. "Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology"2001, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0393048098, p1081]

Activism

Klepfisz has worked as an activist in feminist, lesbian, and secular Jewish communities. She is also co-founder of "The Jewish Women's Committee to End the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza" (JWCEO). [ [http://www.dartmouth.edu/~wgst60/projects/poetry/Klepfisz/Klepfisz-bio.html Klipfisz] ] Along with Nancy Bereano, Evelyn T. Beck, Bernice Mennis, Adrienne Rich, and Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, Irena Klepfisz was a member of Di Vilde Chayes (English: The Wild Beasts), A Jewish feminist group that examined and responded to political issues in the Middle East, as well as to antisemitism. [Kaye/Kantrowitz, Klepfisz. ‘’The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women’s Anthology’’, 1986, ISBN 0931103029, p7] [Mankiller, Wilma Pearl. The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History, Houghton Mifflin, 1998, ISBN 0618001824, p339]

Publishing

Klepfisz began publishing her poems in 1971. She was a founding editor of Conditions (magazine), a feminist magazine emphasizing the writing of lesbians, and also was the co-editor of "The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology". She has also been a contributor to the Jewish feminist magazine "Bridges"

Academic career

Irena Klepfisz has taught English, Yiddish, and Women's Studies. [Klepfisz author bio, "The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology", "Sinister Wisdom" Issue 29/30, p324]

References